Scavengers protest over demolition of their homes
Scavengers protest over demolition of their homes
JAKARTA (JP): Around 100 scavengers marched to the House of Representatives (DPR) yesterday to seek protection from what they called arbitrary demolition of their homes in many parts of the city.
Bringing posters demanding proper treatment from the government, the scavengers grouped in Ikatan Pemulung Indonesia (Association of Indonesian Scavengers) was led by the association chairwoman, Cathy Lengkong.
The demonstrators met Hadi Sutrisno of Commission II, which deals with domestic politics, and Dalam Sinuraya of Commission I dealing with defense and security affairs. Both Sutrisno and Sinuraya are from the Armed Forces (ABRI) faction.
The scavengers handed three-page latter, copies of which have also been sent to President Soeharto and the minister of home affairs, among others.
They said in the letter that the demolition of their houses located in West, East and Central Jakarta had been inhumanely carried out.
They strongly protested the terror tactics adopted by an unidentified person, who threatened to kill Cathy Lengkong and her family for defending the garbage collectors in the demolition case.
"Early today a caller said that he wanted to eliminate Cathy and her family," the letter said.
"An Armed Forces member has accused Cathy of having links with the banned Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). This is just over the top. We scavengers deny the accusation," they said in the letter.
According to the scavengers, a group of people had burned the scavengers association board, the national flag and a Golkar banner. The scavengers did not reveal what group this was.
One of the group members, believed to be of Chinese descent, told one of the scavengers that he could pay government officials, or write a memo to an Armed Forces high-ranking official, to eliminate all the scavengers.
"We don't want the issue to develop to SARA-related chaos," they said. SARA is the Indonesian acronym for Suku (tribe), Agama (religion), Ras (race) and Antar golongan (class).
Earlier scavengers living in Kelapa Gading had protested what they called police-backed extortion by local hoodlums. They alleged the hoodlums were encouraged by a certain group who want the scavengers to be evicted from the area.
Cathy Lengkong asked the House members yesterday that the scavengers need official recommendation to use the state-owned land in Cacing, an East Jakarta subdistrict bordering on North Jakarta for their business sites.
"We want to build warehouses, cooperatives office and a center for small-scale guidance on the land," Cathy said. (sur)