Land-for-land solution proposed

Land-for-land solution proposed

JAKARTA (JP): House Speaker Wahono, concerned at the rising number of land conflicts, proposed yesterday that people who give up their land be compensated with land, plus a certain amount of money.

"Land to many people is the most basic necessity. It cannot be substituted or replaced by other goods," Wahono told a plenary session of the House.

"We fear, that the more people are being displaced, the more people are being left without land, and this means that more people are being left without a home," he said.

The government, as well as parties procuring the land, should shoulder the responsibility of providing affordable housing for these displaced people, he added.

Wahono expressed concern at the rapid erosion of productive farmland and at the increasing concentration of land ownership in the hands of a few rich farmers.

He was especially concerned at the fate of villagers and small-plot farmers, and stressed that these people were the very basis of the country's independence struggle 50 years ago.

To all House members, Wahono urged them to pay greater attention to cases of land conflicts. "We have to protect the interest of the 'small people' and improve their welfare," he said, referring to the Indonesian phrase for the weak and disadvantage.

On the recent hikes in the prices of cement and paper by the government, Wahono said that in the future, such decisions should be preceded by an open dialog, so that they could be better understood and accepted by the public.

He praised the government's decision to lower the cement price increase but pointed out that the move to increase the price of paper was not consistent with its own campaign to encourage people to read more.

It is ironic that Indonesia is the world's largest supplier of pulp, yet the price of its paper is higher than those charged abroad, he said. "The increase in prices could only benefit a certain few people, at the expense of the public at large."

Wahono hoped that the government could explain to the House about the impact of the higher yen on the Indonesian economy, especially on the government's foreign debt burden.

He recalled that President Soeharto once said that the size of Indonesia's foreign debt increases by $350 million every time the value of the yen rises by one percentage point against the dollar. "With a 20% appreciation in the last three months, we can envisage how it affects our debt repayment positions." (emb/rid)