Governor pledges housing for evictees
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
For the first time since the launching of an eviction drive of squatters last year, Governor Sutiyoso met with the victims of his campaign on Sunday on the banks of Muara Angke river in North Jakarta. During the meeting, he assured the evictees that they would get low-cost apartments within a year.
"We have not decided yet if the apartments will be available for rent or to buy, but we assure you that you will get one at an affordable price," he told around 100 evicted fishermen at their temporary shelter after the Idul Adha, or Day of Sacrifice prayers.
The governor, who donated two bulls to be slaughtered for the evictees, said the city administration planned to build 1,600 apartments for the evictees with the help of privately funded Tzu Chi, a Taiwan-based Buddhist foundation.
A Guan, an official from the foundation, said there would be 540 apartments built in the first phase.
"The construction will cost Rp 40 billion (US$476,190)," he said, adding that the foundation also had received donations from many parties, but refused to give details.
The apartment complex will also have public facilities including a school, hospital and a soccer field.
The planned construction of low-cost apartments in Muara Angke is the second project of the foundation after Cinta Kasih, an apartment complex with 1,100 apartments for people of the lower- income bracket in East Cengkareng, West Jakarta. The apartment complex also includes an elementary school and a junior high school as well as a two-story community health center.
To live in the apartments in East Cengkareng, each family is required to pay a monthly rent of Rp 90,000 (US$11) plus utilities. The fee is charged to cover the cost garbage collection, security services and maintenance of green spaces.
However, some of the fishermen were ambivalent about the promised apartments as the governor said the apartments would be provided only for holders of Jakarta ID cards.
"They can have the apartment if they obtain Jakarta ID cards," he said.
From around 1,000 evicted fishermen, only 300 of them have the Jakarta ID cards.
"I hope the city officials will treat us equally. I also want to stay in an apartment, although I don't have a Jakarta ID card," said a fisherman, who still holds an Indramayu regency ID card in West Java.
He claimed he had tried to obtain a Jakarta ID card but was put off by the high fee demanded by officials at district offices.
Another evictee said a person must pay between Rp 100,000 and Rp 150,000 -- much higher than the official price of Rp 3,000 -- to officials to obtain a Jakarta ID card.
The North Jakarta municipal administration plans to build a modern fishing port and industrial complex along the coastline in the area while the low-cost apartments or residential zone will occupy the southern part.
Both zones will be divided by a canal where the fishermen will be able to moor their boats close to the apartments.
Sutiyoso praised the project, saying that it would transform the slum into the most modern port and well-managed fishing community in the country.
Therefore, he asked the evictees to "make sacrifices" and to endure another year in temporary shelters until the construction of the apartments is completed.