Mencari Kota Alternatif lewat 5th Urban Social Forum

Gugun, Jaringan Rakyat Miskin Kota
“Cukup mengagetkan, ternyata lahan luas 35 ribu hektar di wilayah Jabodetabek sudah dikuasai oleh pengembang,” kutip Gugun Muhammad dari sebuah penelitian oleh Haryo Winarso di Institut Teknologi Bandung.

Hari Sabtu lalu, 16 Desember 2017, 5th Urban Social Forum (USF) terselenggara di Bandung. Dalam satu hari duapuluhdua panel diskusi dan tiga lokakarya berlangsung, meminjam ruang-ruang kelas pada sebuah sekolah menengah atas negeri. USF adalah acara tahunan yang diselenggarakan oleh Kota Kita, sebuah yayasan beralamat di Solo (Surakarta). Salah satu tujuan Forum adalah untuk mempopulerkan isu-isu perkotaan dan untuk itu Siska dan Kristo  hadir dalam panel yang mengupas isu seputar hak atas kota dan panel tentang kepemilikan tanah di kota mewakili Architecture Sans Frontières Indonesia (ASF-ID).

Forum dibuka oleh sesi pleno yang menampilkan Gugun Muhammad dari Jaringan Rakyat Miskin Kota, Hera Diani dari media Magdalene, Savic Ali dari komunitas Gusdurian, dan Somsook Boonyabancha dari Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR). Pleno pembuka berjudul sebuah pertanyaan; Kota ini milik siapa?

Gugun menyoroti ketimpangan penguasaan lahan, seperti halnya terjadi di Jabodetabek. Juga ada ketimpangan narasi tentang warga miskin kota sehingga opini publik jauh dari kenyataan. Misalnya yang terkait ukuran rumah, pola pemakaian ruang, dan budaya bermukim, “ada cara  hidup yang dipaksakan, lalu (mereka) bilang bahwa rumah-rumah, kampung miskin itu tidak standar.” Para pejabat publik dan pakar yang notabene merupakan anggota warga kelas tengah turut memberi andil terhadap latennya persepsi yang bias tentang kampung kota dan warganya.

 

Savic, Hera, Somsook, Paulista, & Gugun
Indonesia kini tengah melewati masa transisi menuju demokrasi, “justru melahirkan kelompok-kelompok anti demokrasi yang sering mengokupasi ruang publik maupun ruang privat,” cetus Savic Ali dari komunitas Gusdurian.

Dua pembicara berikutnya juga risau oleh berbagai bentuk ketimpangan yang masih berlangsung dan kentara di kota-kota; Hera bersaksi tentang prevalensi pelecehan seksual, misalnya saat kaum perempuan menggunakan sarana transportasi publik; Savic melihat bahwa seiring meningkatnya tren politik identitas primordial SARA terjadi penurunan sikap toleransi yang muncul dalam bentuk ancaman, gangguan, hingga kekerasan oleh gerombolan dengan atribut agama terhadap sekian kali penyelenggaran kegiatan oleh kelompok masyarakat sipil di ruang-ruang publik ibukota.

Sesi pleno ditutup dengan sebuah resep dari ACHR untuk suatu perubahan yang mendasar bagi kota-kota; ruang-ruang partisipasi bagi warga harus diperluas, termasuk lewat inovasi model pendanaan perbaikan slum, kampung miskin kota. Demikian, tanah dan hunian diyakini sebagai unsur utama yang akan membuka akses terhadap beragam hak lain dalam rumpun hak atas kota.

Hak (Kolektif) atas Kota

Membicarakan hak kolektif atas kota, Panel-3 dipandu oleh Ahmad Rifai dari Kota Kita. Panel menghadirkan Hirson Kharisma dari Lembaga Bantuan Hukum (LBH) Bandung. Gatot Subroto dari Paguyuban Warga Strenkali Surabaya (PWSS) dan Fransiska Damarratri dari ASF-ID.

