Residents reject transportation money
Residents reject transportation money
JAKARTA (JP): Most slum dwellers in North Kedoya and Kembangan
subdistricts in West Jakarta have rejected the Rp 7,500 (US$3.28)
offered to them by the West Jakarta mayoralty as a transportation
fee for them to leave the areas.
"How could we survive with only Rp 250,000 ($109), with no
shelter?," Masa Tarigan, one of the residents affected, asked
yesterday.
About 900 shanties in the northern Kedoya and Kembangan areas
were demolished earlier this month as part of the government's
Clean River Program.
Earlier, the dispossessed residents had protested against the
administration's failure to provide them with warning about the
demolitions.
A lawsuit was against the West Jakarta mayoralty office by 110
residents through the State Administrative Court early this week.
The residents are being represented by the Jakarta Legal Aid
Institute in the case.
Amid ongoing protests staged by the homeless residents at the
House of Representatives, the West Jakarta mayoralty announced
early last week that it would provide each of the dispossessed
residents with Rp 7,500 toward their transportation costs to
their hometowns.
The mayoralty has also suggested that the homeless residents
join a transmigration program to Indonesia's outer islands.
"We refuse both the money and the transmigration program
because we deserve to get fair compensation for our land," said
Tarigan, who is among the residents bringing the lawsuit against
the mayoralty.
West Jakarta Mayoralty Secretary Solichin Djayadikusumah told
The Jakarta Post yesterday that some of the displaced people had
already accepted the transportation money.
Of the 900 families living in the bulldozed areas, only
between 30 percent and 40 percent had owned the shanty houses,
Solichin said. The rest were merely tenants and did not deserve
any compensation, he added.
Out of 400 house owners, about 200 had received the Rp 7,500,
Solichin said.
"They rest might have left the area for lack of reason to
claim compensation," he said.
But Tarigan told the Post that none of the 111 house owners
who have filed the lawsuit have received the money. He said he
did not know whether other people had.
"As far a I know, the residents will never accept the payment
because such an amount is nothing compared with our sufferings,"
he said.
A member of the National Commission on Human Rights, Roekmini
Koesoemo Astoeti, said yesterday that about 80 families of the
Kembangan area, located on the opposite side of the river from
Kedoya, had also refused to accept the transportation money.
"They want to discuss compensation with the authorities
because they had lived there for more than 15 years," she said.
The residents of both districts say they bought the land
legally, adding that they have paid property tax on it. (03)