December 11, 2024
JAKARTA – For more than one year the government has failed to relocate hundreds of residents of Rempang Island in Batam, Riau Islands, to make way for what is promised to be the world’s second-largest glass and solar panel manufacturing site, casting doubt on the timeline of a major foreign direct investment project.
The Jakarta Post visited several Rempang villages where manufacturing sites of Xinyi Group are supposed to be established, but instead of heavy machinery preparing the ground for industrial facilities, it found protest signs and barricades erected by residents who refuse to move.
“We live in a coastal area. The glass comes from silica sand, and that comes from the sea. So, when the sea is mined […] fishermen’s livelihoods will be ruined,” 47-year-old resident Maswedi told the Post on Thursday.
He added that he would stay put “no matter what,” as his family had been living there for six generations, long before Indonesia even declared independence, and he took offense at how the government made the deal without involving the locals.
The government announced the US$11.5 billion investment pledge from Hong Kong-based Xinyi during a visit by then-president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to China in July last year.
Bahlil Lahadalia, who served as investment minister at the time, told the Post last year that Xinyi had committed the funds to develop processing facilities for quartz sand, which Indonesia has in abundance. Ninety-five percent of the facility’s glass and solar panel output is slated for export, according to the minister.
The first stage of the development was to relocate the residents, and the government had promised Xinyi that construction could commence by the end of September 2023.
Protests then erupted against the planned evictions, some ending with violent police action and making international headlines for a brief time. Promising a softer approach, the government then waited for the relocation to proceed.
Read also: Government under fire for using excessive force in Rempang
As a result, construction could not begin in September, and the government has not provided any new deadline for when the land is to be cleared, notwithstanding Bahlil saying that “the government must be able to ensure certainty”.
Bahlil, a key proponent of the project, was reappointed as energy and mineral resources minister in August. He did not respond to the Post’s request to clarify whether he was still actively helping to move the project forward or had left it up entirely to the new investment minister.
Investment and Downstream Minister Rosan Roeslani on Nov. 29 declined to answer the Post’s question about the project.
Deputy Investment and Downstream Minister Todotua Pasaribu, when asked by the Post on Dec. 4 whether there had been any progress on the Rempang project, replied, “not yet”.
Susiwijono Moegiarso, the head of the Supervisory Board of the Batam Free Trade Zone Authority (BP Batam), told reporters at the House of Representatives on Dec. 2 that, “until today, God willing, Xinyi is still committed” to the investment.
Xinyi did not respond to the Post’s request for confirmation of that claim.
Susiwijono said the project was “progressing well” by pointing out that the relocation process was going “very conducively”, but admitted that the project was still in the eviction stage more than a year after that stage was meant to be completed.
Susiwijono said the government “can push” for the project’s first groundwork, “hopefully early next year”.
He pointed out that the target for this year was to build 350 houses for the families impacted by the relocation, most of whom would be relocated to Tanjung Banun, an area that is still on Rempang Island, located just some 10 kilometers from their original villages.
The Post saw under-construction houses in Tanjung Banun, and BP Batam claimed around 40 families had already moved there.
As it vowed a softer approach last year, the government promised the impacted families up to 500 square meters of land each and Rp 120 million (US$7,566), with which to build new homes.
It is unclear how many have received those funds, and the government is now providing new 45-sq m houses for the residents instead.
Read also: Govt promises to compensate Rempang locals for eviction
The government has also offered a monthly allowance of Rp 1.2 million per person to compensate for the waiting time as the new houses are being built.
Renny, who was among the first to leave when she moved into the new housing in Tanjung Banun two months ago, said the government had fulfilled all its promises.
Renny was among the locals who initially took to the streets over the project, but she ended up accepting the government’s offer after “a schism in the residents’ movement” made her reconsider the government’s offer.
She said on Thursday that the government had told those who chose to remain and resist that they would not receive any compensation and would be relocated anyway, hence her decision.
Before interviewing Renny, the Post found that residents who ultimately accepted the government’s offer were reluctant to speak to the press. One said he was afraid that talking might get him into trouble with those still fighting the eviction, some of whom he had considered as friends.
A protest sign on the outskirts of Sembulang, one of the villages to be evicted reads: “To those who have accepted relocation: You are strictly prohibited from coming back to Sembulang!!!”.
The protesters also put up road barriers in at least five locations that they claimed were manned around the clock. They told the Post that the barricades were installed to stop corporate surveyors and security forces from entering the villages.
Ishak, one of the leaders of an organized protest against the relocation, said he had sent a letter to President Prabowo Subianto requesting a complete cancellation of the Rempang eco-city project.
“But, until today, that letter has received no reply. Not even one representative from the central government, like a minister or a lawmaker, has visited us to listen to our aspirations,” said Ishak on Thursday.
Ishak’s organization claims 522 out of 684 households from five villages refused to move. The other 162 families had decided to go along with the relocation.
Contradicting that data, BP Batam spokesperson Ariastuty Sirait claimed on Friday that the eviction impacted 961 households, and only 219 refused to move and had even refused to listen to what the authority had to say.
Andry Satrio Nugroho, a researcher at the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef), told the Post on Monday that the Rempang project’s delayed land clearance sent a problematic message that “undeniably could raise concerns among future [potential] investors”.
Likewise, BP Batam’s Susiwijono said “other investors would look at [Rempang] as a gauge [for doing business in the country]”, which was why he “hoped” it would not be blighted by “any issues.”