IAW Reveals 1,000 Ha State Lands In Jakarta Unrecorded Since The 1960s

Sudirman Thamrin area Jakarta (Between)

JAKARTA Jakarta is filled with multilevel buildings. Along Jalan Sudirman, the scenery is dominated by superblocks, premium shopping centers, five-star hotels, and embassy offices. But behind this splendor, there has been a problem with state assets that have never been resolved for decades.

Indonesian Audit Watch (IAW) said that around 1,000 hectares of state land, which is a 1962 Asian Games asset, disappeared from the state wealth list. The asset value is estimated at Rp1,000 1,500 trillion.

IAW Founder Secretary Iskandar Sitorus told reporters on Thursday, November 27, that the loss of this asset was related to a major project of the Soekarno era, when Indonesia was appointed to host the IV Asian Games.

"The project is not just the construction of sports facilities, but a symbol of the dignity of the young nation who is only 14 years old," he explained.

IAW data shows that there are 418 hectares of land in the Senayan area (Gelora Bung Karno), about 320 hectares in the Tebet' Pancoran area, and hundreds of other hectares in the Sudirman Corridor, Gatot Subroto, Slipi, to North Mandala.

All land acquisition, said Iskandar, was carried out based on Presidential Decree No. 113/1959, 114/1959, 239/1960, and Regulations for War Rulers (Peperpu) 0733, 1055, and 1139/1959.

The assets were purchased using USSR loan funds amounting to 125 million US dollars and Japanese war-pasing funds worth 223.39 million US dollars. The payment mechanism is carried out through Bank Sukapura, the forerunner of the bank owned by the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government. The status of the land juridical is State Property (BMN), which cannot be moved.

However, entering the 1962 period (1969), after the Asian Games were completed, all these assets were never included in the state inventory list. BPK in the 1964 '1970 audit noted that the BMN was not registered, was not verified, and its users did not specify it.

Iskandar said the emergence of the name of a CKH Major with the initials SL in the land management process at that time was one of the irregularities that needed to be explored.

In the late 1960s to 1990s, a number of names with the initials HL, JHL, NSM, L, and SH were named as new owners of some of the land. According to IAW, the land transfer pattern is suspected of exploiting the deviation of Peperpu's authority, which in fact does not provide a legal basis for selling BMN.

Minister of ATR/BPN Nusron Wahid previously also asked all land certificates for the 1961 '1997 period to be re-registered, because many documents were considered unclear.

IAW estimates that the value of lost assets is in the range of IDR 750 trillion as the lowest value, IDR 1,500 trillion as a realistic value, and up to IDR 15,000 trillion if it follows the current valuation.

To resolve this issue, IAW proposed a recovery step without litigation. Iskandar assessed that the government could consolidate the 1962 BMN Asian Games covering an area of about 1,000 hectares without the need for prolonged disputes.

"A sovereign country must have the courage to have what it really belongs to," said Iskandar.