Indobuildco Owner Willing to Negotiate Over Sultan Hotel Land Dispute

The owner of PT Indobuildco, Ponco Sutowo, stated that he is open to sitting down with the government to find a resolution to the Sultan Hotel land dispute. According to Ponco, the Sultan Hotel land dispute will not be resolved through force. He believes that the best approach is to open a space for direct, open, and fair negotiations.

“Let’s sit down. The problem can only be solved through negotiation. There is no other way,” said Ponco in a statement on Saturday (May 16).

Ponco also questioned why the Sultan Hotel, which is managed by PT Indobuildco, continues to be a point of contention. He claims that PT Indobuildco has been compliant with legal and administrative requirements and has made a real contribution to state revenue through tax payments.

“I am much more compliant legally, and much more compliant administratively. Why is this being questioned?” he said.

Meanwhile, PT Indobuildco’s legal counsel, Hamdan Zoelva, suspects that there is an indication of an interest in taking over the Sultan Hotel business. According to him, the dispute, which should be related to the land, has instead developed into an attempt to take over the building and the hotel business.

“In my opinion, there is an interest in taking over this business,” he said.

Hamdan also highlighted the obstacles to the Sultan Hotel’s business activities, including events that are not allowed to obtain permits. He said that these obstacles have a negative impact on the business, even though there is no court order to stop the Sultan Hotel’s business.

“Everyone who wants to rent, for example, those who want to hold an event there, are not allowed to obtain permits. The police do not issue permits. This means that it is crippling the business, right? Is there a court order to stop the Sultan Hotel’s business? No,” said Hamdan.

Hamdan emphasized that the object of the Sultan Hotel dispute is the land, not the building and not the hotel business. Therefore, according to him, there is no legal basis to take over the building or the Sultan Hotel business.

He added that the Sultan Hotel building was not built using a Build, Operate, Transfer (BOT) scheme. Therefore, the building cannot automatically be taken over by the state or PPKGBK.

Hamdan also stated that there has never been an official offer to PT Indobuildco to discuss a settlement through a certain value or compensation mechanism. According to him, what is happening is actually leading to the takeover of the building and business without a clear legal basis.

“No. This is an attempt to take over the business,” Hamdan emphasized.

Hamdan stated that if the government wants to resolve the dispute through a takeover, there must be a clear legal mechanism and fair compensation. The value of the compensation, he added, must include the value of the building and the value of the land rights.

“Pay compensation. We will calculate the value together: the value of the building and the value of the land rights,” said Hamdan.

Furthermore, Hamdan also reminded that the court had previously opened a space for settlement through negotiation. In a court decision in 2011, Hamdan said, one of the important considerations was that the parties should negotiate so that investors are not harmed.

“In the 2011 court decision, one of the considerations was to ask the parties to negotiate. Why? So that investors are not harmed,” he said.

Therefore, both Ponco and Hamdan believe that the Sultan Hotel dispute should be resolved through dialogue and negotiation, not through forced eviction.

“Indobuildco is ready to negotiate. The land dispute should not be used as a way to take over the building and the Sultan Hotel business. If the hotel’s activities are stopped, the state, workers, tenants, and the business world will all suffer,” he concluded.

Previously, the Central Jakarta District Court (PN) had carried out a constatation, or data matching of the disputed object, as a follow-up to the planned eviction of the Sultan Hotel Jakarta land, on Monday (March 16).

Based on CNNIndonesia.com’s monitoring, this constatation was attended by the Central Jakarta PN, the Ministry of State Secretariat, and the Center for the Management of the Gelora Bung Karno Complex (PPKGBK) as the applicants for the eviction, the Ministry of ATR/BPN, and the police.

“The constatation means matching, ensuring that the boundaries are in accordance with what we are requesting from us as the two applicants, PPKGBK and applicant one, the Ministry of State Secretariat, regarding state-owned assets in Block 15,” said Director of PPKGBK Rakhmadi Afif Kusumo to reporters on Monday.

“This morning, we heard directly from the clerk that the constatation for Block 15 has been carried out, checking the former HGB 26 and former HGB 27, which should now be state-owned assets,” he added.

Rakhmadi also emphasized that the Sultan Hotel land is state land, so the eviction process will continue.

“So, from our perspective, we adhere to the fact that this is final, in the sense that the state-owned assets (BMN), where these assets have become state-owned. Our spirit, from the direction of the leadership from the Ministry of State Secretariat, is of course how to secure these state-owned assets and optimize them,” he said.