Undemocratic to Democratic Processes of Jakarta Spatial Regulation (Re)-Making 2014 – 2022: Urban Politics and Economics of Space, Land, and River
Vera W. Setijawati Soemarwi
Over the past decade, numerous political and socio-legal scholars have voiced concerns about the decline of democracy in Indonesia [Aspinall & Mietzner, 2019; Fealy, 2020; Mujani & Liddle, 2021; Caraway, 2023; Slater, 2023, p. 101]. They often describe this trend as “democratic backsliding.” “democratic recession,” or autocratization. This paper examines the regulation-making practices related to the 2014 spatial planning in Jakarta Province, which were undemocratic until the democratic revision process in 2022. This paper compares the processes involved in creating regulations for zones in 2014 and 2022. The findings are categorised as undemocratic regulation-making because the 2014 Jakarta Governor issued a regulation that endangered the rule of law during its development, reflecting his style as a legalistic autocrat [Scheppele, 2018; Mochtar & Rishan, 2022].
The undemocratic lawmaking process meant that the drafters and authorities excluded all Jakartans from participating as stakeholders when they drafted and promulgated the spatial regulation. The drafting process was closed to the public. The rulers selected stakeholders whom they deemed prominent and who had a development project in the city. This approach led to the exclusion of marginalised urban dwellers, as the authorities did not recognise that the marginalised dwellers had the right to the city.
At the initial step of empirical observation, research teams posed a rhetorical question: for whom is the city of Jakarta? Urban planners and geographers can swiftly answer this by examining the patterns of Jakarta’s landscape. Socio-legal scholars will evaluate the process of spatial regulation-making and its impact on society. This article will describe the regulation process of (re)-making as JPG arranged space, land, water, and rivers.