Land policy needs to be reviewed for public interest

JAKARTA (JP): Land policy must benefit the public interest rather than only facilitate economic growth like the case is now, experts said Monday.

To ensure this, land policy must be in line with the 1992 law on spatial plans, an urban planner and a land issues researcher said.

One way to do this is to have mandatory public hearings to discuss plans for large-scale projects, planner Djoko Sujarto from the Bandung Institute of Technology said.

Djoko and Endang Suhendar of the Bandung-based Akatiga social analysis center, said separately the 1992 law guarantees citizens' rights to participate in determining the way space is used so a balance of all interests can be achieved.

Djoko said authorities' and investors' public exposure of plans would help urban planners.

"Planners do not know what public aspirations are in absence of public hearings," Djoko said.

Endang said since the end of the oil boom in the late 1980s land policy has been geared towards boosting economic growth.

"Land became a strategic commodity and the government had to facilitate land provision to encourage private investment," he said. This led to many land disputes.

While residents found it increasingly difficult to maintain what land rights they had, the government decided developers' location permits could be issued in 12 days, Endang said.

Endang is a co-author of Land as Commodity, A Critical Analysis on Land Policy of the New Order Government, recently published by Elsam, the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy in Jakarta.

Endang and Djoko said large capital owners' rapid control of potentially high-priced land had reduced chances of land being available fr less profitable projects.

Facilities like schools, police and military headquarters and cemeteries now have difficulty existing in cities, they said.

The experts were responding to plans for a new 30,000-hectare town in Jonggol, about 50 kilometers southeast of Jakarta.

The Ministry of Forestry issued permits for the forest area project last year when consortium PT Bukit Jonggol Asri promised to reforest three West Java sites.

The consortium's management, which includes Kaestindo Group, said it planned to make Jonggol, now a district in Bogor, a satellite city and new town.

Djoko said plans for new towns, either satellite cities or self-sufficient cities, must be in line with the national urban development strategy.

"One main point of this strategy is that towns must become growth areas for their surroundings," Djoko said.

"Another is that the town must lead to the improvement of public welfare in the area".

Preparations for a new satellite city must include infrastructure and facilities linking the city to its mother city, Djoko said.

But without a public hearing it would be difficult to know how to meet the national strategy's requirements, he said.

Although current policy is geared to economic interests, Djoko said holding public hearings was still a possibility "if the government wants to uphold the 1992 law on spatial plans."

The law cannot yet be effective because government decrees to implement have not yet been issued.

Djoko said one sign of the government's good intentions was the recent halt on issuing new permits to developers in Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi to developers.

Endang said clear spatial plans, without collusion between authorities and capital owners, were urgent.

"But with the stress of land policy supporting economic growth of at least six percent, I fear spatial plans will be designed in line with profit interests," Endang said. (anr)