Dofa Fasila & Ismira Lutfia – The Jakarta administration's threat to close the Greenpeace office on Monday fizzled after the environmental group asked for more time to move out of its building in Kemang, South Jakarta.
Widyo Dwiyono, head of the South Jakarta Building Control and Monitoring Office (P2B), said the Greenpeace representatives had explained that they were not extending their lease and planned to move to new offices.
"As a result, the governor has given them more time to move out," he said, adding that the deadline had been pushed to Friday. "Although all the administrative procedures are done as far as sealing off the building goes, they have until Friday before we actually do it."
The P2B served notice to Greenpeace last week that it was sealing off its office on Jalan Kemang Utara for zoning violations, arguing that the entire Kemang area was designated as a residential zone. However, supporters of the organization have questioned why only Greenpeace's office was targeted in the zoning crackdown.
Widyo said the P2B had also "taken note of 41 office buildings, 29 restaurants, seven cafes, 127 shops, four salons, nine garages, five schools and several clinics and pharmacies" in the area.
"So it's not just Greenpeace that we're targeting," he insisted. He declined to say whether the owners of those other buildings had been served notice or threatened with closure.
Nur Hidayati, the Greenpeace Indonesia head, said that while she welcomed the enforcement of zoning laws, she argued that there should not be any cherry-picking in such efforts.
"We support the P2B in turning Kemang back into a residential area, but only as long as it enforces the law consistently and isn't just picking on Greenpeace," she said. She added that while the P2B had assured her organization it also planned to seal off other buildings in the area, it had refused to say which ones.
Nur also confirmed that Greenpeace would be moving out of its Kemang office. "Our lease here runs until June 2012, so we were looking for a new place to move to anyway," she said.
"We'll decide by Friday when we can move, but we've asked the city to give us at least six months to find a new place, because it's not easy to have to move an office, what with finding the right location and preparing the funds to move everything."
The threat of closure is the government's latest legal swipe at Greenpeace. Last month, a Greenpeace UK forest campaigner was deported from Indonesia for reasons that were never made clear. Shortly before that, the Greenpeace UK director was denied entry into the country de spite arriving with a valid visa.