W. Jakarta mayor rousts illegal residents from his district

JAKARTA (JP): West Jakarta Mayor Sutardjianto said yesterday he wants to see scavengers get out of his territory.

"If they (the scavengers) don't have any land here, they must leave the (West Jakarta) mayoralty. They can move either to the transmigration sites or return to their hometowns," the mayor said.

The mayor made the strong remarks at City Hall when he was queried about the alleged, recent arson carried out by the West Jakarta officials. The allegations were regarding the burning of a garbage dump in Srengseng Sawah, Kembangan where scavengers lived.

It was reported that a total of 215 makeshift houses at the landfill garbage dump where 529 scavengers lived were burned down by the municipal guards from the Kembangan district on May 27.

On orders from Kembangan district chief Sadoni, the guards were said to have also burned a total of 170 tons of plastic waste belonging to the scavengers. This, in effect, destroyed what little livelihood the scavengers had, as they make their money from plastic recycling.

"The report is not true. There was no arson. What actually happened was the scavengers, who are not Jakarta residents, were expelled from the area because it belongs to the state," said Sutardjianto.

The mayoralty, he said, would keep state land from being occupied by scavengers.

"Once we let them stay there for some time, it will be very difficult to drive them away. Thus, we are quick to move them away anytime they try to settle down," said the mayor.

He added the city administration had planned to convert the garbage dump into green area.

Cathy Lengkong, chairman of the Indonesian Scavengers Bond (IPI), earlier said the scavengers had lived in the area for years and had their property burned by the mayoralty's officers several times before the latest arson.

Like the mayor, Kembangan district chief Sadoni had repeatedly denied that it was an arson, saying the administration only demolished the scavengers' makeshift shanties. However, he did not say if their efforts to destroy scavenger housing were carried out by incineration.

Before the demolition, the district administration had earlier warned the scavengers that their huts would be pulled down on April 15, said Sadoni.

Social ills

Commenting on the same issue, Nyoman Djendria, chief of the Small-Scale Venture Supervision Body at the City Hall, noted that the existence of scavengers was not a problem exclusively faced by Jakarta.

"It's a national problem. None of them want to continue to be a scavengers. They simply could not find decent jobs due to financial problems and low educational levels," said Nyoman.

Nyoman said the expulsion of the scavengers from the capital would not solve the problem.

He said a record at the City Hall shows that at present there are some 9,000 scavengers in Jakarta. The IPI, however, said they were around 185,000.

Nyoman added his office had recently bought a Rp 20 million (US$9,315) machine to clean plastic waste for some groups of scavengers in the city, aiding them in their recycling efforts.

"If the scheme is successful, we will buy more of these machines," said Nyoman. (jsk)