Outery from residents over stadium project

Outery from residents over stadium project

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The plan to build the largest basketball stadium in Southeast
Asia has drawn public outcry, and ignores the fact that
Indonesia's men and women teams have performed poorly in
international events.

Despite the outcry from local residents of West Kelapa Gading
subdistrict, North Jakarta, the Jakarta administration -- in
which Governor Sutiyoso has served as the Indonesian Basketball
Association (Perbasi) chairman -- pledged on Monday to continue
the "sports mall" construction.

North Jakarta deputy mayor and the acting operational manager
for the project, Pinondang Simanjuntak, said the construction
must go on although "there was strong protests from the local
residents."

"It's just a matter of socializing the venue. Soon, they (the
residents) will approve to the project anyway," he said.

The sports mall is being constructed by PT Gamma Investa
Lestari, a private contractor and subsidiary of PT Satria Mahaka,
under the build transfer operating (BOT) system, which allows the
administration to take over the sports mall after 25 years of
operation.

PT Satria Mahaka is the owner of Satria Muda basketball club,
whose general manager Erick Thohir had served as the national
basketball men's team manager at the 2001 Southeast Asian Games
in Kuala Lumpur last September. Erick is also the general manager
of Republika daily.

The project, occupying a 2.6-hectare plot of land, has been
protested by the public as it is being built on land aimed for
social and public facilities. The land, located on Jl. Janur Elok
Raya, is surrounded by nearly 600 houses. The sports mall and the
houses are only separated by six-meter-width roads.

Chief of the community unit 6, Yacob F. Mulya, said locals
would be very annoyed should the basketball stadium really be
erected.

"Take into consideration our feelings, that only six meters
from our house stands a giant three-story basketball stadium.
They claim it's going to be the biggest in Southeast Asia? Who
cares?" he groaned.

"The social impact is just too great for us to bear. Traffic
congestion after matches, noise, hoodlums and sanitary problems
are just simple examples of the possible impact."

The city plan states that the plot of land must be used for
public school or administration offices.

Yacob and other residents had delivered their letter of
objection to the governor on Feb. 25 and had also met with city
councillors on the issue on Mar. 27.

Unfortunately, both authorities turned down their objection.

The residents plan to file a law suit against the
administration should it insist to continue the construction.

The controversy mounted further as the project is not equipped
with analysis on environmental effect (AMDAL) and building permit
(IMB).

The project did not put the IMB announcement on the building
site unlike other city projects.

Pinondang admitted that the building permit was still being
processed.

"I still have no idea if the permit has been issued. I just
know that it's being processed," he said.