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Pluit Putri residents protest construction of school in public park
Residents say that they have been using the contested plot of land as a green space and for social functions for years.
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Residents of Pluit Putri Residential Complex in Penjaringan, North Jakarta, put up banners protesting a plan to build a private school by city-owned developer Jakarta Utilitas Propertindo on a plot that residents say they have been using as open green space and for social functions for years. (JP/A. Muh. Ibnu Aqil)
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esidents of the Pluit Putri housing complex in Penjaringan, North Jakarta, are decrying a plan to build a private school on a plot of land in the area that has been considered green space, saying that they should have the right to use it as it has been part of the residential area since its establishment decades ago.
PT Jakarta Utilitas Propertindo (JUP), a subsidiary of city-owned developer Jakarta Propertindo (Jakpro), has planned to build a three-story building for the private Bina Tunas Bangsa (BTB) school on the 3,999-square-meter lot.
Residents staged a protest on Monday by padlocking the main gate to the plot and putting up posters that read “Residents of Pluit Putri residential complex reject the school construction and revitalization of the sports grounds”. Other posters alleged that Jakpro and the BTB private school were not transparent when developing the plot and that they were taking over a green space that the residents have used for social activities.
On Tuesday, the signs were still up and the main gate still padlocked. The inside of the plot has shown early construction preparations. Its older buildings have been reduced to rubble and trees inside have been felled.
Naning Hartadinata, a resident of Pluit Putri and head of neighborhood unit (RT) No. 3, said that she and her family moved into the complex in 1999. The complex itself had been around since the 1960s, including the plot under dispute.
“When my husband bought the house in the area by late 1990s, one of the considerations was that green space. If it suddenly changed without proper announcements to the residents to be commercialized by private parties, then it is very zhalim (cruel),” Naning told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
She said that her family, including her three children, regularly used the lot for socializing and as a playground and during the 2019 general election it was also the location of a polling booth for the locals.
