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Tangerang mayor and law minister involved in tit-for-tat in land dispute
The 42-year-old mayor has refused to back down, even after the minister, in a rare move, pressed criminal charges against him.
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Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H. Laoly (Antara/Wahyu Putro A.)
T
angerang Mayor Arief Wismansyah is in the spotlight after openly challenging Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly in one of the most detrimental land conflicts between regional and central authorities.
The 42-year-old mayor has refused to back down, even after the minister, in a rare move, pressed criminal charges against him.
The conflict centers on the construction of two polytechnics on a piece of land owned by Yasonna’s office in the satellite city.
The Tangerang administration has insisted that the ministry should not use all the land for the two campuses but spare some for public or social facilities. The ministry, meanwhile, retorted that it had already allowed the administration to use some of its 181-hectare plot of land for other purposes.
While inaugurating the polytechnics on July 9, the minister lashed out at the administration for dragging its feet in issuing construction permits for the 22-hectare campuses.
"The [ministry] should take care of the permits regarding [the polytechnics] because the mayor is not friendly toward the ministry,” Yasonna was quoted as saying by tempo.co.
Arief was apparently stung by the criticism and sent a letter to Yasonna to seek clarification of his statement.
