Andreas D. Arditya, Jakarta – A coalition of NGOs focusing on human rights and environmental protection filed a judicial review on Tuesday against a city bylaw on spatial planning at the Supreme Court.
The coalition, calling itself Koalisi Pulihkan Jakarta (Restore Jakarta Coalition), said on Tuesday that the bylaw, which will serve as a blueprint for all new developments in the city for the next two decades, contravened higher regulations, including laws on the environment, spatial planning and public information transparency.
Included in the coalition are the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta); the People's Coalition for Fisheries Justice (KIARA); the Indonesia Green Institute; the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL); and the local branch of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi). "The bylaw was drafted without any public participation," said LBH Jakarta's Edy Gurning, after the group filed the request for the judicial review with the Supreme Court in Central Jakarta.
Edy said that during the drafting of the bylaw, the public was denied the opportunity to give input. "Jakarta citizens were largely oblivious to the bylaw until it was deliberated last year. This is not how public information transparency works," he said.
The law on spatial planning and the law on public information access stipulate that each regional administration must provide easy access to spatial planning information for residents living in their jurisdictions.
Dyah Paramita of ICEL said the bylaw went against a ruling issued by the Constitutional Court. The bylaw, she said, contained a number of clauses mandating the reclamation of Jakarta's northern coastal region, a move that the coalition claimed was rendered unlawful by the court.
Later on Tuesday, Jakarta administration spokesman Cucu Ahmad Kurnia said they had no problem with the coalition's move. "It is the right of every citizen to protest and object," Cucu said. The spokesman, however, defended the bylaw, saying its drafting and approval was carried out in accordance with existing regulations.
"The administration drafted the bylaw with the City Council and all relevant parties," Cucu said. After failing to meet its December 2010 deadline, the council signed the 2011-2030 Spatial Planning Bylaw in August last year after intensive negotiations with the administration.
Activists had blasted the administration's draft process on spatial planning, criticizing the fact that the draft discussions had not involved the wider public and had failed to address a number of important issues.
The administration was criticized, for instance, for its lack of explanation regarding the population limit, set at 12.5 million, in the draft.
Experts and activists voiced their concerns that the population limit would lead to consequences regarding social pluralism, and the possible eviction of people from lower economic classes.
The bylaw is also seen as failing to consider the efforts on disaster mitigation and environmental protection, in that it does not refer to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency's (BNPD) Jakarta Disaster Map, which had previously determined that all areas in Jakarta were disaster-prone.
The bylaw also contains provisions that would allow South Jakarta to change its function as a water absorption zone into a business center.
Activists have warned that the massive projects mentioned in the bylaw, which include new dams and a giant sea wall off Jakarta's north coast, would spell almost certain ecological disaster for Jakarta.