T

he dispute between the Jakarta administration and residents of Kampung Akuarium, Penjaringan, North Jakarta, officially ended on Tuesday after residents withdrew their lawsuit.

The residents, who filed the lawsuit against former Jakarta governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama’s administration in October 2016, decided to end the legal process on the grounds that Governor Anies Baswedan had shown his commitment to rebuild the kampung.

This commitment had been ratified in Jakarta Gubernatorial Decree No. 878/2018 on the task force on kampung management that was issued by Anies on May 21, the residents said.

The decree is part of Anies’ campaign promise to manage the city’s slum areas by involving the residents.

Twenty-one kampung are mentioned in the decree, including Kampung Akuarium in North Jakarta and Kampung Kunir in West Jakarta, whose residents were evicted, and North Jakarta’s Kampung Lodan and Kampung Tongkol, which were under a clearance threat issued by Ahok’s administration.

On Tuesday, a panel of judges, led by Taryan Setiawan, granted the residents’ request to cancel the lawsuit.

“We’re happy with the residents’ decision. The case has been peacefully settled. A peaceful settlement is the best decision as the case involves the residents,” Taryan said at the hearing.

Dharma Diani, a representative of the residents, said the administration had shown good faith when it erected temporary shelters, reactivated residents’ IDs and formed a neighborhood unit (RT) in the village.

After residents were evicted in 2016, the then-administration deactivated their IDs and suspended three RT administrative units in the area, moves that hindered them from getting access to public services.

In late 2017, after Anies took office, the Penjaringan administration formed one RT in Kampung Akuarium with 93 families registered as residents.

“The governor has fulfilled our requests and the related agencies have responded to our aspirations. Therefore, we withdrew the lawsuit to avoid conflicting decisions in the future,” Dharma told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Dharma added that the residents were hopeful that Anies would stick to his promise to rebuild the area because the administration had implemented a Community Action Plan (CAP), a program where residents and the city administration worked together to design future residential areas.

Anies said Kampung Akuarium would be developed in 2019.

Resident Teddy Kusnendi said legal proceedings would not bring any benefits to residents because the administration had fulfilled their demands.

“We don’t want to constantly fight with the administration.”

Nelson Simamora, a lawyer with the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta), said the administration had shown its commitment to involve residents in the CAP program.

The technical planning head of Jakarta Public Housing and People’s Settlements, Kelik Indriyanto, said according to some legal documents the land inhabited by Kampung Akuarium residents was owned by the
administration.

The previous administration evicted the residents based on those documents, he added.

However, based on the current governor’s decision, the agency would develop the area through the CAP program, Kelik said.