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)