Sat, 02 Aug 2003

Activists divided over agrarian reform

Moch. N. Kurniawan and M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Two groups of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are divided on whether the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) should annul Decree No. 9/2001 on agrarian reform and natural resources management.

One side, including the Indonesian Farmers' Federation (FSPI), the Bandung, West Java-based AKATIGA Foundation, and the Center for Agricultural Studies, has demanded the revocation of the decree on the grounds that it has reduced the concept of agrarian rights to one of mere landholding, while they said it also involved air and water.

The decree was also prone to violations of farmers' basic rights, it said.

On the other side, NGOs like the Biodiversity Foundation (Yayasan Kehati), the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) and the Consortium for Agrarian Reform (KPA) urged the MPR to maintain the decree, saying it was good enough to establish a basis for land and natural resources reform.

The NGOs supporting the decree are grouped in the Working Group on Agrarian Reform and Natural Resources Management (Pokja Ornop PA-PSDA).

"This decree will lead to the revision of the Law No. 5/1960 on Agrarian Affairs that governs the land, air and water and the production of a law governing land only," said FSPI secretary- general Henry Saragih, a supporter of the first group.

As evidence of this, he said President Megawati Soekarnoputri issued Decree No. 34/2003 on national land policy late in May, which requires the National Land Agency (BPN) to speed up the revision of the agrarian law.

"With this Presidential Decree and the mandate it gives to the BPN to accelerate the revision of the agrarian law, it is obvious the law will be reduced to nothing more than a law governing land," he said.

"We do not want the law to be revised as its contents are imbued with a spirit of respect for farmers' and indigenous people's rights, and environmental conservation," Henry said.

Following the revision of the law, he said that plantation firms would press the government to extend the terms of concessions to 90 years from the present 30 years in the name of investment security.

"How can this be justified to the majority of farmers, who have to struggle hard to obtain just half a hectare of land," he said.

The decree also has the potential to increase violence against farmers' rights by focusing on the optimizing of natural resources exploitation as stated in article 5 (2) (b), (d) and (g), he said, quoting from a statement by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM).

Meanwhile, Pokja Ornop PA-SDA said in a statement that the MPR Decree was enough to realize the goals of agrarian reform, including fair distribution of land.

It criticized the government for having done a little to implement the decree, so that land disputes, agrarian crime and environmental destruction continued to occur.

Indonesia has huge problems regarding the distribution of land ownership as between poor farmers, rich farmers and the private sector.

In 2000, 80 percent of the country's farmers owned less than 0.5 hectares of land, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

Meanwhile, data from the Consortium for Agrarian Reform showed that as of 2000, some 2,178 plantation firms controlled concessions covering 3.52 million hectares.

The amount of land in the hands of a few firms is even more if mining and forestry companies, which control vast areas of land, are included in the figure.