Lesson for all concerned

Lesson for all concerned

The Jakarta administration really got tough this week when the
squatters in the fire-razed Bendungan Hilir area in the central
part of the city challenged its authority to evict them. The
squatters of Benhil -- shortened from Bendungan Hilir -- provoked
security officers into action last Friday and again on Tuesday by
refusing to leave the area although most of the 465 families had
accepted compensation money for their homes from the authorities.

The squatters have also been promised a 50 percent discount on
the price of the apartments, which the government will build for
them in the area.

However, it seems that these people have developed a kind of
distrust in the new way of life they are expected to face in the
"vertical" housing promised them. They claim that many people
have fallen victims to the policy.

They had begun rebuilding their shanties on the state-owned
land when police, army and city security officers, equipped with
anti-riot gear, came to secure the demolition of any structures
on the 1.5 hectares of disputed land. The ensuing clashes in
which the officers used tear gas to disperse the angry squatters
gave rise to the impression that the eviction was not only
inhumane and lacking in compassion, but brutal as well.

Some of the squatters, including two infants who became
unconscious after exposure to the tear gas, were rushed to
hospitals for injuries. Those left behind continued their
opposition to the destruction of their makeshift shelters by
burning a bulldozer used to bring them down.

In the end, because the officers, some of whom were also
injured, were better equipped for a riot situation, and thus more
powerful than the squatters, the eviction was enforced.

In the wake of the clashes, which backed up traffic for
kilometers in all directions around the area twice in a week,
many observers have put the blame on the officers and demolition
workers for all the commotion. They say that the officers
overreacted and went too far in their enforcement of the
demolition and eviction orders.

The questions now are: How much is too much; and what is the
root of the problem anyway? Is it, perhaps, that everyone
concerned, including the injured officers, are victims of
circumstances that could have been avoided?

Once upon a time, in the early part of the 1970s, the city
administration, under governor Ali Sadikin, was very tough about
stemming the inflow of migrants from the provinces. The rural
poor were flocking to the city in great numbers, resulting in the
fast growth of slum areas, with the subsequent expansion of
health and social problems and environmental damage.

The tide was never fully held back, and the following years
saw the problem grow uglier and ever more complex. The succeeding
governors after Ali, especially the man called Tjokropranolo, who
directly filled his shoes, showed greater tolerance towards the
migrants. He believed the destitute people deserved more humane
treatment because they were fleeing rural poverty in efforts to
make ends meet in Jakarta, which they saw as a a place of
opportunity.

The situation was made worse by the ineffectiveness of the
lower levels of the city administration. Slum dwellers, many of
them squatting on state land, were not only provided with ID
cards, but were also obliged to pay taxes on the land that they
did not own and had no resources or right to purchase. Even the
narrow patches of land along railway tracks filled up with
ramshackle structures the unfortunates were forced to call home.

Some lawyers have reacted to the situation by saying that from
the legal point of view the city administration has to be blamed
for any problems arising from the land disputes between squatters
and the government because it did not act to ensure that the
state land was not occupied in the first place. In many cases,
slum dwellers have been squatting on state land for decades. The
people newly evicted from Benhil had occupied that area for 35
years. Some were born there and understandably felt it was their
right to remain there.

Clearly the status of the state property should have been made
clear to the public from the beginning. The migrants should never
have been allowed to put down such deep roots in land that they
would never own. More attention to preventing the emergence of
such illegal settlements at the earliest possible point would do
wonders to put an end to the human grief and turmoil inflicted on
all parties in incidents such as the Benhil clashes.

Rather than suddenly confronting slum dwellers with what
appears to them to be a new policy, they should be fully informed
of their status and the status of the land they are occupying
under the law at the earliest possible point in time. In that
way, the government's plans to construct apartments for them
would not seem so alien or distressing. Or, if, as in the case of
the Benhil residents, they have been on the state land for a long
time and formed well-established communities, they should be
given a more integral part in determining their futures once the
use of the land returns to the state.

Based on the experiences of the last week and other similar
incidents in the past, we believe that the administration should
handle its less fortunate constituents with more care and more
wisdom.

The Benhil crisis should serve as a good lesson for all of us,
in particular the present governor, Soerjadi Sudirdja, who plans
to clean up the slum areas within three years by providing
apartments for the shanty dwellers to move into.