“We have heard about the Supreme Court’s ruling, but we will not give up as we’ll file a case review against the ruling immediately,” Sandyawan Sumardi, one of the plaintiffs filing the class action suit, told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

The MA ruling came two years after 93 Bukit Diri residents won a class action suit against the Jakarta administration and the Ciliwung-Cisadane Flood Control Office (BWSCC). The verdict required both to provide compensation for the residents, whose homes along the banks of the Ciliwung River were demolished to make way for a waterway connecting the river to the Manggarai floodgate. The move was part of the city’s efforts to decrease flooding.

During the legal proceeding, both the administration and the BWSCC were adamant that they would not provide financial compensation because residents had failed to produce ownership certificates for the houses. Still, the court ruled in favor of the residents, obliging the city, the BWSCC and the National Land Agency (BPN) to pay Rp 200 million (US$14,285) to each of the 93 plaintiffs.

The administration accepted the ruling and promised to build residents a kampung susun (vertical kampung), which is still on hold because the city failed to secure land for the project.

The BWSCC, on the other hand, was dissatisfied with the result and filed an appeal to the Jakarta High Court in 2017 but was rejected a year later.

However, the decision did not deter the agency, as it decided to lodge another appeal to the MA in the hopes that it would annul both decisions.

The MA granted the appeal in 2019 after concluding that neither court had followed standard procedures in handling the class action suits, as stipulated in a 2002 MA regulation.

Meanwhile, some of the evictees are now living in the Rawa Bebek low-cost apartment in Cakung, East Jakarta, while others have scattered across the city.

“Of course we’re disappointed with the MA ruling,” Sandyawan said. “But at the moment, we can’t give any further comments regarding the ruling as we haven’t even received a formal copy of it.”

Vera Soemarwi, the lawyer for Bukit Duri residents, also declined to comment about the ruling because of the same reason.

However, the legal team vowed to continue its efforts to get the administration to concede that the eviction had violated government regulations, including a 2012 law on spatial planning and the 2014 presidential regulation about land procurement for public facilities.

“We haven’t decided on our next course of action because the ruling was published on the MA website in December. But money is not our main concern; we want the Jakarta administration and BWSCC to admit that the eviction had violated laws,” Vera said.

BWSCC head Bambang Hidayah said the agency would wait for the residents to file their case review before commenting. He emphasized that the MA appeal had not been an attempt to deny residents of their compensation, adding that the administration would comply and pay them if they could provide proof of their legal ownership of the
demolished houses.

The agency has also sought legal validation from judicial authorities to prove that the administration had complied with prevailing regulations in restoring the Ciliwung riverbank in Bukit Duri.

“If they [residents] were able to show their house certificates during the eviction, we would have compensated them,” Bambang said.

“We filed an appeal because the residents had [illegally] occupied the riverbanks, which have always been under the government’s supervision according to the law, and they were also unable to produce a certificate.”

As the MA has issued its ruling, Bambang said all avenues for the residents to obtain financial compensation were closed.

“The administration, automatically, will not pay them because of the MA ruling.” (glh)

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