When a Historic School Altered into a Mall

Unfortunately, the historic school of SMA 4 Pematang Siantar will be altered into a mall and shopping center by the oppressive city government of Pematang Siantar under the command of the city’s mayor, RE Siahaan.

Three-day fierce protest confronting the school’s students, committee, and alumni against the local policemen was inexorable. When they were allowed to enter the school, no school’s resources were available at the school no more.

The school’s students and teachers do not want to move to the new temporary buildings. Consequently, the school’s headmaster and 10 teachers were transferred to remote areas by the city government. Worse, after three weeks of fierce protest, there is no real action from the central government.

I tried to make an investigation over the fraud land swap deal through the Google. This time, I want to let you know a brief chronology of the land swap carried out by the city government of Pematang Siantar and a private institution namely Detis Sari Indah (DSI) Limited.

Dated back to December 20, 2009, Hermanto, the commissioner of Detis Sari Indah (DSI) Ltd., sent a letter number 14/DSI-05 to the city government of Pematang Siantar. The letter is a proposal of land swap deal between DSI Ltd. and the city government.

The letter got response from the city government that later on issued a letter number 050/4353/VI/2006 addressed to the city’s Teaching and Education Department and the school’s committee about the continuation of teaching and learning activities at the school.

The DSI Ltd. viewed that response was not enough and clear. DSI Ltd. then posted another letter number 15/DSI-06 to the city government. The second letter asked more clear action and response from the city government about the proposal of land swap deal, in which DSI Ltd. will use the the school’s land as a hotel, shopping center, and a mall.

The proposal got ‘amen’ from the city government later on. The city’s House of Representative issued a letter number 425/4D55/DPRD/IV/2007 on April 17, 2007.

Through the letter, it means that DSI Ltd. is allowed to use the school’s land for a hotel, shopping center, and a mall as long as the DSI Ltd. is capable of paying IDR 34,956,967,000 (353,128 US$) to the city government.

The letter alone was issued without any approval from the President of Republic of Indonesia. Likewise, the procedure of such a lad swap deal has actually breached the mechanism that has been set as such by the Ministry of Treasury of Republic of Indonesia.

According to the state and legal mechanism of land swap deal, the proposal of land swap deal should not come out of initiative from private institution. A land swap deal between state and private institution should come out from state first, not from the private institution one.

When found as so, the mayor of Pematang Siantar City, RE Siahaan, and the Director of DSI Ld., Johny, signed a memorandum of understanding saying that three office buildings of DSI Ltd. may be used as a temporary school building of SMA 4 Pematang Siantar.

July 10, 2009 – when the school’s students were having their two-week vacation, a number of policemen entered the school and threw the school’s chairs and tables into a rubbish truck. The school’s facilities were going to be moved to the DSI Ltd.’s office buildings.