Class action suit against Sutiyoso, Megawati opens<\/p>\n
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Hundreds of flood victims who packed a court room at the Central
\nJakarta District Court looked relieved when the presiding judge
\nopened on Thursday the hearing of their class action suit against
\nthe President, the Jakarta governor and the West Java governor,
\nas it had already been postponed twice.<\/p>\n
As many as 15 representatives demanded the accused pay each of
\nthem Rp 100 million (around US$10,480) for material losses and a
\ntotal of Rp 1.2 trillion to repair damaged public facilities.<\/p>\n
\"The accused had failed to give an early warning to Jakartans
\neven though the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) had
\nannounced that the rainfall would increase in January and
\nFebruary,\" lawyer Azas Tigor Nainggolan, the coordinator for the
\nadvocacy team, told the court.<\/p>\n
The plaintiffs' team of lawyers consisting of 32 pro bono
\nlawyers while President Megawati Soekarnoputri is represented by
\nstate lawyers from the Attorney General's Office and West Java
\nGovernor A.R. Nuriana is represented by his office' legal agency.
\nGovernor Sutiyoso, however, is represented by top lawyers
\nMohammad Assegaf and Yan Juanda Saputra.<\/p>\n
Previously, presiding judge Kornel Sianturi was forced to
\npostpone the hearing due to the absence of the accused's lawyers
\n-- with the exception of Sutiyoso's lawyers.<\/p>\n
The accused were also sued for their failure to provide
\nnecessary emergency action, which forced more than 97,000
\nfamilies or 365,000 people to leave their homes and seek
\ntemporary shelter for several weeks.<\/p>\n
The city administration, which failed to take proper measures
\nin preparation for the floods, has tried to evade responsibility.
\nThey blamed nature, saying that 40 percent of the city is located
\nbelow sea level.<\/p>\n
Tigor said that Governor Sutiyoso himself admitted that the
\ncity administration had only 54 boats to evacuate flood victims.<\/p>\n
\"Worse still, the accused used a lengthy procedure to help
\nflood victims. Consequently, a flood victim could have been left
\nto drown while waiting a day and night to be evacuated,\" Tigor
\nasserted.<\/p>\n
The plaintiffs represented five groups that suffered during
\nthe recent floods: victims whose family members had died, those
\nwho fell sick due to flood-related illnesses, those who lost
\ntheir property, those whose property was damaged and those who
\nhad lost their means of livelihood due to the floods.<\/p>\n
Presiding judge Sianturi suggested that both parties settle
\nthe dispute outside court. However, the accused' lawyers have not
\nyet made a decision.<\/p>\n
The hearing will resume in two weeks to hear the accused's
\nresponse to the suit.<\/p>\n
Class action is actually nothing new in the country's legal
\nsystem. In fact, the Central Jakarta District Court has ruled in
\nfavor of three class action suits.<\/p>\n
The first case occurred in October last year when the court
\nruled in favor of nine consumers of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)
\nagainst state-owned oil company Pertamina for arbitrarily
\nincreasing the price of LPG.<\/p>\n
In the second case, evicted people in Karang Anyar, Central
\nJakarta, won in their suit against the city administration, which
\nevicted them last year in violation of standard procedures.
\nRecently, the court declared the city administration guilty of
\nviolating the law as they conducted a raid on pedicab drivers,
\nalso in violation of standard procedures.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/class-action-suit-against-sutiyoso-megawati-opens-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}