Law and Human Rights Ministry representatives visited the Tangerang Police station to withdraw its report against the Tangerang administration after the latter did the same on Thursday following a mediation meeting set up by the Home Ministry on the same day.

“I said earlier that this issue should be ended immediately. We don’t want this to lead to unnecessary polemic,” ministry spokesman Bambang Wiyono told reporters at the police station on Friday.

Tangerang workers begin to collect waste from ministry-owned properties, such as an immigration office and several prisons, after such services came to halt due to the dispute. There are currently four penitentiaries run by the ministry in the satellite city.

On Tuesday, the two sides filed the reports against each other in connection with the construction of two polytechnic campuses built on 181 hectares of ministry land.

The Tangerang administration previously demanded that the ministry not use all the land for the two campuses and spare some for public facilities. Arief said about 30 percent of the city’s open space was located on the said land and that the ministry’s campus buildings did not have permits.

In contrast, Yasonna argued that the ministry had followed all the necessary procedures and allowed the administration to use some of its land for its own purposes.

The public spat between the mayor and the minister saw the latter first lash out at Arief’s administration for its supposedly sluggish progress in the issuance of construction permits for 22-ha campuses.

The dispute continued when Arief later instructed his subordinates to cut off public amenities such as street lighting and waste collection at properties owned and run by the ministry in Tangerang, including immigration offices, prisons and housing complexes.

Arief said he refused to issue permits because it would violate the 2017 Law on spatial planning in Banten for the 2010-2030 period and the 2014 Regional Regulation on the protection of agricultural land for sustainability in the province.

The two institutions agreed Thursday to settle the dispute after a closed-door meeting led by Home Ministry secretary-general Hadi Prabowo. Arief, Banten Governor Wahidin Halim and Law and Human Rights Ministry secretary-general Bambang Rantam Sariwanto were also in attendance.

Hadi said the Law and Human Rights Ministry and the Tangerang administration had agreed to settle the issue by withdrawing their police reports. In addition, the administration agreed to resume services at the ministry’s facilities.

“The settlement process over land management will be facilitated by the Banten governor in the next three days. It will be discussed in the evaluation of the draft bylaws on spatial planning in Tangerang City,” Hadi told reporters after the meeting.

He further said that the dispute occurred as they had different viewpoints. He admitted that the Law and Human Rights Ministry had failed to use some of its land for public facilities. Therefore, the ministry, with the help of the Public Works and Housing Ministry and Finance Ministry, would arrange facilities for public use.

The ministry spokesman said separately that his side would examine the assets in question and its obligations.

“We probably forgot to carry out our obligations to the Tangerang administration,” Bambang told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

As for the building permits for the two polytechnics, Arief said the administration planned to discuss the matter with the provincial administration on Tuesday.

The 42-year-old governor expressed hope that the agreement would put an end to the tensions between his administration and the ministry.

“I haven’t spoken with [the minister], but I have sent him my best regards,” Arief said. (das)

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