A group of residents have been unrelenting in their protest over the proximity of extra-high voltage power lines (Sutet) to their property, despite the seemingly blinkered government response. The Jakarta Post's Abdul Khalik and Andi Haswidi look at the root causes of the problems that drove a group of villagers to embark on a hunger strike.
It is a warning commonly heard: Any electricity installment is safe, unless you touch it. But is it really safe to the about 400,000 people who actually live under it? Without enough research done to answer the question, the Indonesian government was quick to conclude there was nothing wrong with the residents who complained of health problems some time after the first phase of the construction of the 500,000 Volt (500 kV) Java-Bali extra-high voltage power grid was completed in 1989.
The protests began when residents realized the financial compensation for property affected by the project was not enough to buy land elsewhere. Not only had the value of their land plunged since the Sutet construction began, but there were no buyers.
"My land is valued at Rp 5,000 per square meter. Before the Sutet project, I could have gotten Rp 50,000 per sq m. Even at that price, no one wants to buy it," said one of the residents who is staying at the post on Jl. Diponegoro in Central Jakarta, where they have been holding their silent protest since December.
In June 2003, 30 people from Ciseeng village in Bogor regency embarked on a hunger strike. They demanded that state power company PLN provide land compensation at current market value. That year, the residents began to complain of illnesses resulting from exposure to electromagnetic fields, and reported a growing number of births of disabled children. The protest failed to attract the attention of the state.
Over a year later, in September 2004, thousands of residents affected by Sutet projects across West Java staged a rally in front of the State Palace, demanding that president Megawati Soekarnoputri find a solution to their problems.
Megawati established a special team to look into the problem, but until today nothing has been heard from the team.
In mid-2005, the protests gained momentum as people from Central Java and Yogyakarta joined the struggle.
In its defense, the power company insisted the matter was out of its hands. PLN vice president for transmission and distribution Herman Darnel Ibrahim said that policies on compensation were in the hands of the government.
In accordance with the 2002 Electricity Law, a 1992 Ministerial Decree on the construction of power grids before 1999 as well as a 1999 Ministerial Decree on construction after 1999, PLN is required to financially compensate the owners of property acquired for PLN purposes.
Although the Electricity Law clearly stipulates that PLN as a power distributor must financially compensate land owners, the 1992 decree does not require PLN to make any payments, while the 1999 decree states that the power company must pay 10 percent of the taxable value of the property affected by the project. The 1999 decree, however, allows residents to stay put if they should so wish.
"We have paid compensation for land, buildings and plants affected by the construction of Sutet towers before 1999 and we have also paid 10 percent of the taxable value of property affected by post-1999 projects. We have acted in accordance with the prevailing regulations," Herman said.
The Sutet grid is a network of long distance extra-high voltage transmission lines that carry bulk electricity to local utilities. It spans 2,700 kilometers from west to east Java and is 30 meters wide on average. Some people living below the lines or a short distance away from the towers claim to have suffered headaches, dizziness and fatigue. Others say their children's growth was stunted.
Noted legal expert from the University of Indonesia, Rudy Satrio, said the problem was more a political one. He suggested the House of Representatives, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry or President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono take over the problem from PLN.
"The longer the problem exists, the greater instability it will create in the future. The two ministerial decrees are no longer relevant in the current reform era, so they have to be changed as we should take into account the decreased value of land to accommodate the people's feelings of injustice," he said.
He said the government should have acquired all property around the power lines after compensating residents.
"Even though many scientists have said there is no proof that the people's health suffered as a result of living beneath high-voltage lines, the government should have deployed an independent scientific mission to check on their health complaints, to find out what really happened to them," Rudy said.