Flood victims lament loss of documents<\/p>\n
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The floodwaters had receded, and many people had returned
\nhome. But their plight was far from over.<\/p>\n
After trouble with the poor distribution of assistance and
\nthreatened with various diseases, many of them found that their
\nimportant documents were damaged, or swept away by the
\nfloodwaters.<\/p>\n
"I lost my ID card and my bank account book -- but I don't
\nhave time to take care of the matter, since we're still
\nstruggling to clean up," said Albert, an employee of a private
\ncompany in the Slipi area of West Jakarta.<\/p>\n
His house had been flooded by a full meter of water for two
\ndays. Albert said that he had no time to save his documents.<\/p>\n
At the time, he said, he had to save his family first.<\/p>\n
"I would process the documents with the city administration
\nsoon if I could, but I don't think it would go very smoothly," he
\ntold The Jakarta Post, referring to the poor public service of
\nthe city authority.<\/p>\n
Processing such documents is notoriously complicated,
\ninvolving a lot of time and energy.<\/p>\n
Another resident spoke of a similar experience when she
\nrecalled that she, too, had to apply for new documents after her
\noriginals disappeared in the floods that struck in 1996.<\/p>\n
"It was too complicated ... almost all of my documents were
\nswept away by the floods, so I had to go to several offices,"
\nsaid Ibu Soemarsono, a resident of the Kampung Melayu area.<\/p>\n
She had to visit the subdistrict office, two banks, and the
\nland affairs office of the Central Jakarta mayoralty.<\/p>\n
The entire process, she said, took six months.<\/p>\n
"I had to go back and forth to the various offices, I lost
\nmoney, time, and energy, but I had no choice," she said, adding
\nthat she spent Rp 500,000 to replace her land ownership documents
\nalone.<\/p>\n
She said that, at that time, she did not have to pay for the
\nnew ID card.<\/p>\n
But an officer at the Petamburan subdistrict contested this,
\ntold The Jakarta Post that a person who loses their ID card
\nshould pay Rp 150,000.<\/p>\n
"We can give you a temporary ID card to substitute the missing
\none," said Sunarya, an officer at Petamburan subdistrict. An
\napplicant, he added, must get a reference letter from the chief
\nof the neighborhood.<\/p>\n
ID cards are nevertheless important. Most banks require
\ncustomers who lost their bank account book to bring their ID card
\nor a reference from police acknowledging the loss. Otherwise, the
\nbanks turn them away.<\/p>\n
Officers at the Central Jakarta agrarian office and several
\nbanks acknowledged that the processing of missing or damaged
\ndocuments requires certain procedures.<\/p>\n
The process of document application in banks is relatively
\nsimple, but it is different at government offices, which are
\nknown for their cumbersome bureaucracy and inefficiency.<\/p>\n
"There will be no special treatment for flood victims," a
\nspokesman of the State Land Agency, Raden Laksamana, told the
\nPost, referring to Government Decree No. 24\/1997 on land
\nregistration.<\/p>\n
If a land certificate goes missing, a person has to advertise
\nfor it in a newspaper. The agrarian office would then approve if
\nthere was no objection from anyone who claimed the same land
\nafter a month of the advertisement.<\/p>\n
However, if the certificate is damaged, one does not need to
\nplace an ad, but the person does need to take an oath before the
\noffice head saying that the land certificate is damaged.<\/p>\n
It can take months to process a land certificate, since the
\noffice has to examine eligibility of the request, said an
\nofficer.<\/p>\n
"But if many people lose their certificates in the same area,
\nthe subdistrict office could file all their claims in one
\napplication," said Yanto, an officer at the land office.<\/p>",
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