Heavy machinery carries out reclamation work on Tuesday in a coastal area in North Jakarta. The Jakarta administration has insisted that a reclamation project of 17 man-made islets is legal according to existing regulations, amid a bribery case being handled by the Corruption Eradication Commission on the deliberation of draft bylaws on reclamation.(Antara/Wahyu Putro)

Investigators from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Thursday questioned Jakarta Financial and Asset Management Agency head Heru Budi Hartono as a witness in relation to a corruption case surrounding the deliberation of two bylaws on reclamation.

Heru has been named by Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama as his deputy candidate in the lead-up to the 2017 gubernatorial election, in which the governor will run as an independent.

“[Heru] will be questioned as a witness regarding alleged gifts and promises relating to the deliberation of draft bylaws,” KPK spokesman Priharsa Nugraha said in Jakarta on Thursday.

Last week, KPK investigators arrested Mohamad Sanusi, chairman of the Jakarta City Council’s Commission D overseeing development affairs, for allegedly accepting a bribe from an official of PT Agung Podomoro Land (APL).

The KPK has named three suspects in the case, including APL president director Ariesman Widjaja and another company official.

The bribes allegedly related to the ongoing deliberation of two draft bylaws on zoning for coastal areas and small islands and the revision of a bylaw on reclamation implementation and Jakarta’s Northern Coastal Spatial Plan.

The crucial article mentions a requirement for developers to put aside a certain percentage of reclaimed land for the city administration.

Ahok said a draft bylaw submitted by the city administration stipulated that the requirement was 15 percent of the reclaimed land. Reportedly, developers had lobbied the council to reduce the requirement to 5 percent.

Priharsa said that Heru, a former mayor of North Jakarta, would be questioned as a witness for Ariesman. The KPK will also question other officials from the city administration and private companies.

Ahok suggested that the questioning of Heru could be part of the KPK's inquiries to confirm whether officials from the Jakarta administration were involved in the corruption case. The governor also expressed his readiness to testify if the KPK needed information from him.

Ahok said he had given clear instructions to his subordinates in connection with the draft bylaws, and therefore the relevant officials had adequate information to provide to the KPK. But if the KPK still wanted to seek information from him directly, Ahok said, he would be summoned.

“If the KPK wants to crosscheck the answers [of my subordinates], they will summon me,” he added. (bbn)

One of 17: A worker stands on a man-made islet, called Islet D and built by PT Kapuk Naga Indah, a subsidiary of developer PT Agung Sedayu. The islet, an extension of gated community Pantai Indah Kapuk, is marketed as Golf Island by the developer and housing for upper income bracket will be built there.(JP/DMR)

Land reclamation in North Jakarta has picked up pace under the leadership of Jakarta Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama with construction permits for at least four more man-made islets issued in addition to one granted under former governor Fauzi Bowo. Unlike government-led reclamation in Singapore, Japan and the Netherlands, the project in Jakarta is mostly a private matter and few people know the details of the project or what benefits they stand to get from the islets. The Jakarta Post's Corry Elyda, Dewanti A. Wardhani and Evi Mariani take a closer look at North Jakarta's reclamation project.

With a combined 5,155 hectares of new land ' about half the area of Bogor city ' the project of 17 manmade islets is the biggest reclamation in the history of Jakarta ' and so far the most controversial. Initiated during the New Order regime in 1995, the plan had been on and off, jeopardized by an economic crisis in 1997, supported and criticized and taken to court in the past 20 years.

After lying dormant for more than a decade, it got a new lease of life under Fauzi Bowo's administration, which included the 17 islets in the giant project now called the National Capital Integrated Coastal Development (NCICD), better known as the giant sea wall that will close
Jakarta Bay. This year, however, the 17 islet reclamation project has been formally separated from the NCICD and the Jakarta administration has taken over the whole organization of the reclamation, leaving behind the national government and the NCICD.

In 2010, Fauzi issued the first construction permit for PT Kapuk Naga Indah (KNI), a subsidiary of Agung Sedayu Group, to build Islet D, which has been marketed as Golf Island, an extension of gated community Pantai Indah Kapuk connected with the city by a bridge of about 300 meters.

Golf Island is to become a residential area for upper-income residents, at least if property prices are any indication. According to a price list obtained by the Post in October last year, a 90-square-meter house on a 128-sqm plot of land on Golf Island is tagged at Rp 3.77 billion (US$278,000), which is at about Rp 30 million per sqm.

According to Google Earth's history of satellite imaging, the island started to appear as a dot in September 2012 and was completed by March 2015. The whole process is strictly private, and the public, including fisherman living nearby, have never been informed about it.

Also according to Google Earth imaging on March 17, 2015, there was an island next to Golf Island, Islet C, marketed as Riverwalk Island by KNI. Islet C was planned and constructed by the same developer as Islet D, and work was carried out in much the same manner, with very few people knowing about the project. The Post has attempted to obtain a copy of the construction permit of Islet C from city officials for months, but to no avail. Numerous attempts by the Post to contact KNI have gone unanswered.

What little the public knows about the reclamation of 17 islets, it knows from publicly listed developer Agung Podomoro Land (APL), which has been building Islet G, marketed as Pluit City. On Dec. 23, 2014, Ahok issued a construction permit for Islet G, about a month after he was installed as governor. It was the first construction permit for islets Ahok issued and last year he issued another three: Islet F for city-owned PT Jakarta Propertindo and Islet I for PT Jaladri Eka Pakci on Oct. 22 and Islet K for PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol on Nov. 17.

The Post has been unable to establish whether the construction permit for Islet C, which is half built, was issued by Ahok or by Fauzi.

In total nine companies, seven of them developers, are involved in the project.

