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Agrarian Law 'does not apply to me', claims sultan
Yogyakarta Governor and Sultan Hamengkubuwono X has again insisted that Law No
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ogyakarta Governor and Sultan Hamengkubuwono X has again insisted that Law No. 5/1960 on agrarian affairs does not, by tradition, fully apply in Yogyakarta province.
'All land here is the Sultan's land and Pakualaman land. The state acknowledges so via the rights of origin,' the sultan said during the inauguration of the Parangtritis Geomaritime Science Park.
In the colonial era, the province was under the authority of the Yogyakarta and Pakualaman sultanates.
During the inauguration, the sultan planted a sign stating that the land on which the park stands was the property of the Yogyakarta Palace, a provocative and unprecedented act.
The head of the Yogyakarta provincial administration's governance bureau, Beni Suharsono, said that the provincial administration was continuing an inventory of the lands belonging to the Yogyakarta and Pakualaman sultanates, with some 1,300 plots of lands currently on the list.
'We are implementing the mandate of the Yogyakarta Special Status Law,' Beni said, referring to Law No. 13/2012.
Meanwhile, the National Antidiscrimination Movement (Granad) has reported Hamengkubuwono to President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo for reviving colonial laws and abusing the Yogyakarta Special Status Law, claiming that his actions have caused legal uncertainty.
'This is our responsibility as citizens. If nothing is done about it, this could lead to a separatist movement brought about through legal means,' Granad chairman Willie Sebastian told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
The letter of complaint was sent by mail to 27 central and provincial government institutions on Monday.
As well as the sultan, Granad also reported the head of the National Land Agency's Yogyakarta office, Arie Yuwirin, and the head of the Yogyakarta Palace land affairs body, the sultan's younger brother KPH Hadiwinoto.
Granad claims that the sultan's actions have led to abuses including the taking over of land by the Yogyakarta and Pakualaman sultanates.
Other impacts include the implementation of a policy, considered racist, which ban non-indigenous citizens from owning land in Yogyakarta province.
The organization said that such cases would not occur if the law on agrarian affairs were enforced in the province, stressing that there was no legal reason why it should not be.
'We want Yogyakarta to continue as part of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia, subject to the Constitution,' Willie said.
