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embers of a community living by the Mokervaart River in the Rawa Buaya subdistrict of Cengkareng, West Jakarta, have complained about the city administration'€™s plan to demolish their houses to make way for the development of a road for the inspection and maintenance of the river.

According to a public advocate from the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI), Simon F. Tambunan, many of them had come to his office complaining that they had no other place to live if they were evicted.

'€œSome said that they didn'€™t have the financial means to move, while others just did not know where they would go,'€ he told The Jakarta Post recently.

Their concerns started last week when they received, out of the blue, a notification from the governor'€™s office about the planned eviction. Simon said that the locals had told him that even the subdistrict head did not know about the eviction.

However, after digging through recent news articles, Simon discovered that the West Jakarta mayor'€™s office had asked property developers to hand over their land next to the Mokervaart river to the city administration for social facilities such as parks, open spaces and infrastructure development.

He added that the developers claimed that the community members'€™ plots of land belonged to them, although no deal had been struck with the community members.

A number of locals representing more than 30 families demonstrated in front of Jakarta governor Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s transition office in Menteng, Central Jakarta, and City Hall on Friday.

Although the protestors did not meet with Jokowi or his deputy, Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama, they were welcomed by Ahok'€™s special staffer for law and public complaints, Kamilus Ellu, at City Hall. Simon said Kamilus had promised that the eviction would be canceled for the time being until the city administration figured out why the locals were not informed about the eviction earlier.

'€œThe people were extremely grateful for the postponement. However, we would also like to remind Jokowi that he is still the governor for the next two months and he must resolve such problems. People cannot be evicted without prior discussion or notice,'€ he said.

Simon said that the locals planned to meet with the West Jakarta mayor on Monday in order to discuss why he had not notified the people sooner about the river project.

Apart from the forced eviction, Simon said, the people wanted to meet Jokowi to ask him to advise Ahok on how to be a good governor, as the deputy would soon be taking Jokowi'€™s place, he said.

Although most of the Rawa Buaya people like Ahok, they want him to be more enthusiastic about making impromptu visits to local communities so that their voices can be heard.

'€œThere must be a dialogue between the administration and the local people. Of course, it would be ideal if the project was canceled. But if the project involves building important public facilities, then the administration should at least provide a solution before evicting locals. There are several options for the administration, such as providing financial compensation or low-cost apartments,'€ Simon said.

Recently, Ahok responded to such protests against forced evictions by explaining that the evictions were part of the city administration'€™s policy to clear the city of slum areas.

Furthermore, he assured locals that the administration would provide low-cost apartments for those whose houses were demolished. (fss)