Weak law enforcement unable to deal with illegal villas<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The dismantling of Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso's villa last
\nmonth will likely be the only action taken to remove hundreds of
\nillegal buildings in Puncak as authorities have given no hint
\nthey will take any action in the near future.<\/p>\n
Statements made by officials from the two administrations in
\nWest Java -- Bogor and Cianjur -- showed that they are too
\nreluctant to crack down the villas, which are mostly owned by
\ngenerals, top officials and business figures from Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Head of Tugu Utara village Jajat Sudrajat said the Bogor
\nadministration had ordered that all villas in the village must be
\nreregistered, not demolished. Sutiyoso's illegal villa and many
\nothers were built in the village.<\/p>\n
\"There will be no further demolitions. We demolished Pak
\nSutiyoso's villa after we received a letter from his close aide
\nsaying that he doesn't mind his villa being demolished,\" Jajat
\ntold The Jakarta Post recently.<\/p>\n
Thousands of villas were built in Puncak, mostly in three
\nsubdistricts the Bogor regency -- Cisarua, Megamendung and Ciawi
\n-- and in two subdistricts in the Cianjur regency -- Pacet and
\nSukaresmi.<\/p>\n
Data from Bogor's public works office shows that in its three
\nsubdistricts, there are 1,721 villas, at least 840 of which were
\nbuilt illegally. The data also shows that there are 48,575 other
\nbuildings in the areas.<\/p>\n
Pacet subdistrict head Ade Sanoesi said around 40 percent of
\nthe 1,107 villas in Pacet and Sukaresmi subdistricts were built
\nillegally.<\/p>\n
The Rindu Alam restaurant was among the first building to be
\nbuilt in breach of a presidential decree issued in 1963. The
\nrestaurant, owned by former Siliwangi military commander Ibrahim
\nAdjie, was built in July 1980.<\/p>\n
A reliable source said former president Soeharto once summoned
\nIbrahim and told him to demolish the restaurant. He said that
\nIbrahim asked the president to give him five years to do so, so
\nthat he could regain the investment funds used to construct it.<\/p>\n
The building is still there. Ibrahim used to deny that his
\nrestaurant was illegal saying that he received a permit from the
\nBogor administration, while the license to use the state land was
\nobtained from the public works office in West Java.<\/p>\n
Adjacent to Rindu Alam there is also Atta'Awun Mosque built on
\na 1.5 hectare plot of state land. Based on a document issued by
\nthe state-owned plantation company PTP Nusantara VIII, the land
\nwas authorized to the Bogor Administration.<\/p>\n
Bogor administration secretary Yuyun Muslihat said it
\npreferred to use persuasive approaches in attempts to get
\nbuilding owners to voluntarily demolish their illegal buildings.<\/p>\n
\"Law enforcement is needed but it is not the first priority.
\nIt will be applied after the persuasive approach fails to resolve
\nthe problems,\" said Yuyun without further explanation.<\/p>\n
The Bogor administration demolished dozens of houses in the
\nmid 1990s, but local people say that many had been rebuilt.<\/p>\n
\"I knew that the villa was demolished several years ago, but I
\ndo not know why the owner was allowed to rebuild again,\" said
\nAbidin, a local resident, referring to a villa located some 200
\nmeters from Sutiyoso's villa in Tugu Utara district.<\/p>\n
A lack of seriousness in the Bogor administration's efforts to
\ndeal with illegal villas could set a bad precedent in future
\nattempts to halt the illegal constructions. It also encourages
\npeople to steal state land, as has been occurring in several
\nvillages in Cisarua.<\/p>\n
Around 400 hectares of state land, formerly cultivated by
\nstate-owned plantation company PTP Nusantara VIII, has been
\noccupied by the people. Such land occupations have been taking
\nplace since the early 1990s.<\/p>\n
Most of the land had since been sold to rich people from
\nJakarta.<\/p>\n
PTP Nusantara VIII field leader Ace Sulaeman said that
\ninitially the land was only planted with vegetables. But now many
\nvillas were built on the land even though the owners knew that it
\nwas illegal.<\/p>\n
Owners could obtain evidence that they had paid taxes (SPTT)
\nfor the properties and may expect that in the future they could
\nobtain title deeds for the villas or lands.<\/p>\n
Newly-built villas or those under construction on state lands,
\ncan be seen in several villages in Cidokom, Kopo, Sukagalih, all
\nwater catchment areas for the Ciliwung river.<\/p>\n
Weak law enforcement against the villa owners has encouraged
\nother people to follow suit. It is bad news for efforts to make
\nPuncak an environmental buffer zone for Jakarta.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/weak-law-enforcement-unable-to-deal-with-illegal-villas-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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