Paper presented to the International Conference on Homelessness, New Delhi 9-13 January 2006
Tjahjono Rahardjo
Post Graduate Programme on Environment and Urban Studies
Abstract
To promote economic growth and attract investments while maintaining political stability
The same approach was also applied in the management of cities. Many people had to give up their land and homes, often without any (or with very little) compensation, when the authorities declared that these were needed for “development” purposes, which in practice, however, meant that they were going to be used for more economically profitable purposes. As in the case of labour, any resistance was seen as disturbing the public order and were not tolerated. As a result many people were rendered literary homeless.
The fall of Suharto following the devastating financial crisis in 1997 brought about fundamental changes in Indonesian. On the one hand
This paper would like to see what influences the current changes have had on the housing situation of the poor. Furthermore, it would like to argue that the poor housing condition in
Keywords:
FORCED EVICTION: PAST AND PRESENT
The basic policy of General Suharto’s New Order government was to promote economic growth while maintaining political stability. Under this policy the rights of workers were suppressed for the sake of attracting investments, many of which were closely connected to the ruling elite. Strikes were outlawed and anyone who questioned this policy was dealt with severely (Budiman, 1993).
The same approach was also applied in the management of cities. Many people had to give up their land and homes, in most cases without any (or with very little) compensation, when the authorities declared that these lands were needed for “development” purposes, which in practice, however, meant that they were going to be used for more economically profitable purposes. As in the case of labour, any resistance was seen as disturbing the public order and were not tolerated. As a result many people were rendered literary homeless.
Following the Asian economic crisis, in which
Although since the demise of Suharto’s repressive regime
The Report of the International Fact Finding Mission on State Violence against the Poor in
Such cases are not just found in
The Urban Poor Consortium (UPC) (2005) has calculated that between 2000 and 2005 in Indonesian cities a total of 95,470 people, or about 19,000 households, have been evicted from their homes and rendered homeless. This figure does not include those who became homeless as a result of arm conflicts (such as the hostilities in Aceh and Papua), and natural disasters (such as the devastating tsunami that hit the northern part of
In January 2005, less than a month after the tsunami disaster in northern Sumatra, the Indonesia Infrastructure Summit was held in
At the summit the Indonesian government made it known that it needed investments to improve and develop its infrastructure amounting to a total of IDR 1,305,000,000,000,000[4]. To begin with, the Indonesian government invited investments for 91 projects having a total value of IDR 205,500,000,000,000. In return the Indonesian government promised to issue 14 new regulations to meet the needs of the investors.
One of the new regulations passed is the Peraturan Presiden (President Regulation) 36/2005 on land acquisition. The issuance of this regulation was immediately followed by widespread criticisms and protests. This regulation is seen as repressive and totalitarian as it makes it possible for the government to arbitrarily and forcefully expropriate land, now in the name of “public interest” instead of for the sake of “development” (www.walhi.or.id/kampanye/psda/050728_perprerstnh_kp/). It is seen as very much favouring large private investors at the expense of the people.
The new regulation, which is seen by many as being even harsher than an earlier regulation that it replaced that was enacted by the Suharto regime, states that compensations will be decided through negotiations mediated by a committee set up by the government. It states further, however, that if within 90 days no agreement has been reached the committee can arbitrarily set the amount of compensation.
Most of those against the new regulation see that the negotiation process itself is inherently unfair, as the committee’s status as a body formed by the government would naturally raise questions about its impartiality; it is suspected that it would be inclined to act more in the government’s interest instead of the people’s. With a government bureaucracy that is notoriously corrupt (Rahardjo, 2000) this would, in turn, mean that the interests of large, financially powerful private investors would prevail[5]. Meanwhile, the right of the other parties in the negotiations to be accompanied by a lawyer is not even clearly stated in the regulation (Gofar, 2005).
According to Chalid Muhammad, executive director of the Wahana Lingkungan Hidup Indonesia (WALHI), a leading Indonesian NGO as quoted in Kompas Daily (10 June 2005), the regulation will in effect legalise forced eviction; It would have the potentials of causing wide spread human rights abuse as it will make it much more easier for the government to forcefully evict people from their lands and homes. Even without the President Regulation eviction is already widely practiced in
HOMELESSNESS IN INDONESIA
The Report on strategies to combat homelessness (UNCHS, 2000) classifies the following
circumstances as being in the category of homelessness:
- Rough sleepers
- Pavement dwellers
- Occupants of shelters
- Occupants of institutions
- Occupants of unserviced housing
- Occupants of poorly constructed and insecure housing (vulnerable sites, precarious tenancy)
- Sharers
- Occupants of housing of unsuitable cost
- Occupants of mobile homes
- Occupants of refugee and other emergency camps
- Itinerant groups (nomads, gypsies)
The report, however, acknowledges that not all of these categories would be regarded as homelessness in all parts of the world. Though
Following the census grouping, only rough sleepers (category 1), pavement dwellers (category 2), occupants of insecure housing (in the sense of precarious tenancy) (category 6), occupants of refugee and emergency camps (category 10), and itinerant groups (category 11) of the above list would be regarded as being homeless in the Indonesian context.
