Land policy now profit-oriented, experts claim

JAKARTA (JP): After 35 years in existence, the agrarian law turns out be a "heap of dung", according to researchers.

The law stresses the social function of land, but in reality land is a lucrative commodity and its use is very much profit- oriented, researcher Endang Suhendar said.

"Consequently, the agrarian law is no longer referred to in reality," Suhendar said when presenting his recent study conducted by the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy, ELSAM.

Suhendar and co-researcher Ifdhal Kasim said government regulations on land use issued between 1983 and the 1990s have allowed easier access for investors to acquire land.

For example, the 1989 Presidential Instruction on Industrial Estates has resulted in 152 industrial estates with a total acreage of 42,304 hectares, mostly in West Java.

"The government has also extended the period of land use for investors from 25 to 60 years for fear that Indonesia will miss out on attracting foreign investors," said Suhendar.

The researchers said the policy is in line with suggestions from the World Bank to encourage an efficient market on land price and simplify permits to acquire land for investment, but it is in conflict with the agrarian law.

"These efforts contradict the agrarian law...which aims at restructuring land ownership," Suhendar said, referring to articles in the law which limit ownership.

Land owners, the researchers noted, are often under pressure to give up their property to make way for government projects, which concern public interests.

The legal basis is the 1993 Presidential Decree no. 55 on Land Acquisition for Public Utilities, which has become a major source of disputes. The decree requires the formation of a nine-member committee in charge of determining the price of land to be acquired but, unfortunately, land owners are not included.

The director of the Jakarta chapter of the Legal Aid Institute, Bambang Widjojanto, said the value of land is based only on productivity, leading to low valuation of land which is considered unproductive.

"People who have to surrender their land, particularly the poor, bear great losses every time they have to move," Bambang said.

Sociologist Hotman Siahaan of the Airlangga University of Surabaya, reminded that historically the right to own land did not exist in Indonesia because land always belonged to the state.

"In feudal times it was always the king who owned all the land," said Siahaan. "Only kings gave land to their subjects," he said.

He noted that the numerous government regulations which contradict the Agrarian Law reflect similar features of state authority over land ownership. (anr)