Eviction-threat Kampung Baru residents on alert
Eviction-threat Kampung Baru residents on alert
Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
Dozens of residents, mostly youths, of Kampung Baru, Cengkareng
Timur subdistrict in West Jakarta, were seen sitting around the
neighborhood on Thursday, claiming they were guarding their homes
from "sudden attack".
Having received a final warning from the West Jakarta
Mayoralty on Aug. 29 to vacate the 16-hectare plot of land within
three days, it is just a matter of time before the public order
officers move in.
"The situation is safe now, but we have to stay alert. The
other day, a man, who many of us know is a police intelligence
officer, came by as a guest but asked too many question on the
ownership of the land," said Ahmad, one of the residents.
Ahmad, who is also one of the neighborhood chiefs in the area,
told The Jakarta Post that they had legal rights to the property
and therefore had asked the mayor as well as the city council to
delay the eviction.
He said the residents bought the land from the three heirs of
the previous land owner, M. Yasin, in 1998, who gave them the
copies of the land title, which was said to have been certified
by the National Land Agency in 2002.
"We need more time to obtain the original documents so we can
show the mayoralty and the management of the state-run developer
Perum Perumnas Bumi Cengkareng Indah that the land is ours,"
Ahmad, a street vendor, said.
He said the residents all had Jakarta IDs and the area itself
had been integrated as part of the subdistrict.
According to Didin Sutadi, head of Perum Perumnas, the problem
originated from a policy of the mayoralty in 1998, which allowed
unemployed residents to manage the neglected 55-hectare plot of
land belonging to Perum Perumnas for farming, but later the
farmers built houses and sold the land to other residents.
Besides the 55-hectares of land, which stretches from
Pedongkelan to Tegal Alur and now has more than 1,000 houses,
illegal occupants had also claimed another 40-hectares of land
belonging to Perum Perumnas, Didin said, as quoted by
beritajakarta.com.
"Perum Perumnas practically only has the remaining 45-hectare
land for development," he said on Monday.
Ahmad, however, insisted that the 16-hectare plot did not
belong to Perum Perumnas.
"I don't get it. At first, the subdistrict chief said the
company offered us Rp 200,000 (about US$23) for each square meter
of our land. While we were still considering the price, the
mayoralty issued the warning orders to vacate the land," he said.