Lenny Tristia Tambun – Jakarta Deputy Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama has denied allegations made by a non-government organization that he labelled residents living alongside the Pluit dam as communists.
"I did not scold them and I certainly did not call them communists," Basuki said on Friday.
Basuki recently said that during a visit from an NGO, the organization had demanded the city give land to people living near the dam, which burst in January causing heavy flooding in the area. But Basuki said the city administration could not give away the land because it belonged to the state.
"The organization said people had the right to get the land and I told them that if they were behaving like communists, they might as well take over the city hall and the national monument," he explained.
Basuki said he was not afraid of the NGO's threats to file a report to the court, calling their demands to get the land as unconstitutional.
The deputy governor added that he would not apologize to Pluit residents because the communist remark was not directed at them, adding that the city administration had already allocated a big budget to help the flood victims in the area. "Why should I apologize? I did not call Pluit residents communists," he said.
Basuki, who denied to name the NGO that threatened him, said that the organization was just trying to stir problems between him and Pluit residents.
Jakarta officials have been trying to get the people who live around the overflowing Pluit polder to move into subsidized low-cost apartments, with the city administration offering to move the residents to the Marunda tenement blocks in North Jakarta.
For the initial phase, the administration will move 240 households to the apartments. But through Wednesday, only 67 households, or 234 people, had taken up the offer. There are about 7,000 households, or 17,000 people, who live around the polder.
The city has provided household items, including TV sets, tables and chairs, two mattresses, pillows and bedsheets, refrigerators, gas stoves and canisters, glasses and plates, bathroom necessities, rice and vegetables, for each apartment.
To ease the flood victims' burden, the administration has promised to waive rent and electricity charges for the first month of their occupation. After that, each family will be charged just Rp 371,000 ($38.16) a month for rent and Rp 200,000 a month for electricity.
Several tenement blocks in North Jakarta, such as in Marunda and Muara Baru, are ready for use. Each tenement consists of 200 apartments. The city administration is planning to increase the number of such apartments next year.