Gentrification and the Vulnerability of Betawi Community

Abstract

Betawi community is the local community in Jakarta, residing in the city since the 17th century. Yet, since 1970s their number has declined significantly, and now it only remains 20% of the Jakarta total population. They have been displaced by several government urban development projects, and have moved to peripheral kampongs. Moreover, the displacement of this local community was triggered by gentrification due to the presence of middle-income class (gentrifiers), who come to Jakarta as professional workers, and further demand housing. Gentrifiers prefer to stay in the inner-city kampongs to save transportation cost even though the kampongs are not equipped proper infrastructures. Then, the gentrifiers renovate the house and shape the physical appearance of the neighbourhood differently. This has made the land price surge, and the competition to occupy house increase. Also, the standard of living has gone up. Many local communities could not adapt with the situation and consequently sold the house to get money; most of them consist of uneducated and unskilled informal workers, who can be included as poor-class. Living in kampongs, which are considered as informal settlements, the community do not get any government assistance to improve the neighbourhood quality; hence, the neighbourhood improvement only relis on the gentrifiers. As a result, the displacement continues to occur. Consequently, the Betawi community becomes the most vulnerable in the gentrification process, and are very sensitive to the neighbourhood transformation. Using a case-study research, his paper tries to reveal the relation between the gentrification process in the inner-city kampong and the Betawi community as the vulnerable community. This research focused on Kampong Kramat Asem, Matraman district as densely a populated district in DKI Jakarta Province. Furthermore, field observation and interview were conducted to the local community and gentrifiers to find out the community sensitivity factors and to picture the physical neighbourhood transformation. Moreover, an analysis of population trends was required to figure out displacement process.