Kapuk clash lamentable, understandable: Councilor
JAKARTA (JP): Last week's clash which occurred between residents and security and order officers in the Kapuk district of West Jakarta during a forceful eviction was understandable, a city legislator said on Saturday.
"We did not want the incident to happen but the situation was complicated," Mohammad Banang, a city council member of Commission A, which oversees administration affairs, security and public order, told The Jakarta Post.
He said the incident was understandable because no convergence of views could be achieved in the matter by the two opposing sides.
On Friday, about 100 personnel from the West Jakarta mayoralty, police and the local military tried to demolish 90 houses, occupied by 250 people. The site, which legally belongs to the state-owned housing company Perum Perumnas, has been designated to become a new housing complex.
The residents, who refused to move, were trying to defend their properties. A clash occurred, causing a number of residents to be injured. Because of the residents' resistance, the officers only managed to demolish about 30 houses.
"The officers were only performing their duty but the residents also felt they had a right to defend their belongings," Banang said.
Banang said he understood the residents' feelings. On other hand, by law, Perum Perumnas was not required to meet their demand.
He added that the case has been brought up in the Commission twice over the past three months.
According earlier reports, the Kapuk case was discussed in the City Council's Commission A in July and August.
In July, 12 representatives of 1,400 families in Kapuk met with the Commission's members. The representatives asked for the Commission's support, to enable them to receive appropriate compensation for their houses.
Even though they recognized the fact that the land belongs to Perum Perumnas, the representatives said the residents demanded Rp 200,000 to Rp 300,000 per square meter for the buildings, which they built. They rejected the company's offer of between Rp 5,000 and Rp 20,000 per square meter of building.
More than 100 residents representing 980 families in Kapuk marched to the Commission in August, again with the same demand. The residents told the Commission they rejected the company's compensation offer, which ranged from Rp 20,000 to Rp 65,000 per square meter of their houses.
During the meeting with the residents, Banang said, the Commission suggested that they accept the company's offer, including transportation fees and the first option to buy in the housing facilities that were to be built.
"Some of them have agreed. In fact, most of the families have received compensation," Banang said.
Banang reminded the residents they did not have rights to the land since they bought it from unqualified persons.
"The persons who illegally sold the company's land to the residents must be sanctioned," Banang said.
The Kapuk land dispute started more than seven years ago, when Perum Perumnas was planning to use about 334 hectares of Kapuk district land to build a housing complex.
During the forceful eviction of at least 1,300 families in 1988, residents burnt five trucks, one bulldozer, and the company's base camp. (01)