Govt to evict hundreds to build shopping mall

Govt to evict hundreds to build shopping mall

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Hundreds of families living in makeshift houses in Kebon Kosong
subdistrict in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, are to be evicted as
the land will be used for the construction of a shopping mall.

The land, where the shanties are located, is part of a vast
tract of land owned by the Kemayoran New Town Authority (DPPPKK),
a state agency which is controlled by the State Secretariat.

"I can't say when the eviction will take place but it will
definitely be conducted by the Jakarta Public Order Agency," an
employee of DPPPKK, who requested anonymity, told The Jakarta
Post on Friday.

The state land in Kemayoran, which formerly served as a
domestic airport, was opened to the public for investment in 1991
after the Jakarta Fairground was built there.

In the early 1990s, DPPPKK purchased about 36 hectares of land
outside the airport compound from local residents.

As several families refused to sell their land, DPPPKK could
not fence off the land that it had purchased. Consequently, some
squatters started to occupy the land, building makeshift houses
and even establishing small-scale businesses there.

"Several former residents who were disappointed with the
amount of compensation paid by DPPPKK during the previous
eviction in 1999 also returned to the land," said a former
squatter, Toto, not his real name.

He said that DPPPKK had given the squatters notices to leave
the land but they apparently ignored the notices.

"We have heard from several officials that the land would be
offered to investors for the construction of a shopping mall," he
said.

The squatters were among more than 2,500 families to be
evicted by the Jakarta administration after Idul Fitri, which
fell on Nov. 25 and Nov. 26.

The city had earlier evicted over 2,000 families prior to the
Ramadhan fasting month in West Jakarta and North Jakarta
municipalities.

The planned shopping mall will add to the ongoing construction
of Megaglodok Kemayoran, which is expected to open in July 2005.
The new integrated business center will comprise a mall, two
office buildings and two towers consisting of apartments, a hotel
and offices.

Earlier this month, a real estate project in Kemayoran sparked
controversy as it involved President Megawati Soekarnoputri's
son, Mohammad Rizky Pratama, better known as Tatam. Tatam was
alleged to have been awarded the Rp 1.3 trillion (US$153 million)
project.

Toto said that many residents in Kebon Kosong felt they were
cheated by the government because they only received meager
payment for their land.

"My parents' house and land was purchased in 1992 by DPPPKK at
Rp 175,000 per square meter because my parents had a land
ownership certificate then. My neighbors who only owned girik (a
land title that has less legal power than the certificate) only
received Rp 75,000 per square meter," he said.

"Later, we came to know that DPPPKK sold the land to (state
owned housing company) Perum Perumnas for Rp 2 million per square
meter," he added. "My family felt cheated, of course."

Toto said that his parents later purchased some land in Bekasi
but he continued to live in Kebon Kosong with a relative who
rented a house there.

DPPPKK land that was purchased by Perum Perumnas is also now
occupied by squatters.

Previously, Perumnas's president director Latief Malangyudo
said that the company had also planned to clear its land of
squatters but he did not specify what the land would be used for.