Two Small Cities on the Rise

KOMPAS/HERU SRI KUMORO

Farmers walk along an irrigation canal in the Solok paddy field in Solok city, West Sumatra, on Wednesday (24/01/2018). The area has become a tourist destination in Solok city.

Padang Panjang and Solok are two small cities located close to each other in West Sumatra. As smart cities, the two cities are on the rise with their citizens at the heart of development programs.

Padang Panjang is an historically important city. It is here that historical figures Buya Hamka and HR Rasuna Said were born and raised.

It is also the town of origin of M Syafei, the education and culture minister of the second Sjahrir Cabinet in 1946. M Syafei’s name has now been immortalized as the name of a building located near an open green space and a cultural center. Every Friday evening, local communities hold performances in the area.

Padang Panjang is also where children and teenagers go to study religion at a number of schools and pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) or to study arts and culture at the Indonesian Arts Institute (ISI) Padang Panjang, which was established in 1965. The city is 80 kilometers from Padang.

The Padang Panjang city administration provides free wireless internet connection at a number of its schools and city parks. “I need the internet not only to find study materials but also to open social media websites,” SMAN 2 Padang Panjang state high school student Intan Silvia Putri, 17, said.

Data from the year 2018 from Statistics Indonesia (BPS) shows that 56.38 percent of the city’s 53,000 population access the internet to get on social media websites, such as Facebook and Twitter, and instant messaging apps.

Because of its cultural and educational activities, as well as its ease of internet access, Padang Panjang got the highest score in the small city category (with populations of fewer than 100,000) in the Indonesian Smart City Index (IKCI)-Kompas 2018.

Meanwhile, Solok, located around 50 kilometers away from Padang, was in third place. The rice-producing city’s website info.solokkota.go.id provides information about the city, including where to find ATMs, gas stations, car washes, culinary centers, hotels and public services. It is routinely updated.

City parks, schools and mosques are equipped with wireless internet access. “We always improve the quality of our information and communication-technology infrastructure to fulfill public needs and maximize public services,” Solok Communications and Information Agency head Zulfadli Tanin said.

Ease of internet access is accompanied by digital education, such as on smart internet use, at schools. “We have declared Solok to be anti-hoax. We also conduct familiarization of how to use public-service applications,” Zulfadli said.

After the IKCI-Kompas 2018 awards ceremony in Jakarta on Wednesday (9/1/2019), Solok Mayor Zul Elfian said that tourism and trade were the focus of city development. Apart from increasing rice production, the city administration promotes the “Sawah Solok” (“Solok Rice Fields”) brand as a tourism destination.

Based on BPS data in 2018, Solok had a population of 68,602 in 2017. The city had a revenue of Rp 41.85 billion (US$2.96 million) in 2017 and 42 percent of its residents rely on trade and the hospitality industry (hotels and restaurants) for their livelihood. Only 5.56 percent of its residents are farmers.

Citizens’ engagement

University of Indonesia (UI) sociologist Daisy Indira Yasmine, a jury panelist in IKCI-Kompas 2018, said that small cities had the unique trait of changing values, including in the family-relationship systems. One example is that rice fields no longer just fulfill familial needs but serve as a production resource with marketable products, both in harvested rice and as tourist sites.

The influence of family relations may also wane and be replaced with professional relations marked by rational calculations. This all happens naturally.

However, Daisy pointed to the importance of civic engagement for community improvement in city development. The role of structures such as neighborhood and community units (RT and RW, respectively), therefore, must be optimized.

“If civic engagement, including RTs-RWs, is eliminated, this can be dangerous. Development of smart cities must be based on the people\'s needs and aspirations,” Daisy said.

In Padang Panjang, civic engagement is achieved through pemangku adat and ninik mamak (customary and traditional leaders) as well as ulema as people’s representatives. The government compiles its annual agenda based on proposals from RT, sub-district, district and city administrations.

In Solok, people-based development has led to improved flood mitigation. “In 1995, there was a flash flood and my house was inundated. Now, after the river was improved, there has been almost no flooding. At worst, there are only small puddles on the streets,” said Suarni, 43, a resident of IX Korong subdistrict, Lubuk Sikarah district. Her house is a kilometer from the Batang Lembang River.

Previously, Padang Panjang Mayor Fadly Amran said that small cities had huge opportunities to become smart cities as the budgetary requirements would not be too big. He believed the people would recognize changes in the city, no matter how small.

He said that he was ready to improve the city’s internal bureaucracy by placing the right man in the right place to accelerate city development. “As for technology implementation, talks about innovations will only be lies without preparedness in the internal bureaucracy,” he added. (GESIT ARIYANTO)