NGOs demand controls on land ownership

NGOs demand controls on land ownership

JAKARTA (JP): A group of non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
yesterday renewed their long-held demand for a government
regulation to limit the size of land ownership across the
country.

On the eve of the 26th anniversary of the Land Reforms Law,
the Consortium of Agrarian Reforms said the 1960 legislation has
not been fully upheld, particularly on the question of limiting
land ownership.

The 1960 law recognizes the need to limit land acquisition to
ensure justice and recognizes the rights of indigenous people
over land, said consortium chairman Noer Fauzi Rachman.

But the implementation has not lived up to the spirit of the
law, Noer said. "The 'social function' of the land as recognized
by the law has, in practice, become the 'business function.'"

The 1960 Land Reforms Law was seen as a piece of landmark
legislation in the quest for justice in predominantly rural
Indonesia. The anniversary is marked each year either with a
seminar or other activities.

Noer, whose consortium was founded two years ago by 65 NGOs to
educate people about their land rights, said the massive buying
of land is taking Indonesia back to the Dutch colonial era when
plantation owners were allowed to possess massive land tracts.

Now more than 64 million hectares of land in the country are
owned by 20 business groups, he said. Most of the land bought had
been recognized by customary laws as being owned by the
indigenous people.

Noer criticized State Minister of Agrarian Affairs/Chairman of
the National Land Agency Soni Harsono for saying over the weekend
that preserving customary laws would be a "step backward".

Speaking in Yogyakarta, Soni, as reported by Antara, said
customary laws regarding land ownership would disappear as
Indonesia develops further.

With the trend toward individual land ownership, these
customary laws would eventually die a natural death, he was
quoted as saying. He said the government will continue to respect
customary laws, but will not help preserve them.

The government marks the anniversary of the 1960 law more
quietly because the legislation was often associated with the
Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). The party, banned since 1966,
politicized the 1960 law, turning it into a tool to force land
redistribution.

Noer shared the view that the 1960 law has been mistakenly
considered as communist-sponsored legislation.

"The content of the law was actually prepared by land experts
from Gadjah Mada University of Yogyakarta," he said.

He said the unfortunate association with the PKI is one of the
reasons why reforms have been slow and why massive land buying
continues unchecked.

Many timber estates, oil palm plantations and the pulp
industry have been built on vast forest tracts that were
originally part of the local people's customary land, he said.

"The government has often labeled the indigenous people as
'forest wanderers', but really they are people who inhabit the
forest and live by cultivating it," Noer said. (16)