Bekasi farmers feel the pinch of rapid change

BEKASI (JP): Located in the outskirts of the nation's capital, this rapidly expanding town has become a favorite site for property development projects, ranging from housing to industrial complexes.

The fierce competition among developers has led to the taking over of land belonging to local people without provision of adequate compensation.

Even though the local people -- mostly traditional farmers -- have tried to lodge formal complaints through the proper institutions, many of them fail to get back their right to their property.

In 1986, a group of local farmers, who had cultivated a certain plot of land for dozens of years, had no choice other than to accept compensation of only Rp 15 (0.007 US cents) per square meter.

The Wisma Asri housing complex now stands on the land the farmers were forced to vacate, and they have relocated to areas further out.

A series of similar cases has occurred over the years and the problem continues.

Late last year, a plot of land in Segera Makmur village in Tarumajaya, where 164 farm families had been living for 10 years, was taken over by PT Truba Inti Development, a private developer. The company paid only Rp 50 per square meter to the owners.

The compensation was much lower than the farmers' demand of Rp 1,000 per square meter, which was much less than the land prices of between Rp 15,000 and Rp 20,000 per square meter prevailing in the area at that time.

A number of residents of the nearby Pantai Makmur village have even complained about having been cheated by staff members of the local subdistrict office.

The people sold their land to the local officials at between Rp 6,000 and Rp 8,500 per square meter. They later learned that the officials resold the land to the state coal-fired power plant at between Rp 25,000 and Rp 40,000 per square meter.

And now, the people of Pedurenan and Cimuning villages in Bantargebang subdistrict and Mustikajaya village in Tambun subdistrict are facing land problems as well.

These three sites, located next to each other with a total area of 2,000 hectares, will be used for the construction of a housing complex by PT Putra Alvita Pratama, which claims to have approval for the project from the local authorities.

The developer is offering residents only between Rp 8,000 and Rp 12,000 per square meter of land even though the current land prices in the area have reached between Rp 15,000 and Rp 20,000 per square meter.

Due to resistance from the locals, the company has been able to appropriate less than half of the area to date.

Some of the area residents even sent a letter of complaint over the situation to the office of Vice President Try Sutrisno.

One of the vice president's senior staff members then asked the local authorities to settle the dispute immediately. No result has been achieved to date (12/bsr)