Batam slum dwellers expelled from homes, seek shelter
Batam slum dwellers expelled from homes, seek shelter
By Ridwan Sidjabat
BATAM, Riau (JP): After following a small gravel path I
arrived at a slum near the Batamindo Industrial Estate on Batam
Island. I saw several naked, dirty children playing chase among
the trees. Their parents were busy demolishing their ramshackle
huts because they had received a demolition order from the local
council.
"Hello sir, can I help you?" asked a five-year-old boy, who
then asked me to take his photo.
"You should go that way, if you want to meet the girls,"
indicated another child, pointing to a small decorated hut.
Five beautiful girls sitting on the veranda of a small
decorated hut tried to get my attention with smiles.
Only 50 shacks are left in the slum. Hundreds of others have
been moved to Tanjung Piayu, five kilometers west of the
industrial estate.
Thousands of illegal houses make up the 60 slums on Batam
Island. Other slums include Tanah Longsor, Lubuk Baja, Batu
Batam, Batu Aji, Baloi Center, Kumpung Sraya, Pamanuangi,
Bengkong Harapan and Tiban Kampung.
Most of the slums are located on the edge of forests near
industrial estates. Some are in the towns of Nagoya, Batam
Center, Batu Ampar and Nongsa.
The people say they have to live there because the price of
houses on the island is far beyond their reach.
"How can I get the money -- about Rp 30 million -- to purchase
a house developed by the (Batam Industrial Development)
Authority?" asked Miryam, a 55-year-old widow who lives in Muka
Kuning.
Miryam and her five children live in a 16-square-meter hut.
They have one small wardrobe and a plaited mat that they sleep on
together at night.
"We are not allowed to stay here because the local authorities
have said everyone has to move out by Jan. 20. They have said
they will bulldoze all the huts if we refuse to take them apart,"
she said.
Miryam, a widow of an army officer who was killed in East
Timor in 1980, sells snacks, drinks and cakes in the industrial
estate to support her family.
"Alhamdulillah, I can earn about Rp 10,000 a day," she said,
adding that her sons drive motorcycle taxis. Her daughters are
unemployed.
Promise
Today all the shacks in Muka Kuning have been demolished. The
authorities kept their promise on Jan. 20.
Budi Santoso, spokesman for the Batam Industrial Development
Authority, told The Jakarta Post on Jan. 26 that all the slum
areas located near industrial estates on the island have been
demolished. Those located in natural reserves and housing
complexes would be destroyed in phases.
He said the demolition was due to the authority's plan to
enlarge the existing industrial estates in Muka Kuning, Kabil,
Sekupang and Nongsa.
The inhabitants of another slum, in Tanjung Piayu, are young
factory workers. They work in the Batamindo industrial park,
which boasts 59 electronics factories.
Most of them are women who say they would rather live in the
slum than in the company dormitories because it enables them to
save more money. Some are no longer allowed to stay in the
dormitories because they are married.
Fadjrin, Linda, Tuti, Ratna and Silvia are employees of PT
Sumitomo, a Japanese electronics factory in Muka Kuning. They
said they use their monthly housing allowance to rent a small
house in the illegal housing area.
"This way we can save money and have a bit of money to shop on
weekends," said Ratna.
She said that most of the people living in the slums around
the industrial estates are laborers.
R. Panjaitan, who lives in a slum in Tanah Longsor, said that
in spite of the government's warning, he and his family of four
would remain in their house.
"Where will we stay if they demolish our house? No one would
live in such an area if they weren't forced to," he explained.
Panjaitan, who came to Batam in 1984 from his home village in
Balige, North Sumatra, said he couldn't get a better job with a
high salary because he lacked specialized skills. He has a food
stall to provide for his family.
"If the government wants to eradicate the slums," he said, "it
should develop houses and give them to the local people free of
charge."
"Batam, in reality, is an island of pains, not a paradise," he
added.
Police Major Bambang, who lives in the slum in Lubuk Baja,
also blamed real estate prices for the situation.
"Which civil servant can purchase a house that costs at least
Rp 50 million? It's impossible," he said.
M. Siregar, a worker at the state-owned PT Astek plant and a
slum-dweller, added: "If the government wants to demolish the
illegal houses, it should build cheap, affordable houses."
Irony
Right beside the slums, thousands of houses developed by the
Batam Industrial Development Authority remain uninhabited.
In Batam Center, located close to a slum, there are more than
one thousand opulent houses with no one living in them.
Samuel Purba, chairman of the local branch of Real Estate
Indonesia, explained that the luxurious houses, with prices
ranging between Rp 150 million and Rp 250 million, had already
been sold. "Their owners are in Jakarta," he said.
He acknowledged that most people in Batam had low salaries and
needed very simple housing. But, he said, most local developers
are reluctant to build cheap houses, because they yield small
profits.
Influx
The Batam Industrial Development Authority has said the flow
of unskilled people to the island is to blame for the rapid
growth of slums.
"An average of 3,000 unskilled job seekers come to Batam every
month and the figure is expected to continue rising in the
future," Budi Santoso, a spokesman for the Batam authority, said.
"We cannot prohibit the newcomers from coming here because it
is their right to do so," he explained.
He said the slums were one of the negative aspects of
development on the island.
"The problem of the slums will become more complex if it is
not handled properly."
The local administration is cracking down and Jan. 20, 1994,
has been set as the deadline for occupants to dismantle their
houses, he said.
"A team has been sent out to inform people about the
government's plan to eradicate slums," he said.
Budi confided that the way the government is handling the
slums will not solve the problem since the people are not able to
purchase their own houses from the developers.
He said the local administration should urge developers to
build affordable, simple houses, so that the people don't have to
live in shacks.