Bandung, Indonesia Mayor Mochamad Ridwan Kamil delivering his lecture. Photo by Jun Madrid.
The 2016 Islam and Democracy Forum, a series of lectures organized by the Philippine Center for Islam and Democracy (PCID) and the UP Law Center with the support of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS), held its opening lecture at the GT Toyota Center, UP Diliman on August 9.
The keynote speaker, Hon. Mochamad Ridwan Kamil, Mayor of Bandung City, delivered the lecture, “Islam, Democracy, and Leadership: The Bandung Experience in Creating a Smart, Happy City.”
In his welcome remarks, UP President Alfredo E. Pascual pointed out some of the pronouncements of the newly elected president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, such as “addressing the traffic and transport problem, as well as issues related to urban planning, human development, and peace and order.”
UP President Alfredo Pascual delivering his welcome remarks. Photo by Jun Madrid.
“We here in the University of the Philippines have had studies and made recommendations to political leaders on how some of these challenges to our cities and communities can be addressed. And many of these suggestions have been taken into consideration by our politicians. That should not stop us from learning from our friends, new ways which can be pursued to remedy urban and rural issues in this country,” Pascual continued.
“Aside from these, we will also learn from his experience in fostering a leadership in his city which is inclusive, consultative and participative, resulting to a Bandung which is a showcase of Islam, democracy and development. With Indonesia’s highest population density, the challenge of transforming an old city like Bandung to a dynamic metropolis with sustainable development must have been an enormous undertaking which required a lot of teamwork, focus and determination to succeed,” he added.
The young incumbent mayor of Bandung City was elected in 2013. Aside from his political post, Kamil is a practicing architect, an academic lecturer and a social activist. In 2001, he received his master’s degree in Urban Planning from the University of California, Berkeley. He then worked in New York, San Francisco and Hong Kong. After several years of working abroad, he returned to Indonesia and became a lecturer in the Department of Architecture of the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) , according to former Indonesian Ambassador to the United States Dino Patti Djalal’s in his introduction of Kamil.
In his lecture, Mayor Kamil explained how Islam, democracy and the collaborative effort of the people go hand in hand through his leadership and governance. For the past several years, “growth in Indonesia is dependent on emerging cities like Bandung that delivers public service in a new way, which changed the political landscape of Indonesia.”
“Bandung is a city of 2.5 million in West Java, Indonesia. It’s a metropolitan city with a cool climate. This is the reason why people love Bandung. As a metropolis, we face many issues, but there are many opportunities as well. For instance, we are the second most popular tourist destination in Indonesia – with six million tourists visiting the city annually. In the last couple of years, this has dramatically changed the landscape of Bandung. Bandung also has more than 80 universities and colleges with 60% of its population under 40 years old. This means it’s a city with a high percentage of educated young people. They are the key drivers of Bandung’s creative economy and it’s our vision that this creative economy becomes the generator that powers the city. Bandung is now one of the best performing economies in the country with almost 9% GDP,” according to Kamil.
Embedded in his style of governance are these key characteristics, namely, leadership, ideology, geography, and the revolutionary. “Cities in Indonesia are now into putting men and women in political positions who come from the crowd, hence leaders are no different from their constituents,” Kamil added.
Bandung’s master plan under Kamil’s administration goes by the principle of “making the city livable and lovable” by putting more spaces for people and not for machines. Kamil said that congesting the city with more machines makes a city more of a society that is stressful. Thus, he envisions Bandung as a city that is happy with happy people.
For a thriving happy city, he developed projects that are centered on people as well as nature. Some of the city’s programs that Kamil has started are the “bike to school” program, “back to the mosque” program, “online economy,” transportation upgrade, urban farming, and public art, among others.
For more photos of the event, please click through the album below.
