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."