Hirson memberi gambaran model advokasi yang belakangan ini berlangsung di Bandung; di samping keberadaan LSM yang mapan juga ada beberapa kolektif di Bandung yang bergerak secara otonom. Dipersatukan oleh isu, kelompok-kelompok tersebut beraliansi untuk kepentingan publik dan warga pada beberapa kasus a.l. terkait kontroversi lahan eks-Palaguna, serta pada penggusuran Tamansari, Kebon Jeruk, dan Dago Elos. Menurut Hirson, hak atas kota harus direbut lewat partisipasi warga dalam rangka melawan praktek pembangunan yang neoliberalistik.

Di Surabaya, PWSS menghimpun sejumlah kampung sepanjang bantaran di Kali Mas dan Kali Surabaya yang sudah berumur lebih dari 30 tahun. Pada tahun 2005, PWSS mengajukan konsep kerja partisipatoris jogo kali dan kemudian berhasil mendapat pengesahan perda. Implementasi jogo kali diwarnai dengan kegiatan pengolahan sampah, kerja bakti, hingga ritual larung sungai sebagai simbol kedekatan dengan alam. Anggota PWSS telah membongkar rumah mereka sehingga menghadap sungai sekaligus menyediakan jalur untuk keperluan inspeksi sungai.

Hak (Kolektif) atas Kota
Fransiska Damarratri, Gatot Subroto, Hirson Kharisma, dan Ahmad Rifai pada panel diskusi Hak atas Kota sebagai Hak Kolektif Warga.

Dua tahun lalu ASF-ID mengadakan kampanye putar film dan diskusi sebagai respon kritis terhadap fenomena rusunisasi. Kini ASF-ID tumbuh sebagai jaringan kerja meliputi kota Bandung, Jakarta, Malang, dan Semarang. Perkumpulan terus memperluas wawasan yang utamanya dibutuhkan oleh para arsitek untuk melampaui perkara estetika. Mengingat arsitektur pun hidup di ruang sosialnya yang diskursif, di kota maupun di desa.

Lewat kerja ASF-Jakarta, Rumah Contoh di Kampung Tongkol menjadi sebentuk upaya politik yang melampaui upaya estetik. Capaian di Jakarta menjadi pintu bagi grup lokal untuk bersinergi dengan berbagai komunitas dan kelompok warga hingga inisiatif tersebut bergulir menjadi upaya contoh perbaikan pada 16 kampung serta mendapat dukungan anggaran daerah. Pada tataran lain ASF-ID mengembangkan metode pemetaan partisipatoris bersama warga. Lewat kegiatan tersebut relawan arsitek maupun mahasiswa memperoleh kesempatan untuk mengupas aspek-aspek lain dari lingkungan binaan, misalnya aspek sejarah perubahan dan kontestasi lahan yang terjadi di kota seiring waktu berjalan.

Dalam berinteraksi dengan warga, aktivis acap kali berurusan dengan upaya menggeser paradigma. Bagi Hirson, sebelum warga memperoleh pemahaman terhadap hak, bersama-sama perlu membiasakan sikap demokratis. Terkait paradigma relasi sosial yang egaliter dan untuk kelestarian alam, menurut Siska, kelompok aktivis dapat saling belajar dan menempatkan kampung sebagai sumber inspirasi. Alasannya, pengetahuan dan keahlian lokal sudah ada dan dijalankan di kampung sebelum ada dominasi ilmu pengetahuan formal, sebelum kehadiran kaum profesional.

Untuk Siapa Tanah di Kota?
Urban Social Forum ke-5 terselenggara pada hari Sabtu 16 Desember 2017 bertempat di SMAN 3, Bandung

 

Tanah di Kota Untuk Siapa ?

Saat ini ketimpangan akses terhadap lahan menjadi fenomena yang melazim di berbagai tempat terutama di kota-kota. Demikian yang disampaikan Achmad Uzair dari Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Kalijaga saat membuka panel Untuk Siapa Tanah di Kota? Panel menghadirkan perwakilan warga, peneliti desain ekonomi Bintang Putra, peneliti agraria Handika Febrian, dan Kristoporus Primeloka dari ASF-ID. Uzair mengajak hadirin untuk melihat keragaman akses terhadap tanah yang kini terancam oleh kecenderungan sistem hukum yang semakin formal dan legalistik.

