Court slaps asset preservation order on Tanah Abang market

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Central Jakarta District Court issued on Thursday an asset preservation order on Tanah Abang textile market blocks B, C, D and E, and refused to revoke the traders' permits, meaning they can continue doing business in the market.

The court bailiff, Suharto, issued the order based on the court head's ruling No. 20/2004.Del/PN.JKT.PST. The issuance means city-run market operator PD Pasar Jaya cannot renovate, tear down or sell the market to other parties.

"It also means traders can still continue doing business in the market," said the traders' lawyer Juniver Girsang.

However, traders are not allowed to tear down the partitions built by PD Pasar Jaya.

Juniver said traders would be fined or imprisoned if they acted in an unauthorized manner. He added that the decision would be valid until a final decision was made by the court.

Traders had filed a complaint against PD Pasar Jaya through the West Jakarta District Court on Nov. 22. The court head issued the asset preservation order against the market's land and buildings.

However, since the market is located in Central Jakarta, the West Jakarta court requested that the Central Jakarta court execute the order.

PD Pasar Jaya made its final decision in August to renovate Tanah Abang market's four blocks, following a recommendation from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB)'s School of Civil Engineering that said the building would collapse within two years due to grave structural weakness.

The ITB team of experts recommended in June the demolition of the largest textile market in Southeast Asia, because the buildings, constructed in the 1970s, could no longer support activities there.

As a result, PD Pasar Jaya and the traders agreed to appoint the University of Indonesia (UI) to conduct another study for a second opinion. Later, PD Pasar president director Prabowo Soenirman stressed that any second opinion would not affect the original plan to demolish the market and replace it with a modern shopping mall.

He announced that the demolition of the market would take place in January despite strong continued protest from the traders.