City asked to make peace with the poor

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Jakarta administration should stop forcibly evicting the poor and demolishing their homes and accept the reality that poverty is part of the city, a sociologist said here on Friday.

"The administration must deal with the fact that poverty has become a part of the country," Arif Budiman told a press conference at the Legal Aid Institute (LBH) on Jl. Diponegoro, Central Jakarta.

The press conference was conducted by Anti-eviction Network, which consists of, among others, the Urban Poor Consortium, the Jakarta Residents Forum (FAKTA), Jakarta Social Institute and LBH Jakarta.

Arif, a lecturer at Melbourne University, said that the eviction of the poor would not achieve positive results because the administration had not offered any solution to the poor after evicting them.

"Don't be jealous of the beauty of some cities in industrial countries. They have been able to cope with poverty, while our country has not. Don't be ashamed to face it," he asserted.

He regretted the eviction operations, which were conducted by the administration prior to Ramadhan.

"It is really inhumane," Arif said.

The administration, said Arif, ignored the poor's contribution to the city. The country's economy is basically being bolstered by the informal sector, the domain of the poor.

About 60 percent of the employment in the country is in the informal sector.

Arif suggested the administration allow the poor to build homes here.

"What the administration should do is give them a space and manage it so that it looks good," he said.

He pointed to a well-organized housing area for the poor off Code river in Yogyakarta, which was built by the late Father Mangunwijaya.

The poor, Arif said, could also be managed, as long as the administration allowed them to stay in their place.

Arif said the involvement of non-governmental organizations was necessary to assist the poor and prevent corrupt officers from taking advantage of them.

Data from the network revealed that the administration had conducted 45 eviction operations in slums and 54 eviction operations against street vendors in the period between January and October this year. The operations cost billions of rupiah.

It had also conducted raids on becak (pedicab) drivers, leaving 6,000 unemployed.

Meanwhile, the leader of the Urban Poor Consortium, Wardah Hafidz accused the administration of evicting the poor because they were unable to manage them.

"The evictions, which were usually violent, represent a last ditch effort by the administration to address the problem," she remarked.

Wardah said the administration failed to guarantee the poor's freedom to live and work, due to the continuous raids against them.

"It is shameful if the administration refuses to assist the poor only because they are not Jakarta residents," she said.