The Jakarta Parks and Cemetery Agency revealed that they found nine empty graves in the Karet Bivak and Kawi-Kawi cemeteries yesterday which had been “booked” by citizens so they could be assured of a resting place in Jakarta after they died.
Reserving a grave ahead of time is actually illegal in the capital due to the very limited supply of land in Jakarta’s cemeteries. That, however, did not stop the city’s cemetery caretakers from accepting bribes to create fake empty graves in which to house the bribers after their death.
“If [graves] are booked ahead of time then the land would all be used up. Those who die first (before the bribers) won’t get their place,” said Djafar Muchlisin, head of the Jakarta Parks and Cemetery Agency, as quoted by Detik yesterday.
But this latest discovery seems to only dig at the surface of a long existing bribery scheme in Jakarta’s cemeteries.
Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama last week said he had received a report that 80 fake graves were found in one day. He fired the previous cemetery agency head, Ratna Diah Kurniati, last month in light of these revelations.
Some caretakers who claim to be aware of, but aren’t involved in, the grave scheme said that citizens pay anywhere from Rp 1.5 million to Rp 7.5 million to book their eternal resting place with certain caretakers and that the transactions were also facilitated by the provincial government’s civil servants.
No arrests have yet been made in relation to the bribery scheme.
