NGOs seek support for review of land decree
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Non-governmental organizations are seeking public support to file a request for a judicial review of a new presidential decree on land which has widely been deemed as authoritarian.
Presidential Decree No. 36/2005 on the procurement of land for public development purposes authorizes the government to take over private property, should the owners fail to agree on compensation offered to them.
"We will request a judicial review of the decree because it can cause gross human rights problems in the future by forced evictions, intimidation and even physical threats," said leading environmental group Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) executive director Chalid Muhammad.
"We are not against development, but we are against it if the land is used for business purposes," he said.
Chalid said the request will be submitted to the Supreme Court on July 29 by Walhi and many other NGOs grouped in the Coalition of Mutual Cooperation for Citizens, with the support of the public.
The NGOs include the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL), the Consortium for Agrarian Reform (KPA), the Foundation of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI), and the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy.
To seek public support for the planned judicial review, they will open command posts in at least 24 provinces across Indonesia, through which some 10,000 residents are expected to give their signatures to back the move.
"Fifty fellow lawyers all over the country are ready to serve as legal advisors for local communities and non-governmental organizations," said Chairil Syah of the YLBHI.
Around 100 residents of Bojong in Bogor, West Java, came to the Walhi office in Jakarta on Tuesday to give support for the move to oppose the presidential decree, while providing copies of their identity cards to the environmental group.
They were among thousands of Bojong people who had protested against the establishment of a garbage dump in their area for Jakarta residents. Their protests often turned violent and they were threatened by hired thugs.
Muslim cleric Mizar, representing the Bojong residents, said their presence here was to lend support for the plan to file a judicial review of the much-criticized decree.
He also said he hoped other communities would not suffer the violence and intimidation that they had experienced.
"We have experienced the bitterness of being forced to let people dump waste in the name of public use in our area. But it was actually for business purposes," said Mizar.
Pak Oman, who was born and raised in Bojong, admitted that he saw his neighbors beaten up and forced to sign a letter of agreement for the building of a waste treatment plant in the village.
"Some villagers were forced to sign an agreement and were enticed with payments of between Rp 50,000 and Rp 100,000 per family to sign," Oman told The Jakarta Post. (004)