Khanna (2015), in the article of "Explosive growth in Asian cities: Bright ideas to 'seize the urban moment'", stated that Asian cities are experiencing a swell in population in recent years, resulting in the need for cities to expand. He highlighted that in order to counteract the intensive growth, it is essential to have a city that has flexible governance, self-service and is generative. "Flexibility and adaptability" are paramount in flexible governing. An example of which would be Jakarta utilizing a smartphone application to obtain first-hand information from citizens with regards to their concerns. Due to the hefty size of cities, self-service is vital in the provision of basic necessities like housing and transport. Khanna noted that cities like Manila and Bangkok are struggling with insufficient housing and severe pollution issues respectively. Therefore, self-service would grant citizens the ability to directly notify and or feedback to the government upon encountering issues such as natural disasters. Lastly, he pointed out the need for cities to be generative in the form of yielding new business models through investment in infrastructure, thereby incurring growth in economy. Khanna foresaw Southeast Asian cities to be the model of urban development due to their exponential growth in the recent years. I agree with the author that Southeast Asian cities will be the model of urban development in the future. However, in present, the growth in recent yeas had shown its negative impact, such as bad traffic, poverty and pollution. The government and people in cities like Jakarta and Manila were not prepared for such sudden growth.
Analysis of the implementation of QLUE, a mobile application was insufficient as the article lacked in-depth explanation with regards to success of its implementation, whereby there were no significant changes observed. QLUE, a platform meant for citizens to voice their concerns to the government, was developed to assist citizens and the government in the rapid growth and constant changes Jakarta was experiencing. One of the targeted areas to improve was traffic conditions. However, even with the use of QLUE, Jakarta was still listed as the city in Indonesia that experienced the worst traffic conditions (Wardhani & Budiari, 2015). Notwithstanding that, it was noted that there was insufficient effort put in with regards to the enforcement of traffic laws and regulations (Budiari, 2015). Therefore, the government defeated the purpose of the creation and implementation of QLUE, since it was meant to bridge and facilitate better communications within the government and its citizens, however, citizens' concerns were not heard and or resolved. Therefore, Khanna would have better explained the situation at hand if had he discussed the after effects and success rate of the mobile application with statistics and details.
Manila have been experiencing bad air quality with no signs of improvement due to increase in pollution caused by the exponential growth of population. According to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources' Environmental Management Bureau (DENR-EMB), motor vehicles and industrial process are a few of the many means of emission of particulate matter (Macas, 2015). Also, statistics in National Emission Inventory 2012 reflected that 71 percent of air pollution were caused by motorized vehicles. Due to the inclining population Manila is facing, quantity of motor vehicles on the road increased as well, inducing bad traffic and an increase in air pollution as a whole. Although Philippines is a fast-growing country, it is still unable to cope with the changes of population resulting in a rise air pollution related issues. The article would have been more complete if details and causes of problems Manila is experiencing such as air population and poverty were discussed in detail to aid the audience's understanding of the article.
It will be impossible for all the changes and improvement to take place in an instance. Hence, to be the model of urban development in the future, adequate planning and management by the government will be the key for all to happen.
Original Article
- Khanna, P. (2015, June 11). Explosive growth in Asian cities: Bright ideas to 'seize the urban moment'. Retrieved September 24, 2015, from http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/explosive-growth-in-asian-cities-bright-ideas-to-seize-the-urban-moment
Reference
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[Edited: 3 Oct 2015]
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