PMI on the brink of eviction
Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) has done much to help the people of this country, including providing food and milk to the evicted squatters of Tanjung Duren Selatan in West Jakarta. But now the organization is facing eviction from its offices in South Jakarta.
The Supreme Court ruled that the PMI must vacate its offices on Jl. Gatot Subroto unless it pays Rp 1.85 billion (US$217,647) for part of the land on which the offices sit.
With very little publicity, the organization has been in a legal dispute since 1985 over the ownership of 2,000 square meters of the 3,585-square-meter plot of land where the offices stand.
The civil case, which came about from a land swap in 1982, was filed by Kaptin Adisumarta with the South Jakarta District Court.
In 1999, the Jakarta High Court upheld the district court's ruling ordering PMI to vacate the offices.
"Should the PMI lose its office, it would be a slap in the country's face .... The city administration will find a way to collect the money. I have yet to figure it out, but it will keep the office," Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso said on Friday.
He was speaking after meeting with PMI chairman Mar'ie Muhammad, the minister of finance in the last administration of former president Soeharto. Mar'ie took over as head of the Indonesian Red Cross in 1999 from Siti Hardijanti Hastuti Rukmana, the eldest daughter of Soeharto.
The PMI has suffered from financial woes for years. It receives just Rp 270 million as an annual subsidy from the Office of the State Secretary, a minute amount compared to its annual expenditures of up to Rp 3.8 billion.
The organization depends on people to fill its donation boxes at cinemas, entertainment spots and airports.
From its three-story building in South Jakarta, the PMI coordinates at least 153 blood transfusion units and 307 chapters in 26 provinces, as well as overseeing two hospitals in Bogor, West Java, and Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi.
The PMI has been involved in numerous humanitarian projects, including supplying blood during a dengue fever outbreak in 1998, providing shelter and medical assistance to thousands of stranded migrant workers on Nunukan island, East Kalimantan, in 2002, and evacuating victims from the war-torn Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam province in 2003.