TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Evictions necessary to fulfill my election promise, says Ahok
Change Size
A worker uses a backhoe to topple a building during the eviction of residents from Bukit Duri, South Jakarta, on Wednesday. The evictions will make way for the Jakarta administration to continue flood-mitigation efforts. (Antara/Muhammad Adimaja)
I
n response to criticism of his eviction policy, Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama has said the policy was a part of efforts to resolve annual flooding in the capital city, as he had promised during the 2012 gubernatorial election campaign.
“You elected me as deputy governor together with Pak Jokowi because you wanted me to mitigate the annual problem,” he told journalists at City Hall on Wednesday.
He stressed that one part of mitigating flooding was expanding rivers, including the Ciliwung River. Hundreds of people were evicted from their houses on the Ciliwung riverbank in Bukit Duri, South Jakarta, on Wednesday.
There was no physical resistance to the eviction in Bukit Duri as hundreds of joint security force members from the Jakarta Police, the military and Jakarta public order agency accompanied workers, who used backhoes to dismantle residents’ houses.
Sandyawan, founder of Sanggar Ciliwung Merdeka, an organization that advocates on behalf of residents, said his organization and residents would sue the administration for the eviction, which they considered illegal as legal processes were still underway.
Ahok claimed the eviction of residents living near the Pluit reservoir in North Jakarta to allow for the expansion of the reservoir and the eviction in Kampung Pulo to allow for the expansion of Ciliwung River had eased flooding in the capital.
Therefore, he expressed hopes that people would support his eviction of people living on the riverbanks and state-owned land. (bbn)
