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.