Based on long-term ethnographic research for a dissertation, this article discusses political negotiations in the planning and development process in the Jakarta Bay area. This study shows that reclamation is not the domain of state actor and private company but has been carried out by the people of Kamal Muara before the reclamation islands project was developed in Jakarta Bay by the state. The dynamic interaction between state and non-state actors, responses to the material on the Jakarta coastal environment and the images of the actors also influence the formation of space above the reclamation land in Kamal Muara. This multivocal explanation shows how development projects shape themselves by associating heterogeneous actors.

Key words: Jakarta Bay, reclamation, state actor, non-state actor.