New agrarian law needed to settle land disputes
New agrarian law needed to settle land disputes
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Uncertainties over land ownership have appeared to have caused
massive land disputes involving peasants occupying the land for
years against the official corporate owners, a condition which
have been neglected for over three decades.
On Thursday, chairman of the Indonesian Farmers' Union (HKTI)
Siswono Yudhohusodo revealed that over 6,000 land disputes across
the country remained unresolved due to the unclear regulations on
land ownership.
The cases involving around 1.2 million farmers, he said.
The 1960 Agrarian Basic Law recognizes the rights to land
ownership which can be inherited and also gives special category
to the communal land which cannot be claimed as the property of
the state and individuals as well as businesses.
Not aware that an official certificate is required, most of
these peasants are now in despair since many regulations and laws
allow corporations to reclaim their plots of land, either by
force or by purchasing them at a very low price, with the consent
of the relevant authorities.
For example, in the Greater Jakarta area where land demand
reaches the highest level in the country, common individuals can
easily loose their natural rights over lands to businesses, which
will transform their lands into business districts, golf estates,
or plush housing estates.
Data compiled in 1998 by the Consortium for Agrarian Reform
(KPA) shows that at least 116,000 hectares of farm land in the
capital had been converted to business purposes.
"The government has to correct this situation. It has to
reform land ownership regulations and also revise the policy on
land use so that common people will no longer be the scapegoats
for the city's dense population," an expert on city planning
Marco Kusumawijaya told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
The head of the National Land Agency (BPN), Lutfi Nasution,
said that following the reform movement, his office would now
help solve the many land ownership disputes by tracing the
history of the disputed lands.
He acknowledged that his office was established under the 1960
Agrarian Law, but 70 percent of works managed forest concessions,
which was not governed by the agrarian law.
"That is why we need to revive the 1960 law as the umbrella
law which puts other laws concerning natural resources such as
forestry, water resources and mining laws as subordinates," he
told reporters after a seminar on seeking a way-out to cope with
agrarian disputes.
The seminar is held by BPN, KPA, and the Bina Desa Secretariat
community development group.
KPA secretary-general Erpan Faryadi said the populist 1960 law
needed revision because it had yet to protect the rights of
indigenous communities to their land and the ecological aspects
of land use.
Also a speaker in the seminar, legislator Tumbu Saraswati said
that a team comprising representatives from the BPN and the House
of Representatives' Commission II on legal issues should be
established to settle agrarian conflicts and draft a better
agrarian bill.
"Hopefully, we can have more comprehensive agrarian and
natural resources laws next year, which will also govern land
dispute settlement. We have to do it quickly because the disputes
have made farmers question the government's credibility," she
said.