Speedy settlement needed on land row

JAKARTA (JP): Residents of Pondok Pinang subdistrict in South Jakarta urged city councilors on Thursday to help speed up the settlement of their dispute with PT Metropolitan Kencana over the possession of social facilities.

Eleven resident representatives, who went to the City Council and were received by members of Commission E for social welfare, said the company, which developed the Pondok Indah luxury housing complex, had failed to give them the social facilities it pledged 20 years ago.

Djunaidi Abdillah, head of the Pondok Pinang community welfare organization, said the councilors' help was badly needed so as to help prevent local residents from attempting to take over the properties by force.

About 10,000 households were evicted from a 450-hectare plot of land in 1971 and 1972 to make way for the development of the Pondok Indah housing complex by Metropolitan Kencana.

Djunaidi said the 450 hectares of land also included seven hectares belonging to local residents, who gave the land to the developer in the hope that the latter would compensate them by building social facilities such as a mosque and a school.

Djunaidi acknowledged that the company had developed the facilities. However, instead of handing over the facilities to local residents, the company gave them to the Pondok Mulia foundation, which is chaired by the former president's relative Sudwikatmono.

The residents started to struggle for their rights in 1978, by sending complaints to the city governor, the developer, the City Council and the Ministry of Public Housing, but to no avail.

Agus Waluyo, the commission's secretary, said the commission would discuss their complaint with the developer soon.

"If the developer uses legal procedures, however, the residents will surely lose because they don't have any legal documents pertaining to the disputed land," he said. (ivy)