Flooding gives Jakarta squatters temporary reprieve

Flooding gives Jakarta squatters temporary reprieve

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Flooding can be a frightening thing that people will do
anything to avoid, right? Not really, if it concerns squatters
who occupy state property along the Banjir Kanal Barat flood
control canal, North Jakarta.

About 25 families there have, several times over the past
week, been spared from eviction by the dreaded security and order
officers -- thanks to flooding.

They are the remainder of an estimated 3,500 families who were
forcibly evicted in an operation on Jan. 7.

They would have lost their "homes" had major flooding not
affected the area on Monday. The floods made it impossible for
the officers to bulldoze everything down.

"We have heard that they will come today to demolish our
houses but, thank God, the floods protected us. It's OK for us to
live in an area liable to flooding -- better than having no home
at all," said a resident, Sarno, 40.

Sarno lives in a two-story house and the flooding practically
submerged the first floor. The whole family had to move upstairs
after their belongings had been made safe.

For Sarno and everybody living in the slum area, flooding has
become part of their daily routine during the wet season.

Interiors have been designed such that furniture, electrical
appliances and belongings can be moved promptly as soon as water
creeps into the house.

Sarno and another 24 other families living in the same block
have received four letters of warning from the city
administration. The latest came last week, ordering them to pack
and leave because their houses would be demolished.

City law and order officers are well known for such heavy-
handed tactics. When a small number of people arrive and settle
on state property, the authorities usually close their eyes to
their presence.

Very often, corrupt officials impose taxes as if the people
were living there legally. Problems arise when the government
wants the property back for some development project or other,
many years after the people have initially occupied the land and
even obtained building permits.

Thus, Sarno and his neighbors have an official building
permit, pay taxes and have been included in the neighborhood
administration unit (RT/RW) as a token of the government's
recognition of their citizenship rights. They have lived there
since 1970.

With the help of 40 or so activists of the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), Sarno and his
neighbors have vowed to resist any efforts to evict them. They
are resolute that they will physically fight back whenever the
law and order officers arrive.

The remaining neighborhood of 25 families is demanding that
the government pay compensation of Rp 400,000 per square meter,
in the same way as state highway company PT Jasa Marga offered it
to fellow squatters living along the other side of the canal when
it appropriate the land for a tollway project.

They had heard that the company had also planned to acquire
the remaining strip but, before the news was confirmed, there
arrived the letter from the mayoralty that required them to go.

"How was it that the two neighborhoods were treated so
differently? The others got compensation, while we didn't get
anything," Sarno said angrily.

Expelling squatters from state land has not always been easy.
Police action, such as taking them into custody, has proven
ineffective. Many of them will do anything they can to return.

Emon is one of those hundreds of fearless squatters who have
returned. His shack was demolished on Jan. 7 but he has now built
a new one by the canal.

"Well, I hope that the flooding will last as long as possible
so that the officers won't come here. They are afraid they will
catch a cold if they brave the water," Emon quipped.

Apprehensive at the prospect of being evicted at any time, the
squatters are suffering from the lack of clean water because the
floods have yet to recede.

Munaroh, a woman from one of the families that had their
shacks destroyed in last week's operation, said that food
supplies were running out after her husband was too scared to
leave his family to go to work as a blue collar worker in the
fish market. They lived with their seven-year-old daughter.

Like their neighbors, they have set up a tent in the flooded
strip of land that previously was "theirs". Others were seen
building tents on higher ground.

Although living in misery, Emon, Munaroh, and other victims of
eviction have refused to move because they have no money to
establish a new dwelling elsewhere.

Chief of Penjaringan district Setiabudi Supardan said to The
Jakarta Post on Monday that he had been forced to postpone the
demolition due to the rains and the floods.

"The floods are terrible, about 100cm deep. Our trucks and
bulldozers cannot reach the location. We'll have to wait until
the floodwaters have receded, he said.