A place for the poor<\/p>\n
The recent forcible eviction of squatters from a slum on a
\nNorth Jakarta riverbank became a national issue when the National
\nCommission on Human Rights got involved. The City Public Order
\nOffice has done such operations for decades and, up until now,
\nthere had been no strong reaction on a national level.<\/p>\n
The commission, in a rare reaction to municipal problems,
\nregistered a protest with the city administration against the
\neviction. But in the eyes of the general public, such
\ncity operations yield very little positive results because every
\nyear more and more migrants come to the city from poor rural
\nareas. They have neither a clear destination nor any skills. Once
\nthey are here they occupy green belts, state-owned land, open
\npublic facilities and vacant space along railway tracks.<\/p>\n
In facing this latent headache, the city administration seems
\nto have experienced repeated failures, and it finally lost its
\npatience. But the city public order officers have gone about
\ntheir work in a very insensitive way. On the other hand, the
\nsquatters feel they have to fight to the end to defend their
\nslums because the only life they know is at stake. So, clashes
\nhave been common in the various public order operations. Who is
\nto blame?<\/p>\n
In this case it is quite strange to hear that some people
\nexpect the city authorities to halt its campaign and take
\npositive steps for the welfare of the squatters. The steps, as
\nvoiced by the National Commission on Child Protection in a
\nmeeting with the city governor on Tuesday, include decent
\nhousing, security and education for the squatters' children.<\/p>\n
It is highly improbable that the demands will be met, since
\nthe administration failed in the past to provide decent dwellings
\nfor squatters. It has also been city policy to block the arrival
\nof unskilled migrants because Jakarta has very limited space and
\nthe presence of even more unemployed people will only increase
\nthe growth of slums and cause public insecurity. And when taking
\ninto account the gloomy prospect of the national economic
\ndevelopment program -- in which the rural areas take a backseat
\n-- the job to curb the flow of migrants to Jakarta could take
\nanother two or three decades.<\/p>\n
Even in the late 1960s the government was inconsistent in its
\napproach to keeping the population of Jakarta under control.
\nGovernor Ali Sadikin, a marine lieutenant general who started the
\ncrusade to make Jakarta a living hell for unemployed migrants
\nbetween 1966 and 1977, was quite successful with his iron-fisted
\nstyle, but he was replaced by another general, Tjokropranolo,
\nwhose policy was more humane. Tjokropranolo -- who called his
\nstyle a \"religious and socialistic\" approach -- during his five-
\nyear term opened the door for migrants from rural areas, saying
\nthey came to make ends meet, not to steal. From that time on the
\ncampaigns to deter squatters have been erratic.<\/p>\n
The city public order officers must take some of the blame for
\nthe failure to curb the number of squatters in Jakarta, for they
\nhave made the best use of the campaigns for their own ends.
\nAccording to sources at the administration, the officers had let
\nthe squatters unlawfully occupy lands in their respective
\ndistricts until the number of them reached alarming proportions.
\nThen they started large-scale and expensive operations, giving
\nthe officers the opportunity to put more money into their
\npockets.<\/p>\n
Governor Sutiyoso and his predecessors may have been aware of
\nthis dirty game, but considered it small time and took no action.
\nSo public order operations have been needed from to time until,
\nfinally at the Tuesday meeting, Sutiyoso was confronted by the
\nidea of trying to build low-cost apartments for the evicted
\npeople. In the past the city administration built apartments when
\nslums were burned down, but it failed to overcome the real
\nproblem because the apartments were more suited to people of a
\nhigher economic class and the streets between the buildings were
\nlarge enough for a car to pass so that ex-squatters who were
\nallotted a place rented it to people better off than themselves.<\/p>\n
So, in the future the new apartments should be very basic and
\nthe alleys between apartment blocks should be adequate only for
\nmotorcycles. And the governor would do well to evict corrupt
\npublic order officers from his government.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/a-place-for-the-poor-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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