Poor Displaced by Jakarta Beautification Drive

Lamanda(Michelle) Reid/March 15,08/5:56p.m./poverty and inequality
The Poor displaced by Jakarta beautification drive was published March 7, 2008 by Peter Gelling in the International Herald Tribune. Jakarta is the capital and largest city in Indonesia. It is currently going through a beautification drive set in motion by Governor Fauzi Bowo. The plan is to expand Jakarta’s open green space from 9.6 percent of the city to 13.9 percent by 2010. This process seems like a good idea, except for the people being displaced by this plan. Recently many markets have been destroyed, with no warning to those whom depend on them. The government just comes in and demolishes everything and then burns the rubble. The market was full of shacks, shops, trash, and mud. Over a dozen more market demolitions are planned and are going to be replaced with upscale shopping centers. These markets are estimated to only be affordable to approximately 500,000 of Jakarta’s 14 million people. The governments reasoning behind destroying the markets is, the tenants have no legal right to the land because they have no land titles.
The owners of the different market shops weren’t even given a chance to collect their belongings. They just awoke to their shops being destroyed along with the things that they left there. They weren’t given a chance to speak their peace and work out some kind of alternate plan. This is a true inequality for the poor people of Jakarta. They were already living in poverty and barely surviving, but now they have no way of bringing in an income. As usual the wealthy are unaffected and the poor have to suffer the consequences. This plan is expected to raise poverty levels in the city.