As the developer of Pantai Kita (Our Beach, previously islet C) and Pantai Maju (Moving Forward Beach, previously islet D) had fulfilled its obligations, the Jakarta administration decided to issue construction permits (IMB) for buildings on the artificial islands.

“If all obligations [required] in the cooperation agreement have been fulfilled by the private party, the city administration cannot refuse to issue building permits,” Anies said in a written statement on Wednesday.

“From the legal perspective, the cooperation agreement is equivalent to a law for the parties concerned.”

Anies explained that the Jakarta administration signed a cooperation deal with a private developer in 1997 concerning land reclamation in Jakarta Bay. According to the deal, the private developer would receive 35 percent of the land use rights.

The agreement was updated on May 21, 2012, Aug. 11, 2017, and Oct. 2, 2017.

He said one of the obligations of the city administration, as required in the cooperation agreement, was to issue all necessary permits as long as the private developer fulfilled its obligations.

“All the fines and obligations have been fulfilled by the private party. Hence, in accordance with the cooperation agreement, the Jakarta administration is required to fulfill its obligation: to issue the building permits,” Anies said.

A total of 932 buildings on Pantai Kita and Pantai Maju have obtained building permits, which were deemed in accordance with Gubernatorial Regulation No. 206/2016 on urban development guidelines issued for islets C, D and E.

“As a regulator, the city administration has the right to change policies, including the 2016 gubernatorial regulation, but in accordance with spatial legal principles, a change in policies cannot be retroactive,” he said.

Anies defended his campaign promise — to stop the reclamation and to reserve the already reclaimed land for use by the public — by saying that the next governor elected could not arbitrarily continue the development of the reclaimed islets, as 13 of the planned islets — the permits of which have been revoked — were no longer included in the Jakarta mid-term regional development plan.

In addition, termination of the 13 islets would also be included in the revised spatial plan (RTRW) and the Jakarta Zoning Plan and Coastal Northern Territories (RZWP3K) draft bylaws.

“Those were legal steps taken to ensure that a governor in the future cannot arbitrarily carry out reclamation,” he said.

The city administration is still drafting the RTRW and the RZWP3K draft bylaws.

Responding to some critics who questioned whether Anies was a man of his word, the governor said that he could have demolished all the buildings built by the private developer for the sake of public praise.

“Politically, [such a measure] would be awesome, but if I do that what would be demolished is not just the buildings on the reclaimed islet, but also legal certainty,” he said.

Separately, former Jakarta governor Basuki “BTP” Tjahja Purnama, said that the 2016 gubernatorial regulation issued during his term could not be a legal basis for issuing building permits on the reclamation islets.

“If my gubernatorial decree could be used to issue IMB, I would have long before issued the IMB,” he said.

“The IMB on reclamation islets could not be issued at that time because there had yet to be bylaws [providing a legal basis],” he added.

The bylaws are the RZWP3K and the Jakarta north coastal strategic area spatial plan (RTKS). Both draft bylaws were retracted by the city administration in November 2017, explaining it wanted to review them thoroughly.

In addition, BTP said he deplored the revoked deliberations over the RTKS draft bylaw by the current city administration that would have included the obligation for private developers to pay a 15-percent contribution equal to the taxable value of property (NJOP) to the city administration.

In 2016, the discussion on a draft bylaw that would stipulate the contribution requirement led to the arrest of a former city councilor, Mohamad Sanusi, by the Corruption Eradication Commission.

Sanusi was sentenced by the Corruption Court in December 2016 to seven years in prison for accepting a bribe to change a clause in the draft bylaw, reducing the developer’s 15 percent contribution to only 5 percent.

“Now [according to Anies] my gubernatorial regulation can be [a legal basis] for issuing IMB on reclamation islets and the bylaws that require 15 percent contribution of NJOP from developers for the development of Jakarta are no longer needed,” BTP said in a text message on Wednesday.

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