The city administration plans to relocate around a thousand Arastamar Theological College (STTIA) students from a beleaguered former West Jakarta municipality office in Grogol to a camp site in Cibubur in East Jakarta.
City secretary Muhayat said the temporary move to the camp site was the city's first option. A transfer to the transmigration subagency division office building in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, was the alternative, he added.
"We still have to discuss the relocation with the management of the Cibubur camping ground. We also have to request an extension from Sawerigading *for the students to temporarily stay in the Grogol office*," Muhayat said, referring to the Sawerigading Foundation which owns the Grogol premises.
Muhayat said he would ask his staff officer to lobby the Sawerigading Foundation to allow students access to electricity and water at the former office building until the students had all been relocated to Cibubur.
According to Muhayat, the decision was taken during a meeting with representatives from city authorities, including the Jakarta Police and the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office.
He said the meeting did not discuss the possibility of the students returning to their former campus in Kampung Pulo in East Jakarta because residents there have reportedly objected to the students' presence in the neighborhood.
"It's not an option, so we didn't discuss it," he said.
Since last year, most of the students have been staying at the Cibubur camp site while hundreds of other students have been occupying the Grogol building.
The students have been constantly relocating after they vacated their campus in Kampung Pulo following a clash between the students and area residents in July last year.
A.M. Gayo, a city official in charge of the relocation, said the city would not foot the expenses to stay at Cibubur as it previously had. He said the city had previously paid around Rp 700 million in rent from Aug. 6, 2008 to Oct. 15, 2009.
"They *college foundation* will pay the rental cost in Cibubur themselves," he said, adding that the city would only facilitate communication between the college and the camp site management.
Governor Fauzi Bowo has promised to address the students' accommodation problems, The students will soon have to vacate the Grogol building following the Supreme Court's ruling last week on a 2006 land dispute between the city and the Sawerigading Foundation that the city administration pay Rp 40 billion to the foundation for having used the land for 29 years.
On Monday, hundreds of STTIA students staged a rally in front of the City Hall. They used plastic pails in a theatrical performance highlighting their difficulty in getting access to clean water in the Grogol office.
They demanded a decent temporary place to stay before the college foundation begins construction of a new campus in Lippo Cikarang in West Java.
"We agree to stay in Cibubur for a short period. At least we can get clean water, despite living in tents. The facilities in Grogol are not acceptable to us as we have no access to water and electricity," said Mardiana, one of the students.
She said the students were forced to pay to use a public lavatory near the former office, which was neither practical nor affordable for them.
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