Perwakilan warga dari Paguyuban Pringgomukti dan Kalijawi menyampaikan sebentuk gugatan mewakili kaum penghuni penggarap turun temurun dalam status lahan ngindung dan sultan grond, kemudian pendirian hotel menyebabkan penggusuran. Kepala desa kerap terlibat dalam penjualan tanah kas desa. Sementara itu partai politik abai terhadap permasalahan agraria yang dialami oleh warga Yogyakarta.

Menurut Handika, sebagian dari akar permasalahan agraria adalah adanya dualisme hukum. Di Yogyakarta hukum agraria yang feodalistik terkait status keistimewaan saling bersaing dengan hukum nasional yang berlandaskan UUPA 1960. Dengan demikian ada hambatan politik dalam pelaksanaan hukum agraria, padahal UUPA’60 menganggap penting mereka yang menempati lahan serta beritikad baik dalam mengelolanya.

Di Jakarta, sekitar 50% tanah tidak bersertifikat dan dengan kata lain dapat disebut ilegal. Yang mengherankan, demikian mudahnya pengadaan tanah untuk pembangunan mall atau apartemen. Kemudian ada sejumlah lahan milik pemerintah yang berdasar kesepakatan di masa lalu dikelola oleh pengembang, namun setelah berakhir masa perjanjian tanah tidak dikembalikan, juga tidak dibayarkan retribusinya. Di tengah surutnya pengusasaan lahan oleh pemerintah kota, di saat memerlukan, pemerintah kota merebut kembali lewat penggusuran paksa. Sehingga pada tahun 2015, merujuk data yang dikumpul oleh LBH Jakarta, terjadi angka pengusuran paksa terbanyak di seluruh wilayah DKI Jakarta. Angka penggusuran paksa tertinggi datang dari Jakarta Utara.

Kode warna yang mewakili zonasi peruntukan pada peta rencana detil tata ruang seringkali diubah dan ditentukan oleh pemerintah secara sepihak lewat proses yang tidak transparan dan tidak akuntabel. Misalnya seperti yang terjadi pada peta Kampung Kerang Ijo di Muara Angke, Jakarta Utara. Di dalam rencana tata ruang kampung tersebut ditetapkan menjadi zona biru, dianggap menjadi bagian dari laut, padahal ada ratusan keluarga hidup disana. Pada banyak kasus disinyalir oknum kelurahan dan kecamatan bersekongkol dengan oknum Badan Pertanahan Nasional (BPN) untuk menyediakan tanah yang telah “dipesan” oleh sebuah pengembang. Lewat kolusi tata ruang seperti ini, diprediksi penggusuran akan terus terjadi di kemudian hari.

Kristo, Bintang, & Handika
“Kalau kita cari di kamus bahasa Inggris, money itu lebih tua dari kata miskin. Jadi sebelum ada uang kita tidak mengenal kata miskin,” ungkap Bintang Putra, peneliti desain ekonomi dari Orange House Studio.

Kristo menekankan pentingnya usaha meluaskan perspektif di kalangan arsitek dan desainer karena meskipun jarang terlibat dalam proses pengambilan keputusan, namun arsitek dan desainer tetap terlibat dalam perubahan dan penguasaan ruang yang terjadi di kota. Sebagai aktor dari gubahan dan pengelolaan ruang kota, seorang arsitek atau perencana memiliki potensi dalam memaksimalkan penggunaan dan pemaknaan ruang. Arsitek berpeluang untuk menjadi pembuka ruang partisipasi lewat pemilihan bahan dan teknologi membangun dalam rangka menjaga aksesibilitas terhadap ruang kota. Pada titik ini keberpihakan kaum profesional menjadi penting dalam gerakan advokasi untuk kepentingan warga kota. /////

Brief Note on The State of Informal Settlement in Yangon

Kyu kyaw—Burmese term for slum and informal settlements—have existed as far back as early 1980s, but their numbers have greatly increased due to the influx of refugees from the 2008 Cyclone Nargis that devastated much of the delta region in the south of Myanmar. Approximately 85,000 dead and millions were made homeless. With it, around 143,000 survivors moved northward to Yangon to resettle. Many of these people were originally farmers, fishermen and animal herders; the type of vocation that, in the dense urban context, lacks its equivalent for its rootedness in sprawling fertile land and water body.

