Land policy needs to be reviewed for public interest

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)