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Capital city relocation plan sparks land ownership concerns
When the Post visited the two regencies in mid-September, most of the land in Samboja district, Kutai Kartanegara regency was filled with oil pumps and other facilities managed by state-owned energy company Pertamina as well as small-scale coal mining companies.On the other side, most land in the neighboring Sepaku subdistrict of North Penajam Paser regency was filled with rows of oil palm trees from plantations mostly owned by smallholders.
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Vehicles drive past lush forest on one side and cleared land on the other in Sepaku district, North Penajam Paser regency, East Kalimantan on Sept. 12. (JP/Gede Dharma)
F
or local farmer Sibukdin, Sepaku subdistrict in North Penajam Paser regency, East Kalimantan is the only place he knows like the back of his hand. The 60-year-old man said he and his family had been living there for generations.
He claimed that his ancestors of the Paser Balik indigenous community had lived in the area centuries ago.
Paser Balik is one of 12 subcommunities of the indigenous Paser people, who mostly exist across East Kalimantan. The community formed two sultanates of Sadurengas and Paser between the 1500s and 1910s.
A recent survey estimates that around 100,000 Paser people still live across the province, including in Sepaku sub-district.
After years of living peacefully working on his own small plantation, Sibukdin recently became concerned about the government’s plan to build a new capital city in East Kalimantan. The only thing that came to his mind was if the mega project would take his land once and for all.
“This is our home and here’s where we live. I don’t think I can hand over this land to anyone because where else will I live?” Sibukdin told The Jakarta Post.
When President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo announced his ambitious plan in August to relocate the capital city from Jakarta to North Penajam Paser and Kutai Kartanegara regencies in East Kalimantan, many raised questions about which land would be used to build the new city.
