Experts and environmentalists had criticized what they feared would be a hasty decision to pass a land bill they deemed to be inadequate in terms of handling land-related problems.

Indonesia is facing five agrarian crises: ownership disparity between investors and farmers, growing conflict between stakeholders in the industry, widespread ecological damage, rapid change in designation of function from farming purposes to nonfarming purposes and poverty as a result of the ownership disparity. The new land law should at least address these five agrarian crises.

The latest draft land bill raises questions over whether the purpose of the future land law is to protect society’s interests or whether it leans more toward economic interests, such as facilitating investment activities.

While land is both a social and a capital asset and serves a common interest in a community, land also serves to boost the economy in various ways, such as in capital investment and infrastructure development.

This limited valuable asset has to be able to accommodate both societal and economic needs. Therefore, Indonesia indeed needs a new or revised Land Law; however, any law or regulation related to land must be able to fairly cater to both these needs.

There are several key concerns with the current land bill.