Corruption and floods

In an interview with one of the private television stations, a member of Commission IV of the House of Representatives (DPR), representing the Golkar faction, said that owing to the deluge affecting practically the whole city of Jakarta recently, the city's land use plan and spatial layout needed reviewing.

This statement shocked me because this respectable House member feigned ignorance that violations against the city's land use plan and spatial layout design had partly been committed by members of the Indonesian Real Estate Association (REI), particularly big developers. I found it hard to believe that this legislator, who is a former chairman of REI, did not know that his own colleagues (members of REI executive board) and some REI members had committed the violations.

While there is no denying the fact that nature played its role in the deluge that swept the city a few days ago, the most serious cause was the rampant corruption and collusion involving government officials and big real estate developers (members of REI executive board/REI) during the New Order era.

The power of money has freely altered the land use plan and spatial layout design of a city/a region. I'm convinced that the damage that the power of nature in Jakarta, Bogor, Bekasi, Tangerang, Cikampek, Sukabumi, Puncak and Cianjur has brought, is the result of the avarice of big real estate developers and also the abuse of power by bureaucrats, the main pillar of Golkar's power during the New Order era.

Allow me to remind the respectable House member that history cannot be written off. History will shed light on the real truth and it is from history that we learn to be wiser.

AMIR KARAMOY

Deputy Chairman of

the New Indonesia

Association (PIB)

Jakarta chapter