TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Land disputes in Jambi
One access point: Crossing the Batang Sumai River is the only way locals can reach the village of Pamayungan in Tebo regency, Jambi
Change Size
O
span class="inline inline-left">One access point: Crossing the Batang Sumai River is the only way locals can reach the village of Pamayungan in Tebo regency, Jambi.Residents of Tebo regency’s remote village of Pamayungan aren’t so welcoming to visitors, not since one of their leaders was prosecuted for defending communal land.
In fact, the once-hospitable old Malay community — now surrounded by several industrial timber estates — eyes most visitors to the remote village of Pemayungan in the Sumay district, Tebo regency, Jambi, with suspicion.
According to the head of the village, 28-year-old Syaharudin, the arrest of community figure Ahmad Baki (56), has scarred his people.
“After the police seized a company car previously held by villagers and took away our elder, residents have been wary of strangers and refrained from going to the city for fear of being questioned,” he said.
This is only one example of the growing tension witnessed in 2010 between locals and industrial companies in Jambi. Komunitas Konservasi Indonesia (KKI) Warsi, a conservation organization, has recorded another 18 similar cases arising from land disputes between corporations and locals.
A farmer in Senyerang was shot while fighting to get back 7,000 hectares of communal land controlled by PT Wira Karya Sakti (WKS).
Pemayungan’s Baki received a 10-month jail sentence after he set fire to PT Tebo Multi Agro’s (TMA) security station. TMA is a Tebo regional-administration enterprise in a joint-venture with PT WKS.
When The Jakarta Post visited Baki at the Tebo regency penitentiary, the man said he would continue to ask for his land back, despite being behind bars.
“The land I’ve used for planting crops is ours and that’s where our ancestors were buried. We’ve grown durian trees there. I will fight to my last drop of blood because it’s our source of income,” he added.
When the company was asked to confirm the facts, PT WKS’ spokesman Edi Yanto said his firm refused to comment on the matter.
“The matter is now in the hands of the police so just allow them to settle the case,” he said.
It all started with the demolition of four farm cabins, a food stall and locals’ rubber plantations on Nov. 13, 2009, which prompted locals to ask the company if there was any warrant for the action and any corporate concession map.
They were promised a clarification the next day, only to be disappointed as the firm’s personnel and government authorities failed to show up to provide one.
Villagers enraged by such treatment burned down PT TMA’s security station. This violent course of action failed to secure them an audience with corporate representatives or get TMA to explain why the cabins, food stalls and plantations had been destroyed.
Instead the locals were met by Tebo forestry officials, who also failed to address the demolition or any settlement.
Eight months went by without conflict until seven PT WKS security officers approached local residents working on their land near Rambutan River, on July 11, 2010. The officers, patrolling the area with a company car, asked the villagers who had allowed them to cultivate land there.
Angered by the question, Ibrahim, the clan chief of Pemayungan, told the officers the river area had been used by locals as farmland and estates since the Dutch colonial times.
“We still have a historical map made by local community leaders during the Dutch colonial period. And it was witnessed by one of our fellow residents named Taksiah,” he assured.
So the villagers once again demanded why the company was preventing them from using the land. To make sure their demands would be heeded to, they held the patrol car with the company’s consent.
The Tebo regency police and over 200 well-armed officers came to get the car back, causing great distress among residents.
The police arrested Baki two days later on charges of vandalism, beating and burning a security office.
Locals introduced a portal check system to identify visitors for almost two weeks after the incident.
Nusi (52), a resident, said villagers had remained suspicious of outsiders since.
“Some people came here by car yesterday and we all stayed indoors. We thought they might be intelligence officers dressed up as salesmen, trying to seize some of us,” he added.
Nurcholis, the external affairs commissioner for the National Human Rights Commission, said that applying criminal law to community figures and villagers in forestry conflicts would not resolve the matter.
“The government should also be tried for issuing licenses to companies without protecting community management rights. The company pulling down residents’ cabins also violated the law on personal property protection,” he said.
The local community doesn’t have much support, in his view. The government, which is expected to mediate the conflict, seems unable to do anything about improperly controlled licenses. Head of Jambi’s Regional Development Planning Agency Fauzie Ansori said the regional administration should be responsible for resolving these matters.
— Photos by Elvi Zaldiana
