Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama wants to transform Jakarta into a “smart city,” (or at least make the city government significantly less stupid). One of the ways he is planning to do that is to get all city officials adept at using smartphones so that they can be more accessible and provide better services to their citizens.
Apparently Ahok is not an Apple fanboy, as he wants his officials to be armed with Android phones.
“We chose Android. Why? Because most smartphones are Androids. They’re made in China and they’re cheap,” Ahok joked while speaking at the Petajakarta.org launch event on Tuesday, as quoted by Detik.
Ahok said officials will be asked to use a special application to report their daily activities. The same application would be used to help respond to reports from citizens.
The governor said the application would also be used also to track government employees and their locations throughout the day, so they couldn’t wander away from their duties.
“Employees will have their mobile phones with them in the field so we’ll know where they are all day or if they try to leave their area. For example, if he leaves his district to take a very long lunch, we can track them,” he said.
Ahok said, there wasn’t a specific budget to buy smartphones for officials because most of them could afford Android phones anyways.
“They don’t need to be given a smartphone, Officials always have the most advanced cell phones anyway. So there’s no need, the cheapest phones are Androids,” Anok said.
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