Council to look into SMP Jeruk Purut's plea

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Teachers, parents and students of state junior high school SMP 56 in Jeruk Purut, South Jakarta, has asked for support from City Council amid fears that the protracted legal dispute over their old school on Jl. Melawai Raya could backlash against them.

Principal Agus Bambang reiterated on Wednesday that the Jeruk Purut facilities, along with state high school SMA 87 in Bintaro, South Jakarta, was part of a land swap deal made in 2000 between developer PT Tata Disantara and the education ministry.

Agus told Commission E, which oversees education, health and people's welfare, that PT Tata's owner, former manpower minister Abdul Latief, had once threatened to reclaim the Jeruk Purut and Bintaro properties if the Jakarta administration failed to hand over the Melawai premises.

In the controversial deal, the city promised SMP 56 Melawai to PT Tata in exchange for the Jeruk Purut and Bintaro properties, with the Melawai students and staff arranged to transfer to one of the two.

"We are insecure because of the legal uncertainty of the land and property ownership of the Jeruk Purut school," Agus said.

The controversy arose when several dozen teachers and parents of the Melawai school, backed by non-governmental organizations, opposed the deal, saying it smelled of graft.

They argued that the deal was made without the consent of the president, as required by law.

The prolonged case is awaiting a final ruling from the Supreme Court.

"Some parents who have enrolled their children at the Jeruk Purut school have repeatedly questioned the (legal) status of the school," said Suparmiati, speaking on behalf of concerned parents.

Commission E deputy chairman Ahmadi Hasan Ishak promised to follow up their request, "but we will focus on the educational aspects".

"The authority to intervene in the legal dispute over the property swap deal is that of the House of Representatives."

Although the Jakarta administration sealed SMP 56 Melawai last week, dozens of students refused to abandon their school and continued their schooling on the pavement of a square across the Blok M shopping complex, despite heavy downpours.