Classrooms demolished in school dispute

JAKARTA (JP): About 75 students of the Central Jakarta De la Salle senior high school have been on "holiday" since Monday after public order officials demolished half their school Sunday.

The students said yesterday they were shocked when they got to school Monday and found classrooms destroyed.

"We want our school back. We want the officials to be punished," one student said.

The school principal, Anton Nainggolan said yesterday that he has asked students to resume studying tomorrow.

"They can use the remaining three classrooms," Nainggolan said.

"Many parents have come to us, asking for the school to continue and I said that it would," he said.

He said students paid about Rp 130,000 (US$54) a month for tuition.

The demolition was prompted by a dispute between Setia Bhakti foundation which ran the school and Budi Mulia foundation, which owned the building. The two foundations disagreed and Budi Mulia foundation had the building demolished.

Meanwhile Ichsan Suwandi, a Setia Bhakti foundation secretary, said three rooms on the first floor and three rooms on the second were demolished by the Sawah Besar public order officials, guarded by police and military officers.

"When I asked them about the demolition order, the officials said they did not bring it with them," Ichsan said.

He said language laboratory equipment worth Rp 30 million ($12,500) went missing in the Sunday's demolition.

The Sawah Besar district head, Ashry Ilyas said his subordinates were just fulfilling a request from the Budi Mulia foundation to demolish the building. "So, we did not need a demolition order."

Central Jakarta Mayor Abdul Kahfi has expressed his regrets about the demolition which has left students with nothing to do.

Kahfi, quoted by Suara Pembaruan daily, said his office had not issued orders to demolish the building. "Things should have been discussed before the demolition. I will question my subordinates about the matter."

Nine De la Salle senior high school students went to the mayoralty yesterday to report the demolition. But the mayor was out.

Ichsan said his foundation rented the neglected building from the Budi Mulia foundation in 1994. "We have spent about Rp 100 million renovating the building."

He said his foundation only accepted girls at the school since the Budi Mulia foundation ran a senior high school for boys.

Meanwhile, Ivo M. Simandjuntak, chairman of Budi Mulia foundation accused the Setia Bakti foundation of breaking the rental deal on the building, saying the building had been used for formal schooling, instead of short courses.

Simandjuntak said his foundation now wanted to turn the site into a parking lot.

He denied the demolished half of building was the rented half. "We will continue to demolish all the building."

Ichsan said Simandjuntak had violated a Central Jakarta District Court's ruling that no action be taken over the disputed building pending the outcome of a High Court appeal. (jun)