TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Since his inaguration as the Head of Jakarta's Parks and Cemetery Agenct, Djafar Muchlisin has launched an investigation on 'fictitious graves' - wherein to date, he has managed to uncover 376 unoccupied grave sites. "Today alone we found 167 'fictitious graves' - and the majority are located in Tegal Alur Cemetery," said Muchlisin to Tempo on Friday, July 29, 2016.
Out of the 376 'fictitious graves', Muchlisin said that some of the owners have indeed come forward to report that the gravesite that they own the right to is unoccupied. "We immediately exhumed the site in question - some of these people are aware that grave sites are the right of the deceased," Muchlisin said.
Muchlisin said that the investigation will continue until September 2016, where he and his officials will continue to go into Jakarta's cemeteries to check on their physical condition, all the while collecting information about the rights to the grave site. In the future, continues Muchlisin, he hopes that grave sites could be registered for through an online system.
Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama, said that he had been suspicious for a long time about the existence of 'fictitious gravesite. "People kept their mouth shut about it - but it is obvious that some 'occupied' grave sites are no longer occupied and cared for," Ahok said.
Acting on his suspicion, Ahok then ordered the Parks and Cemetery Agency to launch an investigation on the matter since 2015 - but the investigation had only been launched after he had appointed Muchlisin as the new Head of Agency. "The previous agency directors failed to to their job - so we appointed someone else to finish it - as simple as that," Ahok said.
FRISKI RIANA
