City told to respect residents' civil rights

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta

A gubernatorial decree giving the President authority to seize land from owners who opposed the East Flood Canal construction, was criticized by a property law expert.

The move was typical of a city administration that over the past 10 years had often tried to undermine civil rights, Tubagus Haryo Karbyanto told The Jakarta Post.

Tubagus feared the decree would be misused by the administration to summarily evict residents.

Governor Sutiyoso issued the decree on April 8, which provides the guidelines on land acquisition for the construction of the East Flood Canal. Article 9 of the decree allows the governor to recommend the President revoke the land ownership rights of those who opposed the project.

Instead, city officials should directly negotiate with land owners in a transparent way, Tubagus said.

"I'm sure the land owners are willing to give away their land for the project as long as they get fair compensation in exchange."

Land brokers and corrupt officials had often prevented land owners from getting information of the price offered by the administration and the land's market valuation, he said.

These middle men, who had to access development plans and property documents, often forced or duped residents to sell the land to them cheap and reaped huge profits when they resold it to the administration, he said.

Tubagus described several land acquisition cases he had dealt with when working for the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute. In those cases, land owners had no idea about the market value of their land because this information was kept from them by the "land mafia", he said.

A source at the administration familiar with the canal project said there were some groups of rich land brokers who had already occupied the land earmarked for the project and were refusing to sell.

"They are asking for unreasonable sums of compensation because they want to make a profit," the source said.

Jakarta Public Works Agency head Fodly Misbach, meanwhile, complained about the slow pace of land acquisition, which he said was due to residents' unreasonable compensation demands.

Duren Sawit residents in East Jakarta had demanded Rp 2 million (US$232) per square meter of land, or twice the land's current market value of Rp 1 million a square meter, he said.

So far, the administration has only acquired 50.8 hectares of the 316 hectares needed for the Rp 4.1 trillion project.

The East Flood Canal is being created to help ease flooding in eastern Jakarta. The 23.5 kilometer long canal will stretch from Cipinang in East Jakarta to Marunda in North Jakarta. It will be 100 meters wide and five meters deep.

The canal will also link five rivers in the capital -- the Cipinang, Sunter, Jati Kramat, Buaran and the Cakung -- and will connect with the city's West Flood Canal.