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n the long-running dispute about land rights in Yogyakarta, Agrarian and Spatial Planning Minister Ferry Mursyidan Baldan has supported the position of the province'€™s two sultanates that special status law should override national law in determining land rights. Ferry, who also heads the National Land Agency (BPN), asserted that the 2013 law on Yogyakarta'€™s special status was the umbrella for regulating land issues in the province.

'€œSG [Yogyakarta sultanate grounds] and PAG [Pakualaman sultanate grounds] are still there. They have a basis,'€ Ferry told reporters after speaking at a seminar at Gadjah Mada University'€™s School of Agriculture on Thursday.

Ferry said that the law on Yogyakarta'€™s special status was lex specialis (specialized law) to the 1960 Basic Agrarian Law (UUPA).

Based on the Special Status Law, Yogyakarta'€™s provincial administration is currently taking inventory of the lands claimed as SG and PAG. The process is creating restlessness in the community, as any land with no clear ownership documents is considered as belonging to the Yogyakarta or Pakualaman sultanates.

Article 32 of the Special Status Law gives the palace and principality the status as legal entities to own lands referred to as SG and PAG. The law distinguishes between two types of SG and PAG: keprabon (crown lands) and non-keprabon (non-crown lands).

Keprabon lands are lands on which the palace and principality buildings are located, while non-keprabon lands are lands used by the people or institutions and land used by people without ownership documents.

Activist Kus Sri Antono of the Agrarian Community Communication Forum (FKMA) said the Special Status Law was only lex specialis to Law No. 32/2004 on regional administrations, as stipulated in Article 1 (3) of the Special Status Law.

'€œAs such, the Yogyakarta Special Status Law does not regulate land ownership as stipulated in Article 32,'€ Kus said. He added that SG and PAG as mentioned in the Special Status Law were not subject to the colonial regulation (Rijksblad), which would allow the sultanates to claim all lands in the province.

The UUPA, he said, already stipulated that swapraja (kingdom) lands and former swapraja lands, such as SG and PAG, belonged to the state.

'€œTo implement UUPA, we have Government Regulation (PP) No. 224/1961 subjecting former SG and PAG lands to land reform.'€

He also referred to Presidential Decree No. 33/1984 and Yogyakarta Provincial Bylaw No. 3/1984, which he said confirmed that the UUPA applied fully in the province of Yogyakarta.

'€œWe don'€™t want to own any land. We just want to uphold the law. Yogyakarta is still under the jurisdiction of Indonesia,'€ he said.

Conflicts originating from claims by the Yogyakarta and Pakualaman sultanates over lands have been increasing in the province following the implementation of the Special Status Law.

Contested lands include those in Watukodok Beach, Gunungkidul and in Gondomanan, Yogyakarta city. Farmers on Kulonprogo coast were evicted from land claimed to be owned by Pakualaman, as the site would be turned into an iron sand mine and an airport.

In 2008, 100 certificates of ownership belonging to residents of Pundungsari subdistrict, Gunungkidul, were changed into right-to-use documents for lands belonging to the sultanate of Yogyakarta.

Yogyakarta Governor Hamengkubuwono X, who is also the sultan, has repeatedly insisted that SG and PAG still carried legal authority, as UUPA was not fully implemented in the province. He also said that none of the land in Yogyakarta belonged to the state.

'€œSG and PAG are acknowledged by the state. The basis is the rights of origin,'€ the sultan said.