Parties to lose votes due to evictions

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak and Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

As the administration continues to evict squatters from land owned by the city and private companies, political parties have begun to calculate the potential loss of voters.

Estimating a loss of 80,000 potential voters for the 2004 legislative elections, city councillors and politicians from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) called on the administration to halt the eviction campaign, which was scheduled to finish early next year.

The chairwoman of the PDI Perjuangan Jakarta chapter, Sumiyati Soekarno, demanded that Governor Sutiyoso, who was backed by the party during last year's gubernatorial election, temporarily halt the evictions.

"What will happen to the homeless during the rainy season? We know that the city is prone to floods. Moreover, the residents will not be able to exercise their right to vote in the upcoming elections if they have to leave the city as a result of the evictions. Frankly speaking, we might lose 50,000 votes," she said.

The chairman of the PDI Perjuangan faction in the City Council, Maringan Pangaribuan, gave a more modest prediction, saying only 38 percent of the potential 80,000 in lost votes, or about 30,400, would go to the party.

The quota for each of the 75 seats in the City Council, according to the General Elections Commission, is 114,960 votes. The capital is home to 8.6 million people.

"We have talked with Sutiyoso, who said that he would delay the eviction of illegal occupants on the administration's properties and halt the evictions on privately owned land.

"What I don't understand is why public order officers have been involved in evictions on privately owned land. Why don't the police take care of that?" Maringan said.

A councillor from the National Mandate Party (PAN), Syamsidar Siregar, said her faction had also calculated its potential loss of votes, "but it is not that significant because they (evictees) can always be reregistered in other regions".

Syamsidar said her faction was more concerned with the violence used during the evictions.

In a related development, the heirs of Munawar bin Salbini -- who was declared by West Jakarta District Court to be the legal owner of 15 hectares of land in Tanjung Duren Selatan, West Jakarta -- have reported Diman Purba to the West Jakarta Police for allegedly selling the land illegally to hundreds of buyers.

"We gave Purba a letter warning him to safeguard the land but it turned out that he sold it to other people piece by piece," Heriawan, one of Munawar's heirs, told The Jakarta Post.

The land, located next to Mal Taman Anggrek, has been the subject of a legal dispute for years between Munawar's heirs and seven other parties.

Munawar's heirs won the case in the district court, and this ruling was upheld by the Jakarta High Court in March. Therefore, the heirs attempted to regain control of the land and requested municipality public order officers to evict the illegal occupants.

Another of Munawar's heirs also admitted they had paid money to the officers but declined to go into detail.

A former resident, Jo Ing Nio, told the Post that she bought a few hectares of the land in 2000 from a man who said he had previously purchased it from Purba.

"I paid Pak Haji Enung Rp 80 million (US$9,411.77) for the land," she said, showing a payment receipt signed by both parties. "But there's nothing I can do as he passed away last year."

Another former occupant, Sihite, also claimed that he had bought a piece of land for Rp 10 million in 2001 from Purba.