Council to look into SMP Jeruk Purut's plea

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.