Jakarta – The Save Jakarta Bay Coalition, which was established by activists, students and fisherpeople, held an action in front of the Jakarta City Hall on Monday June 24 opposing the issuance of building permits (IMB) for land on reclamation project islets in North Jakarta.
University of Indonesia Student Executive Council (BEM) Study and Strategic Action Department head Elang ML believes that the decision to issue the IMBs was a step backwards on the part of Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan in fulfilling his campaign promise to end the reclamation project in the Jakarta Bay.
“The issuance of the IMBs is a step backward for the Jakarta governor in fulfilling his campaign promise to halt the reclamation”, said Elang in a press release on Monday.
Elang believes that the issuance of the IMBs for construction on reclaimed land is legally flawed because it does not fulfill the conditions set out under the law.
Elang said that Baswedan should demolish the structures on reclaimed land because they do not have IMBs as stipulated under Article 115 of Government Regulation Number 36/2005 on Building Construction.
Paragraph 1 of Article 115 states that the owners of these buildings shall halt construction temporarily until they obtain IMBs. Paragraph 2 of the article also states that building owners who do not have IMBs shall be sanctioned by being ordered to demolish the buildings.
Elang also appealed to Baswedan to reevaluate the Regional Plan for Spatial Planning (RTRW) for coastal areas in Jakarta and called on him to reevaluate Jakarta Gubernatorial Regulation Number 206/2016.
“The reevaluation should be aimed at reevaluating the congruence of the Jakarta coastal area zoning regime which is currently being drafted under the Jakarta provincial Draft Regional Regulation on Coastal Areas and Small Island Zoning”, he said.
In their demands the group stated that they reject the issuance of 932 IMBs for Islets C and D and called for Baswedan to cancel them.
In addition to this, Elang said that they are asking the Jakarta government under Baswedan’s leadership to be consistent in rejecting the Jakarta Bay reclamation project and to side with fisherpeople and the coastal environment. This, he continued, should also be supported by handing down administrative sanctions in the form of ordering developers to demolish the buildings.
“We urge the Jakarta provincial government to reevaluate the Jakarta RTRW and its derivative regulations. As well as bringing the RZWP-3-K which no longer includes the reclamation projects into line with the Jakarta provincial RTRW DKI and its derivative regulations”, said Elang.
Before holding the demonstration, the coalition held a “walking backwards” action from the Horse Statue on Jl Medan Merdeka Barat to the Jakarta City Hall located on Jl Medan Merdeka Selatan. They also brought posters will messages rejecting the IMBs for construction on reclaimed land and the against the Jakarta Bay reclamation project. (jps/ain)
Notes
One of Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan’s main campaign promises in the religiously charged and divisive 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election – which saw him defeat incumbent governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama following a series of mass rallies by hardline Islamic groups accusing him of blasphemy – was that he would stop the controversial and ecologically destructive land reclamation project in Jakarta Bay. Intended mainly for high-class commercial and residential property development on a series of artificial islets, the project was first drawn up 1995 but collapsed following the former president Suharto’s resignation and the financial crisis in 1995. Legal battles and criticisms that the project would be detrimental to the environment and Jakarta’s fishermen delayed its continuation until 2007 when governor Sutiyoso restarted the project and issued permits to some of the country’s largest property developers to build on the artificial islets. In October 2016, Purnama signed Gubernatorial Regulation 206 which served as a blueprint for development on four of the 17 planned artificial islets that had already been built.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was “Demo Reklamasi, Massa Pertanyakan Janji Visi Pesisir Anies”.]