For the purpose of this paper homeless people would be defined as adults (in contrast to street children) who are living permanently on the street, and those living in settlements categorised as “illegal”. This would include residents living in permukiman liar as well as the more obviously homeless tunawisma (rough sleepers as well as pavement dwellers). Occupants of refugees and emergency camps do exist in
While the street homeless live under bridges, in the shade of large trees, or in abandoned buildings, permukiman liars are located on riverbanks, along drainage canals, along railway tracks and in station yards, and near market places. The residents of permukiman liar settlements build their dwellings out of used non-durable material such as cardboard, plastic sheets, pieces of wood and scrap metal. In some cases, however, one can find some dwellings that have been reasonably up-graded.
The majority of people who actually live on the street, those who live under bridges, in the shade of large trees or under overhangs of buildings more or less share the same characteristics of those living in permukiman liar. Their dwellings might be less permanent, but they work in the same informal occupations such as rubbish collectors, itinerant vendors, becak (pedicab) drivers, construction workers and other unskilled occupation, although some street homeless do make their livings by begging.
Both squatters and street homeless people are often subject to raids. The more violent evictions usually happen to squatters because usually it involves the sensitive issue of land ownership. The occupants usually refuse to be removed on the ground that they have been living there long before the land had any commercial value.
The more peaceful raids towards street homeless people are carried out because they are thought to be creating a nuisance or - using an expression often used by city officials and planners - ‘disturb the attractiveness of the city’. The street homeless, unlike the squatters, usually do not resist. They see their displacement as temporary (such as when there is a visiting dignitary or a national day celebration). After things have returned to ‘normal’ they are usually allowed to come back again to their old places. For the residents of permukiman liar, however, it is impossible to return because their settlements have been taken over by other users.
THE RIGHT TO ADEQUATE HOUSING
The right to adequate housing is recognised in a number of international legal instruments. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), for example states that:
“Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control” (UDHR, article 25(1)).
The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Right (ICESCR) (1966), requires States to respect, protect and fulfil the contents of the following article:
“The States parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions. The State Parties will take appropriate steps to ensure the realization of this right, recognizing to this effect the essential importance of international co-cooperation based on free consent” (ICESCR, article 11(1)).
Other international human right instruments which enshrine and protect housing rights include the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1959), the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965), the International Convention on All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979), The Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), and the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (1990).
The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has identified certain aspects that must be taken into account to determine housing adequacy. They include (a) legal security of tenure, (b) availability of services, materials, facilities and infrastructure, (c) affordability, (d) habitability, (e) accessibility, (f) location, and (g) cultural adequacy.[8]
In Indonesia, Act 4/ 1992 on Housing and Settlement acknowledges the right of all citizens ‘to live in and/ or to have the use of and/ or to own an adequate house located in a healthy, safe, harmonious and orderly environment’. Furthermore, the Act defines adequate housing as ‘a house structure that, at least, meets building safety, minimum floor area and health requirements.’ A healthy, safe, harmonious and orderly environment is defined as an environment that ‘meets spatial planning, land-use, ownership and service provision requirements’. Thus, according to the Act there are basically two aspects of housing adequacy: physical and legal. This is a rather limited definition of housing adequacy compared to that spelled out in the CESCR General Comment No.4. Perhaps this is because the Indonesian government still sees housing only as a basic need, albeit a strategic one, and not yet as a human right. Housing is considered as a strategic basic need, because it is seen as an entry point for the fulfilment of other basic needs (Republik Indonesia, 1994).
In September 2005
HOUSING, THE KARTU TANDA PENDUDUK (KTP) AND EXLUSION OF THE POOR
All Indonesians above the age of seventeen should possess an identity card called the Kartu Tanda Penduduk (KTP) issued by their respective local authority. According to Yayasan Humana (2001) “A KTP is the sole defining element for both inclusion and identity”. Not having a KTP means that one is not officially registered as a citizen of ones city. Furthermore, it is a serious offence for which a person can to go to prison and be expelled from the city.
