'Slum evictions will cause violent conflict'

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Urban activists criticized the city administration's plan to evict Angke river squatters in North and West Jakarta, warning that it could spark social unrest.

Previously, the city administration announced that some 3,000 families living along the Angke river should move as soon as possible as the city would start the program of normalizing the river.

The city will accommodate the squatters in low-cost apartments. But unfortunately, only those with a legal right live in Jakarta would be eligible for the apartments. Those who do not have identity cards will be given Rp 500,000 each in compensation.

The normalization project, which is expected to be completed next year, is part of efforts to resolve floods in the surrounding areas along the Angke river in North and West Jakarta.

Chairwoman of the Urban Poverty Consortium (UPC) Wardah Hafidz said while there was no guarantee that the project could resolve the flood in the areas, its social impact would be unavoidable.

"The majority of the people living along the Angke have no IDs, therefore if the city administration insists on the plan, I fear there will be conflicts," Wardah told The Jakarta Post here on Tuesday.

Separately, Asas Tigor Nainggolan of the Jakarta Residence Forum (Fakta), focused on urban affairs, shared Wardah's view, saying conflict could break out as such "discrimination" would cause jealousy, which would lead the people to violence.

Therefore, he added, the city administration should stop such an unfair policy in order to avoid problems.

He also expressed his pessimism that the apartments allocated for those who were evicted from the slums would go to the targeted people, particularly due to the widespread corruption in the bureaucracy.

Asas said that the corruption, collusion and nepotism (KKN) practices which had remained a dominant feature of the city bureaucracy would lead to a condition that only people who could bribe officials enough would get the flats.

He also said the riverbank squatting was only a minor factor in causing floods compared with the impact of the corrupt bureaucracy causing violations against the land-use policy, which experts say is the greatest manmade cause of the annual disaster.

"I think the city should be more comprehensive in addressing the flood problems. The eviction of the people in Angke is further evidence that poor people always become the victims of the city administration policy," he added.

He said that this year, the city administration allocated Rp 16 billion for the Angke river project, including for compensation.

Wardah also said that such a policy was not fair.

First, the families, many of whom have been living in the area since the 1970s, could only receive Rp 500,000 in compensation because they had no land ownership certificates. While those who could show certificates would receive compensation as much as the market price.

Second, the city administration will only offer the low-cost apartments for people who have Jakarta identity cards, despite the fact that many others have been living there for a longer time.

According to Wardah, many people in the slum areas have no identity cards, not through any fault of their own, but because they have no access or money to get such documents which very often require large bribes to still more city officials.

"How can we explain about the people who have been living there since 1970s, but without IDs. Of course they are not trying to be delinquent. It is unfair if our humanity is only measured by an ID card," she added.

She stressed that allowing only those with IDs to live in the flats meant that only a few people living in the Angke riverbanks could be accommodated there.