Cipedak locals take over land at Matoa golf course
Cipedak locals take over land at Matoa golf course
JAKARTA (JP): Scores of Cipedak residents in South Jakarta
were forced on Sunday to take over a 12-hectare plot of land at
the Motoa golf course in Ciganjur, saying the area had been
illegally seized from them eight years ago.
Under the watchful eyes of dozens of Jagakarsa police, the
people -- accompanied by students from the National Institute for
Science and Technology (ISTN) and lawyers of the Jakarta Legal
Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) -- marked what they claimed was their
area of land by sticking bamboo poles in the ground.
No clashes were reported. Some employees of the golf course
watched from a distance.
According to the Cipedak residents, the land, which is part of
the 128-hectare golf course operated by PT Sarana Graha
Adhisentosa (PT SGA), is legally owned by five locals: Madun bin
Siman, Saleh bin Bain, Abdussalam Misan, Supari Hamid and Rian
bin Siman.
Nur Nadi, 41, who spoke on behalf of the five, said the land
owners had repeatedly convinced the Indonesian Air Force (AURI),
which leases the land to PT SGA, and the latter company about the
authenticity of the land documents they possess.
"However, both sides ignored the documents and instead
bulldozed the land in order to build the golf course in 1991," he
said.
PT SGA is owned by Mohamad "Bob" Hasan, a business tycoon and
close crony of former president Soeharto. He was a minister
during Soeharto's tenure.
Several minutes prior to the land appropriation, PT SGA
director Budi Santoso told the visitors that they had come to the
wrong location.
"We are only managing the golf course. The land is the asset
of AURI," he was quoted as saying by Tubagus Karbiyanto of LBH
Jakarta.
Tubagus said LBH Jakarta might soon bring the case to court if
there were no satisfying results.
In 1994, PT SGA agreed to pay the land owners Rp 65,000 per
square meter but the company never made good on its promise, Nur
Nadi, a grandson of one of the owners, Madun, said.
"We have even visited former minister of agriculture/chairman
of the National Land Agency Hasan Basri Durin last September. The
minister agreed to send a letter to AURI to settle the dispute,
but AURI has yet to respond to the letter," he added.
Budiman, the coordinator of the Cipedak dwellers, said they
would give three days to either AURI or PT SGA to settle the
dispute with an appropriate amount of money.
"Or we will plant cassava here," Budiman, 29, son of owner
Rian, threatened. (asa)