Newspapers are spreading the latest news on Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan’s plan to cancel the hak guna bangunan (right to build — HGB) certificates that have been issued to several developers in connection with the reclamation project. Anies argued that the previous government violated a regulation related to the reclamation project. Meanwhile, the public relations officer of the Agrarian and Spatial Planning Ministry said that cancelling the HGB would require a legal review. Not long after that, as published by thejakartapost.com (accessed on Jan. 10, 2018), Agrarian and Spatial Planning Minister Sofyan Djalil explained that the ministry refused to cancel the land certificates. Seeing these various viewpoints, one may ask, would it possible for an executive to cancel the land certificate? Indonesian land laws, as regulated under the Agrarian Law of 1960, ar...

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.