It’s not even officially campaign season yet for the Jakarta gubernatorial runoff election between incumbent pair Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama / Vice Governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat and rivals Anies Baswedan / Sandiaga Uno, but already (and expectedly) the political opponents are taking swipes at each other.
One issue that’s being widely covered by the media at the moment is Anies’ claim that the Jakarta Provincial Government allows for malls to be built on state-owned land, but doesn’t give the same privilege to lower class citizens who want to build homes.
“The Jakarta administration’s land is used by malls, state-owned land is used by malls, why is it that when lower class citizens want to use it, it becomes such a big deal?” Anies said last Saturday, as quoted by Kompas.
Anies was defending one of his signature campaign promises, a program which would allow Jakartans to build homes in the city with zero down payment – a program that the Indonesia Central Bank said would be illegal under existing financial laws.
But at the time, Anies did not specify which malls in Jakarta (of which there are, admittedly, too many) were actually built atop state land.
In his response to Anies’ claim, incumbent vice governor candidate Djarot urged Anies to present his proof.
“I don’t know, is the state-owned land in question used by Plaza Senayan? Maybe, I don’t know, but just show [the evidence]. During our term no mall was built on state land,” Djarot said on Tuesday.
Djarot might have called out some uncomfortable hypocrisy on Anies’ part by mentioning Plaza Senayan. The high-end South Jakarta mall is owned by various shareholders, reportedly including Anies’ political backer Titiek Soeharto, daughter of former President Soeharto and Gerindra Chairman Prabowo Subianto’s ex-wife.
Despite the burden of proof falling to Anies for making the claim in the first place, he has so far refused to say which malls were built on state land.
“Let’s play this out as a riddle. We don’t have to answer everything now, but I find it funny that [Djarot] doesn’t know. We’ll tell you later,” Anies told reporters yesterday before telling them that they should seek the answer from the City Council.
Meanwhile, Jakarta councilwoman Endah S Pardjoko of the Gerindra party, which is backing Anies, told JPNN that Plaza Senayan, along with Mal Taman Anggrek, were indeed built on state-owned land. In addition, Seasons City, Point Square, and Cilandak Town Square were all built on designated green zones. However, none of those malls were built during Ahok and Djarot’s term in office.
