Weak law enforcement unable to deal with illegal villas

Weak law enforcement unable to deal with illegal villas

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The dismantling of Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso's villa last
month will likely be the only action taken to remove hundreds of
illegal buildings in Puncak as authorities have given no hint
they will take any action in the near future.

Statements made by officials from the two administrations in
West Java -- Bogor and Cianjur -- showed that they are too
reluctant to crack down the villas, which are mostly owned by
generals, top officials and business figures from Jakarta.

Head of Tugu Utara village Jajat Sudrajat said the Bogor
administration had ordered that all villas in the village must be
reregistered, not demolished. Sutiyoso's illegal villa and many
others were built in the village.

"There will be no further demolitions. We demolished Pak
Sutiyoso's villa after we received a letter from his close aide
saying that he doesn't mind his villa being demolished," Jajat
told The Jakarta Post recently.

Thousands of villas were built in Puncak, mostly in three
subdistricts the Bogor regency -- Cisarua, Megamendung and Ciawi
-- and in two subdistricts in the Cianjur regency -- Pacet and
Sukaresmi.

Data from Bogor's public works office shows that in its three
subdistricts, there are 1,721 villas, at least 840 of which were
built illegally. The data also shows that there are 48,575 other
buildings in the areas.

Pacet subdistrict head Ade Sanoesi said around 40 percent of
the 1,107 villas in Pacet and Sukaresmi subdistricts were built
illegally.

The Rindu Alam restaurant was among the first building to be
built in breach of a presidential decree issued in 1963. The
restaurant, owned by former Siliwangi military commander Ibrahim
Adjie, was built in July 1980.

A reliable source said former president Soeharto once summoned
Ibrahim and told him to demolish the restaurant. He said that
Ibrahim asked the president to give him five years to do so, so
that he could regain the investment funds used to construct it.

The building is still there. Ibrahim used to deny that his
restaurant was illegal saying that he received a permit from the
Bogor administration, while the license to use the state land was
obtained from the public works office in West Java.

Adjacent to Rindu Alam there is also Atta'Awun Mosque built on
a 1.5 hectare plot of state land. Based on a document issued by
the state-owned plantation company PTP Nusantara VIII, the land
was authorized to the Bogor Administration.

Bogor administration secretary Yuyun Muslihat said it
preferred to use persuasive approaches in attempts to get
building owners to voluntarily demolish their illegal buildings.

"Law enforcement is needed but it is not the first priority.
It will be applied after the persuasive approach fails to resolve
the problems," said Yuyun without further explanation.

The Bogor administration demolished dozens of houses in the
mid 1990s, but local people say that many had been rebuilt.

"I knew that the villa was demolished several years ago, but I
do not know why the owner was allowed to rebuild again," said
Abidin, a local resident, referring to a villa located some 200
meters from Sutiyoso's villa in Tugu Utara district.

A lack of seriousness in the Bogor administration's efforts to
deal with illegal villas could set a bad precedent in future
attempts to halt the illegal constructions. It also encourages
people to steal state land, as has been occurring in several
villages in Cisarua.

Around 400 hectares of state land, formerly cultivated by
state-owned plantation company PTP Nusantara VIII, has been
occupied by the people. Such land occupations have been taking
place since the early 1990s.

Most of the land had since been sold to rich people from
Jakarta.

PTP Nusantara VIII field leader Ace Sulaeman said that
initially the land was only planted with vegetables. But now many
villas were built on the land even though the owners knew that it
was illegal.

Owners could obtain evidence that they had paid taxes (SPTT)
for the properties and may expect that in the future they could
obtain title deeds for the villas or lands.

Newly-built villas or those under construction on state lands,
can be seen in several villages in Cidokom, Kopo, Sukagalih, all
water catchment areas for the Ciliwung river.

Weak law enforcement against the villa owners has encouraged
other people to follow suit. It is bad news for efforts to make
Puncak an environmental buffer zone for Jakarta.