Some communities, such as the Bo Aung Kyaw community (named after the street that runs through the settlement), did manage to find some land to continue to farm. Not for long, though, as these lands were privately acquired and turned into garment factories. Farms dwindled when some residents turn to industrialized skill—builders and factory workers—to survive, while others work as petty traders or remain unemployed. As both the settlement and the factories mushroomed, I sense a kind of symbiosis. The urban morphology has nominally embraced the factory as evident in the prevalent use of blue corrugated iron sheets and the spatial orientation where many of the houses face directly towards the factories. The presence of the settlement presents a continuous stream of activity, which in turns creates of sense of safety and security for the area. The small shops also offer affordable meals to the factory workers in a city where the daily minimum wage is 3,600 Kyat (approx. 2.5 USD). During major celebrations, factories partake in the festive mood by giving some money around. Is there a positive relationship? “Not with the bosses,” answered a community elder, alluding to their more positive reception towards the factory workers.

These issues in kyu kyaw reflect the broader condition of the city. I ran a workshop on such topic, where the 26 participants (comprised of community leaders, architecture students and practicing architects) identified the primary issues that present significant barriers to making a more livable city. These issues are lack of access to basic services (including electricity and clean water), flooding, eviction and land rights, waste management, traffic and transit, and an increase in population. After spending a couple of hours in further discussion, nearly all agreed that all six issues lead to one: land rights.

A house in Bo Aung Kyaw community
A house in Bo Aung Kyaw community.

The land ownership system in Myanmar is a familiar one. The problem is the perceived conflation between the types, particularly between state and government land. The former is all land in the country that lacks any formal title, which includes farms and fishing regions scattered throughout Myanmar, while the latter requires proof of ownership and is used to facilitate the functioning of the government. When they appear to be one and the same, the government—as an entity that wields actual power—is able to seize lands as they see fit.

A Performative Eviction
Of course, the poor occupies these vague territories both in the rural areas and the fringes of the city, which, evidently, have continued to be seized and converted into commercial and industrial purposes. As recounted by a community elder, when eviction happens “it tends to be massive,” and occurs in the interval of 5 to 10 years. What happens in between, however, is where things get interesting: in order to keep the façade of stability, some evictions must continue to happen. But carrying out an actual eviction is cumbersome, particularly in the face of mounting resistance and potential disorder. Equipped with knowing when the police will come to evict, residents dismantled their house and left the settlement for a few hours to ‘disappear,’ carrying with them just the basic necessity for the duration. Sometimes they will even hire people from neighbouring kyu kyaw to help dismantle. The police will come and occupy the settlement for a few hours, then leave. I inquired about what happened to the area. “We came home and rebuilt the settlement on the same site,” answered an elder.

In recent years the government has stopped sending in the police and instead used a warning letter to inform about impending eviction. “But,” Keh Zer, a community organiser, quickly noted, “they always do this during rainy season, in which residents will plead that it is difficult to move now, and that they will do so immediately during the dry season.” Which, of course, never materialized. It will remain unresolved, that is, until the next rainy season where the same story repeats.

So is it really a performance of some sort, notwithstanding the unsolved issue of land tenure and lingering threat of eviction, that both the government and the residents must partake in? “Not when the government really needs the land. At that time, the real eviction will take place.”

Recently, in 2017 the federal government has finally recognized the existence of kyu kyaw and their residents. In addition to a personal national identity card, a kyu kyaw resident card is issued to each family that includes information such as the name of the head of the family and the location of their house. Just like the national ID card, there is no immediate benefit in having one for there is no provision of any kind of social security such as free healthcare. If anything, it may help in reducing the black market for the borrowing of ID card to apply for jobs, which can run as high as 10,000 Kyat per job application.

What it certainly does, however, presents a real quantification—a number—of the identity of these kyu kyaw residents. My curiosity is affixed to the experience of many other developing cities: the political class will do anything during election times for the sizable voting block of the urban poor. When asked about this, Marry, a community civil engineer, underscores that Myanmar is in the process of gaining greater political and governmental transparency since the election in 2015 where the country saw a democratic shift that propelled its opposition leader, Aung San Su Kyi, into power. Her explanation of the shift from the authoritarian system into a democratic one gave me the impression that it suggests the surfacing volatility of democracy: the emergence of a new voting block to be seduced and manipulated. Perhaps it is just cynicism on my part.

