City told to respect residents' civil rights

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.