Apartments planned for riverbank squatters
Apartments planned for riverbank squatters
Leo Wahyudi S, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A Taiwan-based Buddhist foundation is building a Rp 55 billion
five-story apartment complex for riverbank squatters in Jakarta -
but the gesture has been criticized by a leading non-governmental
organization (NGO).
The building is just the beginning of what Yayasan Budha Tzu
Chi Indonesia plans to erect on a five-hectare plot of land in
Cengkareng, West Jakarta.
Governor Sutiyoso officiated at the commencement of the
project on Monday.
Joice Budisusanto, the spokeswoman for the foundation, said
the building, complete with 1,000 apartments each measuring 36-
square meters, would be the first to be constructed.
"We plan to develop two more apartment buildings, school
buildings, a hospital, sports area and worship buildings," said
Joice, adding that the integrated concept was meant to help poor
people living on the riverbanks and other slum areas in the city.
She did not mention why the foundation was so concerned with
the poor, except to say that charity was the only motive.
She said that the foundation, established in 1966, had been
helping Indonesia's less fortunate since 1993.
Joice could not say what kind of 'poor families' would be
eligible to live in the apartments in the future as
administrative matters would be left in the hands of the city
administration.
Governor Sutiyoso said the foundation's move was very helpful
to the administration.
"The province does not have enough money to build apartment
buildings for poor people," Sutiyoso told reporters after the
ceremony.
A non-governmental organization dealing with eviction victims,
Jaringan Anti Penggusuran, said at least 35,000 people had been
left homeless due to 45 eviction and demolition programs carried
by the Jakarta provincial administration in 2001.
The administration has been overwhelmed by the crisis of
dealing with the evicted families, many of whom did not have
Jakarta ID cards.
Another non-governmental organization, Jakarta Forum (Fakta),
criticized Budha Tzu Chi Indonesia for only cooperating with the
city authorities in the planning.
Fakta spokesman P. Ary Subagyo expressed concerns that
eligible families would not be accommodated in the apartments
once the building was constructed.
He said he was not sure that evicted families or the squatters
would like to live in the apartments, which will have a living
room, a kitchen, a bed room and a toilet.
"What they really need is not such an apartment. The
foundation should have consulted local residents of the area
where an apartment building is planned. The residents themselves,
not the provincial officials, know what they really want."