Pasar Jaya awaits council ruling

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Although the Central Jakarta District Court has annulled the asset preservation order on the Tanah Abang textile market, the city market operator PD Pasar Jaya has decided not to go ahead with its renovation plan which had been halted by the court's order.

PD Pasar Jaya director Prabowo Soenirman said on Tuesday he would wait for the final word from the City Council committee tasked with investigating possible collusion in the renovation plan.

"Although the main stumbling block in our plan to renovate the market, that is, the asset preservation order, has been removed, we will wait for the recommendation from the council's special committee," he said.

The court annulled its previous ruling on Monday, arguing that it did not include the Jakarta administration as the owner of the market when considering the issue.

The annulment was made after Governor Sutiyoso requested the revocation of the ruling due to a legal flaw.

"The traders, who have demanded an asset preservation order with the court, had mistakenly mentioned PD Pasar Jaya and developer PT Sari Kebon Jeruk as the owner of the city-owned market. That's why the court annulled the decision after the Governor expressed his objection to the ruling," said a lawyer for PD Pasar Jaya, Listyo Wismono.

PT Sari Kebon Jeruk is the business counterpart of PD Pasar Jaya in the plan to demolish blocks B, C, D and E of the market and rebuild them.

The administration has insisted that the market had to be completely torn down, citing a recommendation made by the civil engineering team of the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) that the structure of the market's four blocks was in dire need of reinforcement or total renovation.

Most traders have opposed the plan and asked PD Pasar Jaya to seek a second opinion from another team of independent experts from the University of Indonesia.

The traders fear they will not be able to afford the kiosk rental fees in the new buildings.

At least 2,900 traders will be affected by the project.

The council's special committee said earlier that it aimed to reach a final decision over the market by the end of February.

Prabowo claimed that as of Monday, at least 1,527 traders had reserved a space in the future blocks and were in favor of the renovation plan.

He also claimed that some traders in block E whose rental permits would expire in 2007 had also sent a letter to Sutiyoso and the council to express their support for the plan.