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• The law says move or else…

The law says move or else…

The House of Representatives recently announced plans to amend a 1992 housing law that could punish squatters with a year in prison for refusing to relocate. Legal activists have criticized the plan, saying the new law would greatly harm already marginalized communities. They worry that local authorities will use the bill to withhold IDs or registration documents from people living in areas where demand for development is high.

 

Officials, however, say the rights of the poor cannot come at the expensive of progress. An editorial in the Jakarta Globe on December 8 called the new regulation “a positive step,” since it would allow the city to move forward with long-delayed infrastructure projects. Jakarta has many projects currently in the pipeline that would require people living in low-income areas to move, freeing up land for new roads or river dredging. But past attempts at relocation have often led to violence between public order police tasked with eviction and residents who refuse to leave.

 

If residents are provided with suitable alternative housing, relocation could greatly improve the lives of many of Jakarta’s low-income residents, say pro-poor activists. Short circuits in slum areas often lead to small fires that spread quickly thorough homes in dense neighborhoods. Floods also have a disproportionate impact on the poor since many squatter communities claim public land on the banks of rivers. The problem, say residents, is that the government has not yet offered them a better alternative, with low-cost housing often located far from areas where they work and with little access to goods and services.

 

For the middle and upper class, however, developers are launching a host of new residential projects. Last year, 2,500 condominiums were sold in Jakarta, according to an article in the South China Morning Post (http://interests.scmp.com/international-property/indonesia/foreign-investors-set-sights-on-jakarta), which noted that this year’s third-quarter sales have already surpassed that total.

 

A third-quarter market report from Cushman & Wakefield noted that worsening traffic jams will actually benefit condominium developers since condo living that is close to workplaces is increasingly seen as a solution to unsolvable gridlock. Despite all the confidence from foreign real estate developers, however, projects are not being completed with any urgency. Only one apartment tower was finished in 2009, and others have been put on hold due to red tape and land use disputes.

 

Source: www.thejakartaglobe.com