Housing Block

One of the biggest evidences of the struggle in reforming the field of housing. Steven, a professional affiliated to Médecins Sans Frontières, indicated that the government has to build approximately 100,000 new housing units each year to cover the existing demand, a stress that Cyclone Nargis has further contributed to. I visited a series of ‘low-cost’ housing in Shwe Lim Pahn area where there were at least eight four-storey apartments, each with 24 units, that seemed to be completely empty. These apartments are built on government land by private contractors under the auspice of the housing agency. During our visit, a West-facing show unit was presented to us by a lady who also happens to live in it. It was a bare unit measuring 6 x 9m with 1.2 x 2m bathroom inside. I must admit, the combination of the emptiness and a generous afternoon light makes for a spacious room. I inquired whether anyone has lived in any of these blocks since they were completed a few years ago. “None,” she replied, and revealed that these units never reached its intended target, the low income, and have instead been purchased by the wealthier residents of Yangon upon its release in the market.

Though at the design level, in Yangon the slab housing typology is as tried and tested as they come: one can easily see the numerous four to six storey apartments (as they are called when it uses no lift, and ‘condominium’ when there is) that fill the city housing stock. The wide variety of the façade treatment suggests that these blocks have been well settled in and have perhaps gone through some renovation. Most that I saw were located in and near the city centres and have a strong access to various centres of activity and public transit. I couldn’t find the data on the type of tenure these apartment residents have due to my limited time in the city, but I’d be curious as to the level of tenure security it provides.

'Low Cost' housing in Shwe Lim Pahn.
‘Low Cost’ housing in Shwe Lim Pahn.
Apartments in the city centre, Yangon
Apartments in the city centre, Yangon.

I saw no kyu kyaw in these city centres—or perhaps they take a different form? Nevertheless, houses in city fringe kyu kyaw are small, measuring roughly 4 x 6m, inclusive of a bedroom, storage, a kitchen, and a living room. Toilets are shared with other house. For some residents, they extend their unit further back into whatever land available. Nearly all of them are built rather shoddily, with most covered in thatched palm leaves and a few use the blue iron sheets for their roof. However, some self-upgrading seem to have happened in at least two occasions. The first is the making of a ditch to mitigate flooding caused by heavy rainfall. The second is a beautiful façade renovation that keeps the kyu kyaw looking clean and tidy, that, as I was told, was inspired after seeing a renovated kampung in Jakarta. The façade is a series of split bamboos fence 1.6m high that runs nearly uninterrupted, saves for house entrances, for 20 houses. These two self-upgrades were collectively financed.

Viability of Further Upgrading

I was invited to Yangon to gain an understanding of how informal settlements in the city operate and to share some lessons learned from an upgrading that I took a part in in a kampung in Jakarta. While the idea is to further the discussion and to stimulate some actions, at this stage I could only help investigate in which way community groups and outside groups, such as architects, could work together to come up with a resolution to the fragile tenure that the kyu kyaw are currently in. Some physical truths may need to be accepted: a kyu kyaw sit on a garbage filled water body while another sit on gas pipeline. The desire to do something was visible, but we all soon realised that if there is one thing to be learned from successful bottom-up upgrading is that you can’t do it alone and you must work together not only for the sharing of resources and skills, but for a shared vision as well.

“There are many things that we haven’t thought about,” said Keh Zer, who looks weary but remain spirited after showing us the city, “but I’m glad that there is a possibility to continue.”


I thank BEDAR and Leaders and Organizers of Community Organizations in Asia (LOCOA) for inviting Architecture Sans Frontieres Indonesia (ASF-ID) to Yangon to run a workshop and present our work. ASF-ID is represented by myself and Khusnul Hanifati. I also would like to thank Wardah Hafidz and Gugun Muhammad for their recommendation of us. This note is a result of an intense 3-days trip in Yangon where ASF-ID, in conjunction with BEDAR, ran a full day workshop to identify where architects and community organisers could connect. We also visited two kyu kyaws for a public conversation with some local residents.