At a more private level, even to obtain a marriage certificate, for example, one needs to be in possession of a KTP. Those who do not have a KTP cannot legally marry and get a marriage certificate. Consequently, their children are not issued birth certificates, which will be a problem when they are about to enter school.
From a human rights point of view all kinds of national ID cards are problematic (Fussell, 2001). Not surprisingly, proposals to introduce national ID cards in the
The Indonesian KTP has its share of controversies. The better known one is the indication of religion as one of the item on the back of the card. There are only five religious categories: Islam, Katolik (Christian-Catholic), Protestan (Christian-Protestant), Hindu and Budha (Buddhist). As no other categories are possible this in effect discriminates other religious groups and those not having any religion[10]. Other forms of discrimination include the fact that until 1996 former members of the outlawed Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) had the letters “ET” for ex- tahanan politik (ex-political prisoner) stamped on their cards and that up to 1998 the category non-pribumi (non-native) as opposed to pribumi (native) appeared on KTPs held by Chinese Indonesians.
In October 2005 the Indonesian government stopped subsidising fuel. The subsidies on fuel have been seen as posing a too heavy burden to the state budget and, therefore, the government decided to end it. This has caused the costs of fuel (petrol, diesel fuel, kerosene) to rise by 87.5 percent to 187.5 percent. To assist poor families in coping with the rise of living costs the government devised the so-called bantuan tunai langsung (literary meaning“direct cash assistance”) scheme in the form of cash money amounting to IDR 100,000 per family/ month. This “well targeted subsidy” – to use a well known World Bank terminology - is seen as being more fair and effective in helping the poor compared to the indiscriminate fuel subsidies, which is seen as benefiting both the rich as well as the poor.
The registration of poor families and the distribution of the financial assistance, however, have not proceeded smoothly. There have been many complaints of people who are relatively well off receiving the assistance while the really poor, including those who are unemployed, ill or aged, have been passed over[11]. In any case, however, only those having KTPs are registered. Those who do not have KTPs – many of them residents of permukiman liars (illegal settlements) or tunawismas living under bridges, on sidewalks, in market places and in railway station yards - are automatically counted out.[12]
However, there is another, less obvious form of discrimination caused by the KTP system that is often overlooked: the inability of homeless people to access formal housing. To be able to obtain a KTP, which literary translates to ‘card indicating domicile’, on the one hand a person has to have an officially recognised address[13]. On the other hand, the homeless (whether they are squatters or tunawismas) do not have any official address. Therefore, they are not eligible for KTPs, are not registered as residents of the city where they live and do not appear in any official statistics. They are, in effect, caught in a vicious circle: having no officially recognised address they cannot obtain a KTP; having no KTP, they cannot gain access to formal housing (and, therefore, no formal address, which brings them back to square one).
They are also not organised into community and neighbourhood units (rukun warga and rukun tetangga)[14] in which every household (at least theoretically) should be a member of. Even if they are, their organisations do not enjoy official recognition. Thus, they are not able to gain access to urban services such as education, health care and, of course, housing, though the Indonesian government has launched many housing programmes for the urban poor such as the Kampung Improvement Project (KIP), the Community Based Housing Project and the Community Based Initiative for Local Development (CoBILD).
The Dutch colonial government under its Ethical Policy originally initiated kampung improvement. Called Kampong Verbetering in Dutch, it was implemented in the newly formed urban municipalities following the introduction of the Decentralisation Law at the beginning of the 20th century. The programme was triggered by the growing fear among the European population that the appalling health condition in the native settlements (kampungs) could pose a danger to their well being as well (Yodohusodo, 1991; Jellinek, 1995). It should be noted that, surprisingly, the colonial government never had any plans to remove those native settlements.
With the Japanese occupation and the ensuing struggle for independence this programme could not be continued, but in 1972 the Indonesian government with the support of the World Bank implemented its version of this programme in large and medium sized cities all over the country which was called the Kampung Improvement Project (KIP) [15]. This scheme, however, was only implemented in regular, legal settlements because there was a fear that improving illegal settlements could be seen as a de-facto recognition by the government.
The Community Based Housing initiative was introduced because the government realised that subsidised low-cost housing credit scheme has missed its intended target group and has instead benefited those who are economically better off. To support this initiative a special credit scheme was introduced. Instead of providing loans to individuals, this scheme, called the Triguna credit scheme, is aimed at community groups who otherwise (being informally employed individuals having no fixed incomes) would not be eligible for other types of housing loans.
