Residents continue fight against Pelni

Residents continue fight against Pelni

JAKARTA (JP): Twenty-nine families living in a housing complex
on Jl. Pembangunan, Central Jakarta, who have rejected a
compensation offer from the state-owned shipping company PT
Pelni, will continue their legal battle in court on March 10.

"We will submit new evidences to the Jakarta Administrative
Court in the next session on March 10 and we are expecting that
Judge Benjamin Mangkoedilaga will read his verdict seven days
after that," Mrs. Otty Umboh said.

Mrs. Otty Umboh, a member of one of the 29 families, refuses
to leave her house, which she has occupied for over 37 years,
because she claims that the money offered by Pelni is too little
to compensate for the loss of her house.

Pelni offered each family compensation of between Rp 27
million (US$ 12,267) and Rp 35 million, depending of the size of
the land and buildings, as well as an additional Rp 1 million for
moving expenses.

Mrs. Otty said that the compound had previously been home to
69 families, of whom 40 have already moved away.

According to John Mamesah, one of the residents, the company's
plan to clear its housing compound is done without a legal basis
because the land is not even owned by the company.

"The residents obtained the plot here after Dutch nationals,
who worked for Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschapij (KPM), a Dutch
shipping company, left Indonesia in 1957," John said.

John said that the Indonesian government then decided that all
of the properties and employees of the Dutch shipping company had
to be transferred to Pelni.

"I remember that Pelni, at that time, was a small shipping
company and its president refused to accept part of the Dutch
company's employees and properties, including this housing
complex, on the grounds that the firm was not capable of running
such a big business as KPM," he said.

The finance ministry then decided to consider the housing plot
as a state property and use it as its share in Pelni.

According to Mrs. Otty, the company has no rights to expel the
residents from the housing compound or even offer compensation
money to the residents because the only party with the rights to
sell the land is the Minister of Finance. (mas)