In defense of land rights: A monitoring report on land conflicts in six Asian countries
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fact that the necessary laws supporting agrarian reform implementation have
not yet been passed after three (3) years of this administration.
Various deadlocks are easily identified in the process of land reform. These can
be found in areas in which conflicts erupt involving State-Owned Enterprises
(BUMN), State Plantation Enterprises (PTPN), State Forest Enterprises
(Perhutani), abandoned lands, and forest area extraction. Such conflicts were
easily identified during the years 2017 and 2018. Unfortunately, one of the
main tasks of land reform – which is the resolution of land conflicts – cannot
be said to be progressing.
The ideal government-sponsored land reform is a restructuring that is rapid,
drastic, and systematic. It is not supposed to be partial, for it is meant to be
the cure for the chronic infirmity in land tenure and ownership in a country.
These principles should be the foundation for conflict resolution, and not
simple land certificates distribution which does not touch the essential problem
of agrarian conflicts. More powerful and non-partial legal and institutional
instruments are needed so that the resolution of old and new agrarian conflicts
can be the main focus for the realization of agrarian reform.
The President has to assure that land reform can be implemented for
curing structural inequality and solving agrarian conflicts. It is hoped that
the President will convene all Ministries which share the responsibility to
implement land reform. He should examine the commitment of the Agrarian
Reform Team to work under the supervision of the Coordinating Ministry for
Economic Affairs and its three task forces including other related ministries
and agencies (Presidential Staff Office of the Republic of Indonesia, Ministry
of State-Owned Enterprises, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Finance, and
the Indonesian National Police). Regional governments are also need to be
mobilized to support the agrarian reform agenda and the efforts to resolve
agrarian conflicts.
ANGOC
Most importantly, the Jokowi administration needs to deal with assault on
the fundamental rights of citizens over their lands and livelihoods. The dark
record of agrarian conflict, violence, evictions, and criminalization perpetrated
against farmers, customary communities and fisherfolk in 2017 and 2018 has
to be reversed through real land reform.
Severe legal punishment has to be applied to corruptors in the agrarian sector,
officials who are negligent in issuing licenses or concessions, big speculators
and land middlemen, and domestic and foreign investors who have evicted
people from their communities and villages.
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