REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The modernization of Jakarta should not dehumanize and evict the poor people by force, M Fuad Nasar, an Islamic philanthropist, has said.
"It is not wrong if some people question, is Pancasila still being uphold as an ethical and moral foundation in development implementation," Nasar, a magister of the National Resilience Study Program of the Gajah Mada University (UGM), said here, recently.
He referred to the forced eviction of residents of Luar Batang and Pasar Ikan, North Jakarta, with some of the residents being moved to other areas and accommodated in low-cost apartments.
Previously, residents of Jatinegara in East Jakarta and Kalijodo in North Jakarta had also been evicted for violating the Jakarta administration's land special regulations.
"There were poor people being confronted, including old people, women and children. We are moved to see such an incident. Is there no other way, which is more civilized? Did the Jakarta government lose its mind that it took such repressive means and (evictions) by force?" he said.
"Has our local wisdom to prioritize consultation and a human approach towards our own people gone?" he said.
Evictions by force will unintentionally trigger radicalization in the community, he believed.
"Children witnessed their homes being destroyed by heavy equipment, their parents screamed. There were many soldiers and policemen. What do you think they have in their minds?" he added.
Such treatment towards the grassroots people would make them lost their trust in Pancasila, he said.
The capital city's development progress would not receive God Blessing because there are too many cries and teardrops of the evicted people, he remarked.
A dream to make Jakarta another Singapore through coastal area reclamation projects should not make the Indonesian people feel as if they were outsiders in their own country.
"Modernization should not cause effects of dehumanization and forced evictions of the poor," he said.
The authorities do not make comprehensive studies on the impact of the reclamation project on the loss of jobs of those evicted and on the environment, particularly maritime ecology, he noted.
"Evictions in slum areas will not automatically alleviate poverty, in fact it widens poverty and the social gap. This should be given serious attention in implementing development in the capital city in the future," Fuad Nasar, consultant at the Fatwa Center, said.
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