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Second legal warning over land ownership ban sent to Yogyakarta governor
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Standing for their rights – Yogyakarta resident Z. Siput Lokasari (left), who is of Chinese descent, and Indonesian Son Movement against Discrimination (Granad) head Willy Sebastian show posters written with messages “Please Stop Discrimination” and “Please Obey the Constitution” to protest the discriminatory policy on land ownership in the province. (JP/Bambang Muryanto)
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ogyakarta resident Z. Siput Lokasari, who is of Chinese descent, has sent another legal warning letter to Yogyakarta governor Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X, asking him to immediately revoke a decree prohibiting non-native Indonesian citizens from owning land in the province.
“I’m surprised and concerned to see that the Yogyakarta governor has continued to ignore and refused to obey the recommendations of the National Commission on Human Rights [Komnas HAM]. By ignoring them, he allows the confiscation of property belonging to Indonesian minorities to happen,” said Siput after he filed his second letter with the Yogyakarta governor’s office at the Kepatihan building, on Thursday.
He referred to a recent Komnas HAM recommendation that ordered the revocation of Yogyakarta Deputy Governor Instruction Letter No. K898/I/A/1975, which denies land ownership rights to all non-native Indonesian citizens in Yogyakarta.
Siput sent a second legal warning letter after Sri Sultan did not respond to his first letter within 30 days of the letter being accepted on Sept.14.
Komnas HAM issued two recommendation letters, one in August 2014 and one in August 2015, both of which asked the Yogyakarta governor to revoke the 1975 instruction letter.
“It’s not fair because with this policy, all land bought by people of Chinese descent in Yogyakarta is given the legal status of state land under the right-to-build [HGB] license. This means they have to rent the land, which actually belongs to them, from the state. The even worse thing is that once the HGB license expires, the land’s legal status is changed into the property of the Yogyakarta Palace,” said Siput. (ebf)
