Whatever The Reason, Anies Cannot Continue To Delay Payment Of Compensation For Petamburan Flats Residents

Governor of DKI Jakarta, Anies Baswedan. (Photo: Instagram @aniesbasewdan)

JAKARTA - Head of the Greater Jakarta Ombudsman Representative, Teguh Nugroho, regretted that the DKI Provincial Government had not paid compensation of Rp4.73 billion to the residents of the Petamburan Flats eviction victims.

In fact, there has been a court decision that sentenced the DKI Provincial Government to pay compensation. Residents initially sued the court in 2003. The final verdict was at the level of the Supreme Court Number 700/PK.pdt/2014 which was issued in 2014.

In 2019, DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan promised to pay. However, because the residents had moved from the flats, the DKI Provincial Government did not make payments.

Even if for whatever reason, according to Teguh, the DKI Provincial Government still has to pay compensation to the residents. Given that there is a decision that has permanent legal force. Anies could not delay any longer.

"The provincial government must make payments to residents. The protracted delay in carrying out this execution could hurt public confidence in the integrity of the DKI Provincial Government in carrying out court decisions that have permanent legal force," Teguh told VOI, Sunday, October 31.

Moreover, said Teguh, this compensation payment has caused further losses to residents. This is because the value of the compensation that has been demanded since 2003 has decreased too much when compared to this year.

"This protracted provision of compensation has caused further losses to residents due to the declining value of the compensation money. With an inflation rate per year, nominally Rp4.73 billion, its value has greatly decreased," explained Teguh.

Furthermore, Teguh views that his indifference to the obligation to comply with court decisions by the DKI Provincial Government has the potential to set a bad precedent for the community.

"They are worried that DKI residents will imitate the actions of the Provincial Government. When dealing with the DKI Provincial Government, they will also ignore the same thing," he said.

This case began when 473 families of RW 09 Petamburan sub-district, Central Jakarta was evicted in 1997 for the construction of a simple-owned flat (rusunami).

Unfortunately, at that time the DKI Provincial Government carried out unilateral land acquisition, and the construction of flats was delayed. The residents then sued the DKI Provincial Government to the Central Jakarta District Court and won the lawsuit on December 10, 2003.

The decision of the Central Jakarta District Court was upheld by the decision of the DKI High Court on December 23, 2004, and the decision of the Supreme Court (MA) on June 26, 2006. However, the DKI Provincial Government made a review which was later rejected by Supreme Court Decision Number 700/PK.pdt/2014.

In 2015, the DKI Provincial Government promised to include the compensation budget in the 2016 APBD. However, it has not been paid yet due to the PK legal action.

Anies once promised to comply with the Supreme Court's decision and pay compensation of Rp4.73 billion to residents on January 15, 2019. At that time, the DKI Jakarta DPRKP again held a data collection on the owners of Petamburan Flats and socialized the provision of compensation.

However, from the data collection and socialization, the DKI Provincial Government found that most of the residents who complained no longer resided there. This is the reason the DKI Provincial Government has not yet paid compensation to the residents of Petamburan Flats.

Until finally, 473 residents of Petamburan Flats reported Anies to the Ombudsman for the Greater Jakarta Representative on suspicion of maladministration because he had not paid compensation.