The Community Based Housing initiative is based on a very simple concept. In practice, however, it was too complicated for the poor to handle. To apply for the Triguna loan which is manages by the government owned Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN), for instance, they had to prepare proposals. These proposals would have to include a large number of documents issued by different local government agencies as attachments. Besides being very time consuming, to obtain these documents more often than not entailed the paying of bribes; among the required documents were also copies of the KTPs of each community member.
Because of this complication, the Triguna scheme was only successful in a very small number of isolated places; it never became a viable and effective nationwide housing supply system for the urban poor as it was intended to be.
Recently, with the assistance of the UNDP the community-based housing concept was revived in twelve cities in
Initially, CoBILD was planned as a long-term revolving programme. In its first phase it was planned that about 10,000 households in 100 kampungs in twelve cities all over
A LOOK AT THE FUTURE
The ratification of the ICESCR by the Indonesian government is an important move towards ensuring that the people’s economic, social and cultural rights are recognised. As a state that has ratified the ICESCR,
The KTP system in its present form can be (and has been) used to justify forced eviction. Persons without KTPs are not considered as being legal residents, thus removing them from their homes is not seen as a serious issue. The KTP system has, in many cases, been used to deny people their civil rights, including the right to housing. The KTP, therefore, should be reformed and should only be a citizen registration instrument, not the all-important document associated with ones domicile status.
It is perhaps too optimistic to hope that forced eviction will be something of the past, given the long history of forced eviction in
On the contrary, recent developments - such as the issuance of the controversial Peraturan Presiden (Presidential Regulation) 36/2005 which has given forced eviction an even stronger legal basis – seem to point out that forced evictions will continue, probably at an even greater scale than what is taking place today. Together with the fact that Indonesia’s economy has not recovered from the 1997 crisis (which has forced a large number of people into poverty), those factors mentioned above can be seen as signs that we can expect more homeless Indonesians in the future.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I would like to thank my friend and colleague Benny D. Setianto for his help and support in the process of writing this paper. Besides supplying me with some important reference materials, he also shared with me his extensive knowledge of international law. I, however, take full responsibility for the contents of this paper.
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[1] One important difference, however, is perhaps the fact that today
[2] The mission, consisting of Won Soon Park (Executive Director, People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD), South Korea), Jesse Robredo (Mayor, Naga City, the Philippines), Soetandyo Wignjosoebroto (Professor, Airlangga University Surabaya, and Member, National Commission on Human Rights, Indonesia), Saparinah Sadli (Chairperson, National Commission on Violence against Women, Indonesia) and Melly G. Tan (Member, National Commission on Violence against Women, Indonesia) took place between 4-8 November 2001.
[3] In the years since 1976 many of the evicted people have moved to other parts of the city (and even to other towns) to make a living because as farmers they do not have any land to cultivate and any place to stay. A few who refused to move had to rent houses in neighbouring villages near their former home.
[4] The exchange rate in October 2005 was about USD 1.- = IDR 10,000.-.
[5] In February 2005 Transparency International Indonesia published its report on corruption in
[6] It was only in 2000 that the Majlis Bahasa Brunei Darussalam - Indonesia -Malaysia (The Brunei Darussalam - Indonesia -Malaysia Language Council) adopted the term ‘ketunawismaan’ as the official translation of ‘homelessness’ to be used in the three countries. However, the Indonesian language does not make a distinction between ‘home’ and ‘house’, thus ‘ketunawismaan’ can also mean ‘houselessness.’
[7] The 2000 census showed that
[8] Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No.4 (1991) UN Doc. E/1992/23, Annex III.
[9] Even more serious then the issue of government control and protection of privacy are the role played by group classification on ID cards in the genocidical crimes conducted in such diverse places and times as Germany under the Nazis and Rwanda in 1994 (Fussell, 2001).
[10] Between 1979 and 1998 the category Konghucu (Confucianism) was removed, which is one form of discrimination towards the ethnic Chinese.
[11] Some of the undeserving benefit receivers are relatives and acquaintances of village administrators or, ironically, those who have enough money to bribe them.
[12]
[13] The State Minister of Popular Housing Decision No. 06/KPTS/1994 aptly sums this up in the following statement: “…… without a home or a permanent place to stay it would be difficult for a person’s formal existence to be recognised (to have a KTP) ……” (“......tanpa rumah atau tempat bermukim yang tetap keberadaan seseorang secara formal sulit diakui (memiliki KTP)……”).
[14] These organisations are a legacy of the Japanese occupation (1942-1945) when they were used to organise the people in war efforts (Jellinek, 1995). In 1969 Ali Sadikin, the governor of
[15] The post-independence Kampung Improvement Project (KIP) is often referred by the World Bank as one of the more successful housing initiatives supported by the Bank.
[16] In view of