The recently installed Deputy Governor for spatial planning and environment, Oswar Muadzin Mungkasa, said the man-made islets were planned to be an independent element that would not burden the mainland.

Urban experts, however, have raised questions as to whether the planning was independent or disconnected from the mainland, and whether not becoming a burden also means not offering any benefits to Jakarta as a whole.

Suryono Herlambang, urban planning expert at Tarumanagara University, said the developers might plan to build some beautiful public space for 'waterfront city' as stipulated in the bylaw draft on northern coastal zoning. 'But Ancol beach is also beautiful. The question is, will they guarantee that it will be open to the public?' Herlambang asked. To enter Ancol, an individual has to pay Rp 25,000 at the gate and an additional Rp 15,000 for a motorcycle and Rp 20,000 for a car. By contrast, he said, Losari Beach in Makassar in South Sulawesi did not charge visitors.

Agung Podomoro Land's President Director Ariesman Widjaja told the Post that the public would be welcome to Pluit City. 'Everyone is welcome, but of course there will be some rules,' he said.

Herlambang said there was nothing wrong with reclamation itself, but the question people should ask was whether it gives any benefits to Jakarta in general. 'Singapore did it because it wanted to focus on the mainland for housing and allocated the reclaimed land for recreational purposes. If Jakarta wants to build more land, it should have reduced the burden of development on the mainland, but that is not happening. I saw the bylaw on the detailed spatial planning and the administration planned to increase the density in the mainland as well.'

The bylaw draft on the reclamation zoning stipulates that the islands would be divided into three areas: the West Zone, consisting of islets A through H, used mainly for housing, the Central Zone, islets I through M, will be a commercial area, and the East Zone, with islets N through Q, will be for logistics and seaports and airports.

Ahok said the city administration had asked the developers to give 5 percent of their respective islet to the administration.

Oswar said the islets would be 30 percent green areas and there would be housing for low-income people. He said for Golf Island, the city administration planned to build low-cost rental apartments for workers supporting the community there.

The head of the Indonesian Association of Regional and Urban Planners (IAP), Bernardus Djonoputro, said such large-scale reclamation should have been done by the government and followed the principles stipulated in the 2007 spatial planning law. The law says that planning has to follow several principles including openness, integrated planning, togetherness, partnership and justice.

From what the public could see so far, however, the planning seemed to promote exclusive and gated community living, Bernardus said. 'If the city administration does not get involved with the planning of the islets, the administration would only become the guardians of the gated communities. The administration has to plan for living space that is inclusive,' he said.

'If it is only a massive, giant gated community, it will show that Jakarta has conducted a mediocre planning process, it doesn't demonstrate any world class manner and the project is nothing we can be proud of,' Bernardus said.

The sun was scorching over the coast of North Jakarta as Siti Haminah sat in front of her shack, her toddler in her arms. The silence was broken only occasionally by the sound of a kracking clamshell as a fisherman passed by.

'We've heard the bad news. Most of the fishermen here don't want to move to the Thousand Islands,' Siti, a clam peeler and fisherman's wife, told The Jakarta Post recently at her home, which sits less than 100 meters from the shore.

She has lived in Muara Angke since childhood and considers the coastal district her home. Moving to the island regency would be tough, she said, as she and her family would have to spend hours a day shuttling to and from the mainland to sell their catch.

The Jakarta administration recently announced it was considering evicting fisherfolk from the coasts of North Jakarta and rehousing them in soon-to-be-built low-cost apartments (rusunawa) in the Thousands Islands.

Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama insists that fishermen would obtain better hauls in the regency, where the seafood is healthier. 'That way, no one will eat clams from Muara Angke that have been contaminated by heavy metals, which can be fatal,' Ahok said recently.

The governor said the city administration would build a subsidized apartment complex for the fishermen, as well as providing free ferry travel to the mainland.

Located 45 kilometers off the Jakarta coast, the Thousand Islands boasts a unique sea ecosystem, offering visitors beach accommodation and marine activities like diving and snorkeling. Infrastructure for residents is limited, however, with erratic power supply and scarce banking, public transportation and trade facilities.

Jakarta Housing and Government Buildings Agency head Ika Lestari Aji said that the administration was completing required documents, including an environmental impact analysis (Amdal), before commencing development on the fishermen's rusunawa.

She explained that the apartment would be built and funded by city-owned developer PT Jakarta Propertindo (Jakpro) and private developer Agung Podomoro Land as part of the latter's obligations, and would have 12 towers containing a total 680 apartments.

'We hope to begin construction in the first half of this year at the latest,' Ika told The Jakarta Post after a meeting at City Hall recently.

However, fishermen and their families fear that adjusting to a new life on the islands is not as simple as getting subsidized housing and free travel to the mainland.

Zaenal, a fisherman in his 20s, said life would be tougher in the Thousand Islands, where the deeper sea makes it harder to catch fish or clams with tools as basic as those used by many Muara Angke fishermen.

'Not to mention the fact that there are already other fishermen there. Competition would be tough,' he added.

The Indonesian Traditional Fishermen's Association (KNTI) advisory board head Riza Damanik described moving fishermen from North Jakarta to the Thousand Islands as 'the worst idea the city administration has ever had'.

The administration, Riza said, had failed to address the inability of the island's scant sources of energy to accommodate hundreds or even thousands of newcomers.

Shortages of electricity and water in the regency are a major problem for both residents and the local tourist industry. The electricity supply relies heavily on diesel plants, because there is no external power supply to the islands.

'Electricity needs will increase substantially. The quality of the water there is also very bad,' he said.

Riza also warned that a major influx of people would harm the regency's image and appeal as a tourist destination.