Ignorance of land legislation common: Expert

JAKARTA (JP): Most land disputes could be put down to the fact that ignorance about land laws prevail in Indonesia, particularly among poor people, according to an expert in land laws.

Boedi Harsono, a professor at the School of Law of the Trisakti University, said yesterday that because of such ignorance, many people, including farmers, have been exploited by land speculators and financiers.

"Land disputes will continue to occur until people are fully informed of their rights under the land laws," Boedi said in a discussion to discuss the preparations for the drafting of the regulations on mortgages.

He proposed a concerted drive to disseminate information to the public about their rights under the land laws.

The discussion was organized by members of the House of Representatives of the United Development Party (PPP) faction. Also joining them was chairman of the Association of Indonesian Lawyers Haryono Tjitrosubono.

The PPP representatives yesterday asked the experts' opinion on whether or not the current agrarian laws should be reviewed to strengthen the legal protection of land owners, particularly small farmers and poor people.

"There is nothing the matter with the current laws," Boedi said. "The problem is that the laws have been misused in their enforcement in the field."

Of the various land laws, the most important is the 1960 Agrarian Law.

Boedi said the 1960 legislation is still relevant even after 35 years, in accommodating land problems encountered today.

Boedi, who once served at the National Land Agency, said many people lost their battle in land disputes through a combination of ignorance of the laws and weak bargaining position vis-a-vis land speculators and financiers.

Sometimes, the financiers are even supported by government and military officials, he noted.

This last point was supported by Haryono.

"It's no secret that there have been collusions between government officials and financiers in some of the land conflicts," he said.

Haryono said protests would not solve land problems. "They still have to be settled through legal channels."

Boedi underlined that the 1960 law required that land disputes be settled through the principle of musyawarah untuk mufakat (deliberation to reach consensus), and this applies in the way people set land prices.

Unless this principle is adhered to, no land deal is valid under the law, he said.

Many people in land disputes complained that they were not properly compensated for the land they had to give up to make way for government projects of new luxury housing complexes. In the majority of cases, they said, the land prices were set unilaterally.

Boedi admitted that frequently land speculators and land buyers resort to terrorizing people to force them to give up their land.

He encouraged people who feel that they have been cheated out of land deals to file lawsuits against the party who appropriated their land.

They could also file a lawsuit against a government agency involved in the conflict, through the State Administrative Court, he said.

The 1960 law only allows forced appropriation of land through a presidential decree, and even then the government has to prove that the land is necessary to public interest. (rms)