Academic calls for agrarian reform bill to consider restitution for customary communities
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Maria S.W. Sumardjono, an academic from Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), has called for the Agrarian Reform Bill (RUU-PRA) to consider a restitution mechanism for customary communities over ulayat land, in order to provide certainty over land rights that were historically surrendered to the state.
“If the rights have already expired, could consideration be given to returning the land to the customary law community that originally relinquished its rights, provided that the community still exists and is indeed willing to manage the land,” Maria said during a discussion of the Agrarian Reform Bill with the Legislative Body (Baleg) of the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR RI), held online in Jakarta on Tuesday.
She considered that a restitution mechanism needs to be contemplated so that the settlement of ulayat land issues—where rights were historically relinquished in the form of business use rights (HGU) or building use rights (HGB) granted to other parties—does not stop at the recognition of rights, but also provides a way forward once the legal relationship over land previously granted to third parties has ended.
Maria said the approach must also take into account the existence and readiness of the customary community as the party that will receive the land back. This means restitution cannot be merely a process of returning land, but must also be accompanied by certainty regarding the recipients and how the land will be managed.
She explained that ulayat land problems have also frequently arisen because of misunderstandings regarding the granting of land rights within customary community territories. Processes that are improper, non-transparent and unaccountable risk leaving the status of land rights not clean and clear.
Such conditions can lead to claims from parties who feel they were not involved in the process of granting or certifying land rights, resulting in disputes and horizontal conflict.
According to her, customary law communities also cannot be treated the same as other agrarian reform subjects because they have distinct characteristics and a special relationship with ulayat land. The provisions of the bill need to accommodate this specificity so that agrarian reform policy accords with conditions on the ground.
Therefore, Maria believes the Agrarian Reform Bill needs to regulate comprehensively not only land redistribution, but also the strengthening or recovery of rights, legal certainty, the empowerment of agrarian reform subjects, and conflict resolution mechanisms.