The people’s architect

RIDWAN Kamil is a man who commands attention. Dressed in an open-collar shirt and a blazer, he walks into the room with an easy smile and an air of confidence. The architect-turned-mayor of Bandung speaks with such passion about his vision for the Indonesian city that one could dismiss him as a naive idealist if it were not for the fact that he has accomplished most of what he set out to do.

Ridwan was in the federal capital recently to speak at the Kuala Lumpur Architecture Festival organised by the Malaysian Institute of Architects.

Before Ridwan was elected mayor of Bandung in 2013, he had already carved a name for himself in
architecture. He co-founded Urbane Indonesia in 2004, whose portfolio includes Singapore’s Marina Bay Waterfront master plan, Changchun Financial District in China, Aceh Tsunami Museum and Al Irsyad Mosque in Padalarang, West Java.

Given his accomplishments in architecture, it may come as a surprise to some that it was an accidental choice of profession.

“It’s a funny story. I didn’t go to architecture school because I wanted to be an architect. I went because no one advised me what to do next. All my buddies took up architecture and I didn’t want to lose my friends, so I did the same,” Ridwan laughs.

It might have been a decision made on a whim but it was one that changed his life.

“My motivation might not have been right but I learnt so much. Architecture is very comprehensive ... when you create something you have to consider everything — from politics, economics to social and technology. This has helped me greatly as a mayor because I’ve been trained to bring all these issues together before I make a decision,” shares Ridwan.

After graduation, Ridwan headed for the US and took up a Master’s in Urban Planning programme at the University of California in Berkeley. He went on to work in New York, San Francisco and Hong Kong.

“The international exposure changed the way I think about the world. After working abroad for seven years, I came home and set up Urbane in 2003,” he says.

Little did he know that a decade later, his love for his hometown would lead him down a completely different path.

A new calling

“I have had a wonderful life as an architect. Because it is my own firm, I could set my own pace of life. I loved what I did. I have designed buildings in many cities and advised mayors and key people around the world.

“But, every time I returned to my hometown, all I got was bad news — corruption, dirty streets, a lack of infrastructure and so on. So, I told myself and my family that it was time I took up a new challenge to be the master architect of the city by running for mayor,” recalls Ridwan.

With the notion that he had nothing to lose, he joined the race against eight others, including the incumbent.

“I was a nobody, so I had to be creative. I used social media — Twitter, Facebook and Instagram — to campaign and went door to door to introduce myself. I had 10 items on the agenda per day during the campaign period,” says Ridwan.

His approach won him 45% of the votes, which was considered a landslide victory.

“In Indonesia, you only need 30% [of the votes] to win for mayor. I went into politics because I had a lot of concerns, but now, I have a lot of good news,” Ridwan smiles.

“I introduced the slogan ‘Liveable and Lovable Bandung’. ‘Liveable’ means the functionality of the city in terms of transport, housing, economy, society and so on. ‘Lovable’ because I want the people to be happy. That was also the reason why we launched the Happiness Project, which is aimed at raising the city’s happiness index.

“I believe that a fun society is a happy society. I told the people that while we are not in the same standard as Kuala Lumpur or Singapore, when it comes to happiness, we must pursue it in our own progressive way.”

To achieve this vision, Ridwan set out to reform the bureaucracy. “The bureaucracy was too slow, inefficient and not transparent.”

A hands-on person, Ridwan spends 50% of his time on the ground, and social media remains a powerful form of communication. He has 1.7 million followers on Twitter, 4.2 million on Instagram and his Facebook reaches 20 million accounts a month.

“I’m using social media to inform, answer, clarify and respond to criticism from the people. I’m also using the smart city methodology. Before I came on as mayor, the municipality of Bandung had 10 apps. Now, we have 300 apps for the people. Of our population of 2.4 million, 2.1 million are Facebook users,” he says.

“By making technology more accessible and taking everything online, from applying for business permits to school admissions, we managed to change the bureaucracy. Removing the need for people to meet city officials reduces the incidence of corruption, and social media makes me accessible to the people.”

After two years of reform and expanding technology accessibility, Ridwan is seeing the fruits of his labours.

“We have a government performance index, which is given by the president every year. We were ranked 200th in 2013. Today, I’m proud to say that we are No 1 in the country. Back then, our public service was in the red zone, which means you just look busy but you don’t really serve the people. Now, we are ranked No 4, which is quality public service,” he says.

“In terms of being an open government, Bandung was ranked No 17 back then. Now, we are No 3. People can check my city budget anytime ... they can see how much money I have spent as a mayor and check the progress of projects online.”

Ridwan’s leadership style has also helped change the people’s mindset. “People started to follow what I say. For example, the city was previously dirty. So, I made it mandatory for the people to pick up litter for 30 minutes before they go to work or school every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I also imposed a hefty fine on litterbugs. This has changed the mindset of the people.”

After failing to win any awards for 17 years, Bandung won the Adipura Clean and Green City Environment Award last year, and again this year.

Miles to go

Ridwan’s work is far from done, which is why although he is eligible to run for Jakarta governor, he chooses to stay on as mayor of Bandung.

