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Developers bite the bullet in Jakarta reclamation
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Stopped: Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Rizal Ramli (left) and Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti (right) walk toward the press conference room at the former’s office in Jakarta on Thursday. Rizal hosted a meeting regarding the reclamation project in Jakarta Bay on Thursday and the meeting decided to cancel the construction of islet G because of potential environmental damage. (Antara/Teresia Mav)
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evelopers of the Jakarta Bay reclamation project are repeatedly biting the bullet as an investigative team has imposed strict penalties on the tangled project, including permanently ceasing development of an islet.
“The joint team concluded that islet G has committed gross violations as it is being built above electricity wires in the sea and among ship lanes. We decided that the development of the islet has to be stopped,” said Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Rizal Ramli on Thursday, referring to an islet developed and marketed by PT Muara Wisesa Samudera, a subsidiary of PT Agung Podomoro Land.
Rizal announced the decisions after a meeting with the joint team, which consists of experts from the Office of the Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry, Environment and Forestry Ministry and Transportation Ministry, as well as the Jakarta administration.
In the meeting, he added, the team reported irregularities in the Jakarta Bay reclamation project, which has been halted amid a dispute regarding overlapping regulations.
The official classified the irregularities as gross, moderate and minor violations.
Classified as a gross violation, the development of islet G has been deemed a danger to the environment, strategic vital projects and ship traffic, as it is being built above submarine electricity wires and between ship lanes.
Aside from islet G, which had been offered to the market while having commenced construction, the joint team has also penalized islets C, D and N.
Islet C and D belong to PT Kapuk Naga Indah, a subsidiary company of Agung Sedayu, while Islet N is owned by state-owned port operator Pelabuhan Indonesia (Pelindo).
Development of the three islets were considered a moderate violation because they had undergone construction without following their initial design plans, as agreed to in Gubernatorial Regulation No. 121/2012 on the spatial management of reclamation the northern Jakarta coast, Rizal said.
Developers of islets C and D, which have been integrated as one big islet, are required to construct a canal to separate the two islets, as stipulated in the regulation with consideration that the canal functions as flood control, ship lane and sea current path.
“Islets C and D can still be developed but they have to reconstruct the islets as they were built without following the initial reclamation plan,” Rizal said, adding that to carry out the work, the developer might require hundreds of billions
of rupiah.
He, however, did not elaborate on the violations in the development of islet N, which is set to be a new port.
Asked whether the decisions will be stipulated in a particular legal form, Rizal said the government would consider its options once it finished the investigation, which is expected to be completed in the next three months.
The team still has tasks to complete, including evaluating the development plans of 13 other islets that have yet to be built, Rizal added.
Meanwhile, the Jakarta administration will not enforce the decisions on the existing projects, unless the decisions are stipulated in a regulation issued by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who holds the authority to impose the penalties, said Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama.
“I see the decisions as recommendations,” Ahok said, adding that Muara Wisesa may sue the government, as well as the administration, as it held permits to build islet G.
The reclamation project hit headlines after the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) arrested APL president director Ariesman Widjaja and Jakarta councillor Muhammad Sanusi in a bribery case related to the project in the Jakarta Bay in April.
Ariesman is allegedly to have bribed Sanusi, a politician from the Gerindra Party, with Rp 1 billion (US$76,000) to influence the drafting of bylaws related to the reclamation project.
The city administration plans to require developers to pay a 15 percent additional fee in the bylaws while developers have reportedly attempted to approach councillors to lower the fee.
Besides the arrest, the KPK has also banned Ahok’s expert staff Sunny Tanuwidjaja and Agung Sedayu chairman Sugianto “Aguan” Kusuma from traveling overseas in relation to the bribery case.
Meanwhile, the head of the spatial planning and environment bureau of the Jakarta administration, Vera Revina Sari, admitted on Thursday that the additional fee was decided without a legal basis.
Speaking in Ariesman’s hearing at the Jakarta Corruption Court, Vera said the additional fees, which had been received by the administration, had been approved by the governor.
“Most of [the fees] were used to build low-cost apartments,” Vera said responding to a question from KPK prosecutor Ali Fikri.
Vera said among the reclamation developers that had paid the fee was Muara Wisesa, a subsidiary of APL, and that the fee had been used to build a low-cost apartment in Daan Mogot, West Jakarta.
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