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Ownership disputes hamper Jokowi’s land distribution
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Get prepared: Indigenous People’s Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN) secretary general Abdon Nababan (right) takes a picture before the opening of of the 5th AMAN Congress in Tanjung Gusta, Deli Serdang regency, North Sumatra, on Friday. (Antara/Irsan Mulyadi)
T
o carry out an imperative part of his ambitious agrarian reform agenda, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has ordered regional administrations to issue the necessary regulations to ease land distribution, which has been hampered by verification issues.
The reluctance of local administrations to issue certificates and regulations acknowledging indigenous groups across the country has hampered the administration’s plan to allow indigenous people to use 12.7 million hectares and grant 9 million ha to citizens as land objects for agrarian reform (TORA).
As of March, the Environment and Forestry Ministry has only managed to distribute a total of 13,000 ha to 11 indigenous groups in a number of regions including North Sumatra, Banten and Jambi. The distribution of the land was carried out in December.
During a meeting with Indigenous People’s Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN) members at the State Palace on Wednesday, Jokowi said they should not be upset by the achievement because his administration was committed to accelerating the distribution of the land by giving another 55,600 ha to 18 indigenous groups across the country.
The 18 groups live in various regions across the country including Aceh, North Sumatra, West Papua, South Kalimantan, Nusa Tenggara Timur, North Kalimantan, Bali, Maluku and South Sulawesi.
“I have ordered the Home Ministry to push regional administrations to issue certificates and regional regulations to acknowledge indigenous groups across the country,” Jokowi told AMAN members.
(Read also: Jokowi to lead Cabinet meeting on land reform and energy)
Jokowi said the 12.7 million ha were already available and that once local administrations had issued certificates and regional regulations acknowledging the presence of indigenous people, the Environment and Forestry Ministry could go ahead giving out the land to indigenous people in their respective jurisdictions.
AMAN secretary-general Rukka Sombolinggi said there were around 2,000 indigenous groups with a total population of 20 million people grouped under AMAN.
She further said that much of the land that was to be distributed to indigenous people had been given to big corporations, a factor that made local administrations reluctant to issue certificates and bylaws that acknowledged indigenous people and their land rights.
“We just want the government to return our land as mandated by the Constitutional Court ruling,” Rukka said, adding that many leaders of indigenous groups had been targeted by law enforcement bodies when they had entered land disputes with the government and companies.
After meeting with AMAN members, Jokowi convened his ministers for a limited Cabinet meeting to discuss agrarian reform and social forestry issues, during which the President said the agrarian reform agenda must benefit the people in the nation’s lowest 40 percent in terms of economic wellbeing.
Agrarian and Spatial Planning Minister Sofyan Djalil said the government would try to established “land banking” in the bill to contain all data about lands controlled by the government.
“Land banking is also needed to control the price [of land]. It is a body that will manage government lands including lands that belong to PT Kereta Api Indonesia,” Sofyan said, adding that the land banking would be managed by his office.