“You don’t always have to take every opportunity for the sake of obtaining more power or a bigger stake and leave behind unfinished business. Bandung is my love and even though I know I can win [in Jakarta], my job [in Bandung] is not done [yet],” he says.

Two key issues Ridwan is tackling now are infrastructure and poverty. For the former, he is advocating public-private partnership (PPP), which is uncommon in Indonesia.

“In Indonesia, the money we used to fund projects is 100% government money, and when you rely too much on government money, progress is slow. That’s why I want to use PPP to fund these projects, meaning 60% of the infrastructure will be funded by the private sector,” he shares.

In his six-year term, Ridwan is allocating US$1.5 billion for Bandung’s development. However, he says the cost of building a modern city is US$6 billion.

“We are short of US$4.5 billion. So, either we wait for five mayors to finish the job or we do something smart. I’m pushing for PPP so that we can finish the job under just two mayors,” he says.

Ridwan has earmarked 80 projects worth US$6 billion to be developed under the PPP concept and his administration is setting up a unit to look at bringing in investors.

“I had lobbied the government and now we have the law, called the PPP law, to protect investments. We have set up the Indonesia Infrastructure Guarantee Fund so that if something happens, it will cover the rest of the contracts,” says Ridwan.

He hopes to seal at least three to four deals in the next six months and start five to six projects next year. So far, more than 30 companies from China, Europe, Malaysia, Singapore, the US and South Korea have expressed interest.

“I need to build hospitals, flyovers and underpasses, among others. I’m now preparing the bidding for the monorail, light rail transit and cable car projects. There is a tender open now to change some 50,000 street lamps to LED lights. In total, we have about 80 PPP projects,” he says.

Ridwan believes his biggest challenge is eliminating poverty, which he hopes to succeed within two years. He estimates that there are 60,000 poor families in Bandung.

“We are going back to basics in our fight against poverty. We make schools free, along with free school bus service, for the poor ... we also pay their medical insurance and such,” he says.

To encourage entrepreneurship, Ridwan has dispensed with the need for business permits for small and medium enterprises (below US$50,000), which is the first such policy in Indonesia.

“They can register their businesses using their mobile phones ... no more meeting local officials. Six months after I started the policy, we saw 30,000 businesses registered,” says Ridwan.

The Bandung municipal government is providing non-collateral loans to help these businesses. “You have to listen to the people. They were telling me that they wanted to do business but couldn’t get loans without collateral. So I instructed our government-owned bank to give out non-collateral loans to the poor,” says Ridwan.

A year later, about 10,000 people have obtained such loans, and according to a happy Ridwan, the bank has zero non-performing loans.

“The poor people are respecting the system. And it can be intimidating for some people to go to the banks, so we pushed mobile banking instead. That way, the banks come to you and it works. We are pushing e-commerce as well. Last year, there were 16 million online transactions,” says Ridwan.

The Bandung government also has an agreement with Facebook to run a business page selling the SMEs’ products in Asean, the first city in the region to do so.

Beyond design

With his background as an architect, it comes as no surprise that Ridwan is asking local architects to help the community.

“About four months ago, I created a programme called One Village, One Architect because the underprivileged community is underserved by architects. There have been so many interesting stories from the architects. It’s not like a job where you have a brief, a budget, then you design and build,” he says.

“Here, you have to talk to the people, educate them and transfer your knowledge to them. It takes time but the architects who volunteered are grateful because they are learning that the city goes beyond design and the people are happy because they now have access to the people who can help them build.”

Being a native of Bandung gives Ridwan a strong insight into the city and its inhabitants.

“I know the characteristics of the people. They are very smart and more than 60% of the population are under 40 years old. And we have more than 50 institutions of higher education. So, I’m running a city of youth, schools and universities.

“What I do is include them in the design and planning processes. This can be in the form of advisory boards or groups. By letting them be a part of the process, they feel connected and this allows us to move faster because there is less resentment from the community. They know that when I have a plan, I will first ask them what they think.”

One such initiative is an online programme called If I Were a Mayor. Six months after its launch, more than 1,200 ideas were sent in by the people. “This shows the energy of the people and how much they want to get involved in the development of the city,” says Ridwan.

“My imagination is my business. Before I design buildings, now I design the system of life. This means improving the bureaucracy, creating a happier society and making the city smarter and more connected.

“I’m very into technology. Bandung was awarded the smartest city by the ministry of communication two months ago. Now, I’m giving all the 300 software behind the apps we developed to the other cities in Indonesia for free.”

It is Ridwan’s mission to make Bandung a model city for other Indonesian cities to emulate. With only two years left before his term ends, his goal is to build a strong foundation for Bandung so that his successor can continue to take the city to greater heights.

“The vision of change is really up to the leaders. When they have the political will and the people see that political will in action, they will follow. Respect is earned, not given,” asserts Ridwan.

As for what is next after he completes his term as mayor, Ridwan says, “I can contest for governor in West Java or go back to architecture. My family wants me to go back to architecture because being a mayor consumes a lot of my time, and my children miss me.”

He has this advice for young architects: Use your imagination to design beyond buildings; use it to change society and make it better.

This article first appeared in City & Country, a pullout of The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on Oct 3, 2016. Subscribe here for your personal copy.