Batam lacks low-cost apartments

By Ridwan M. Sijabat

BATAM, Riau (JP): Retno Sari, a 19-year-old female working for a Japanese electronics company, moved out of the firm's dormitory, along with six other female colleagues, last January and rented an illegal but cheap hut near the Muka Kuning industrial area.

This has allowed them to send part of their monthly salaries to their families back home.

Retno said more and more workers, mostly from Java and West and North Sumatra, had chosen to stay in rented shanties since the monthly rental fee of dormitories inside the industrial zone had increased from Rp 225,000 to around Rp 300,000.

"I have nothing to save for my family if I continue living in the dormitory," she said, citing she could put aside between Rp 100,000 and Rp 200,000 from her Rp 600,000 monthly wage thanks to the cheaper rental.

Rugun S., who works in the company's testing department, confirmed the 30 percent hike in the rental fees at the company's dormitory.

"We're actually facing labor exploitation because most workers who came from remote home towns to work in foreign manufacturing companies cannot save even a small portion of their monthly wages due to the soaring prices of daily needs on the island," she said.

Poniman, a driver for a construction company on the island, said the presence of illegal housing areas on the island were an unavoidable reality the Batam authorities had to accept due to the skyrocketing prices of housing and other basic commodities there.

"The presence of construction workers, drivers and industrial workers must be accepted because without their contribution, Batam could not grow like it is now," he said.

Of Javanese descent, Poniman, from Binjai in North Sumatra, said he could not afford to buy a modest house offered by private developers.

"A modest house standing on 24-square-meters of land costs between Rp 30 million and Rp 40 million," he said, adding that monthly payments would consume most of his salary.

Marganas Nainggolan, a social observer and chief editor of Sijori Pos daily, criticized the Batam authorities for failing to provide low-cost housing for workers.

"So far, the Batam authority is busy campaigning to attract foreign investors and tourists to the island, but it has no strategic policy and planning that accommodates the increasing number of low-income workers," he said.

He suggested that the local administration develop affordable apartments for low-income earners, which in turn could help curb social problems on the industrial island.

Marganas questioned the authority's policy encouraging private developers to build more housing complexes, explaining that only executives and high-echelon local officials could afford to buy them.

He regretted the fact that some of the houses had been purchased by Malaysian and Singaporean executives for their extramarital relationships with Indonesian women.

Malaysian and Singaporean businessmen travel to Batam every weekend and stay with their Indonesian partners in the housing complex or rented houses.

"It has developed a new social problem in Batam," Marganas said.

He predicted that housing problems would be more complicated, as most workers living in dormitories had to move out once they married. Dormitories are commonly restricted to single workers.

Ismeth Abdullah, chief of the Batam authority, admitted that housing had become a serious problem for low-income earners on the island.

He said only 30 percent of around 350,000 workers could be accommodated in dormitories, while most of them had to live in rented houses and illegal huts.

The Batam authority, he said, has no budget to develop low- cost apartments and affordable houses for workers, while private developers were reluctant to invest in the project for fear of losses.

Against the odds, state-owned social insurance company PT Jamsostek is developing six cheap four-story apartments to accommodate more than 12,400 low-income workers in the Batu Ampar industrial zone.

The apartments, built on two hectares of land, provide social facilities such as a mosque, bank agencies, public phones, a medical clinic, a sports center, a canteen, a library and entertainment facilities.

Hardi Juliawan, chief of the Batam branch office of PT Jamsostek, said Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri is scheduled to inaugurate the Rp 30 billion project in early June.

The apartments will be limited to workers whose monthly wage is less than Rp 700,000 and who have been members of Jamsotek's social security programs for at least five years.

Hardi said the apartments would be offered in May, with an average rental fee of Rp 115,000 per month. Every flat can accommodate four single workers.

"The flats are likely to be fully occupied before the June inauguration ceremony because hundreds of companies have ordered them for their workers," he said.

The flats have first been offered to companies to ensure that they will be lived in by the needy, he said. (rms)