IAW Reveals There is a Legal Path that Rempang Residents Can Take 

JAKARTA - Indonesian Audit Watch (IAW) encourages residents of Rempang to start maximizing various legal channels to fight for land and living space rights amid the polemics of the Rempang Eco-City project. This step is considered more effective than relying solely on demonstrations.

"The struggle must not stop on the road. The struggle must enter the administrative room, the Ombudsman's table, Komnas HAM, the Information Commission, the Financial Supervisory Agency, and the courts," said IAW Founding Secretary Iskandar Sitorus in a written statement, Thursday, July 2.

According to him, the Rempang issue shows that strategic investment projects are underway when agrarian issues, land status, spatial planning, and community protection have not been fully resolved.

Iskandar highlighted the findings of the Indonesian Ombudsman which found maladministration in the development of Rempang Eco-City, ranging from negligence, protracted delays, to procedural irregularities. The findings, he said, should be the basis for the public to take legal action against government policies.

Therefore, IAW maps at least 11 legal channels that citizens can use. These channels include administrative objections based on the Government Administration Law, lawsuits to the State Administrative Court (PTUN), resolution of land disputes, testing of relocation and compensation mechanisms, and reporting to the Ombudsman.

Then, the next step can be to make a complaint to Komnas HAM, public information disputes, environmental lawsuits, civil lawsuits, requests for audits to the Financial Audit Agency (BPK) to criminal reports if sufficient evidence is found.

"Rempang teaches that protests are necessary, but legal cases are much more decisive. Banners can arouse public attention, but objections, PTUN lawsuits, Ombudsman reports, Komnas HAM complaints, and audit requests can force the state to respond officially," he said.

Iskandar assessed that all of these paths should be taken simultaneously so that the government not only faces political pressure, but also has a legal obligation to account for every policy taken.

"In a state of law, the people should not just be spectators when their land and living space are decided in the name of investment. Justice is not enough to wait, but must be fought through the right legal path," he concluded.