Jokowi's Promise To Eradicate Land Mafia Must Be Supported Because Agrarian Conflicts In His Leadership Era Increased Sharply
President Joko Widodo (Photo: BPMI Setpres/Rusman)
JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has promised to eradicate land mafias. At the same time, there are a lot of land disputes happening recently. How's the data?
Jokowi emphasized that the government is committed to eradicating the land mafia. This is in order to realize agrarian reform and agrarian certainty.
"And certainty about the availability of a fair living space for the community. Including full commitment in eradicating land mafias," Jokowi said via his Twitter account.
In addition, Jokowi also reminded that the Police should not hesitate to investigate the land mafia. "And don't let law enforcement officers back the land mafia."
Jokowi said he didn't want the little people to have legal certainty over the land on which they depended. Meanwhile, he also doesn't want entrepreneurs "to have no legal certainty over their land."
The government is fully committed to resolving agrarian conflicts that occur in the country, in order to realize agrarian reform and ensure the availability of a fair living space for the community. Including, full commitment in eradicating land mafias. pic.twitter.com/d5jjI0hMPx
— Joko Widodo (@jokowi) September 22, 2021
Land dispute
Jokowi's statement came out to coincide with the many cases of land disputes that have occurred recently. For example, it was recently reported that members of the TNI Village Administration (Babinsa) in Manado City, North Sulawesi were dealing with Brimob personnel who were defending PT Ciputra Internasional. It was reported that the Babinsa was being attacked by Brimob officers for defending land owned by residents.
This is how it sits. As quoted by the People's Mind, the problem began when Ari Tahiru (67 years old), a local resident, asked members of the Indonesian Army Babinsa for help.
Ari, who is known to be an illiterate resident, is trying to defend the land inherited from PT Ciputra Internasional or Ciputra Land. He insisted that the land was legal as an inheritance and could be proven by the decision of the Supreme Court (MA).
Then suddenly, armed Brimob officers carrying a letter of assignment questioned the reason for Babinsa Winangun Atas to interfere in the issue of land which was claimed to belong to PT Ciputra Internasional. After that, Babinsa members were summoned in writing to the Manado Police.
Knowing this, Kodam Inspector (Irdam) Brigadier General Tumilaar protested. He said Babinsa was taught not to hurt and scare people's hearts.
Brigadier General Junior then wrote an open letter to the National Police Chief Gen. Pol Listyo Sigit Prabowo. Meanwhile, Kapendam XIII/Merdeka Lieutenant Colonel Inf Jhonson Sitorus explained that the invitation for clarification from the Manado Police to Babinsa Winangun Atas was not carried out on the grounds that it was not through cross-institutional coordination.
In addition, a similar case that is being discussed is the land dispute between PT Sentul City and Activist Rocky Gerung. This case began when Rocky received a summons to demolish his house in Bojong Koneng Village, Babakan Madang, Bogor Regency.
Rocky Gerung (Photo: Doc. Antara)
In its subpoena, the company warned that if Rocky entered the area, strict action would be taken on the alleged criminal acts of Article 167.170 and Article 385 of the Criminal Code. He was given 7x24 hours to dismantle and vacate his house. If not, the company will ask for help from Satpol PP to knock it down.
Each has a strong claim to this dispute. As quoted by Kompas, PT Sentul City claims the rightful owner of the land claimed by Rocky Gerung because it holds the right to a parcel of land with a Hak Guna Bangunan (HBG) certificate. The company also has a Decree (SK) from the Governor of the First Level Region of West Java Province regarding Approval of Location Permits and Land Acquisition.
Meanwhile, according to Rocky Gerung's attorney, Haris Azhar, his client has been living in the location since 2009 and got it legally. Rocky, said Haris, also had a non-dispute certificate signed by the village head of Bojong Koneng at that time.
On this subpoena, Rocky Gerung plans to sue PT Sentul City Tbk back with a lawsuit amounting to Rp 1 trillion. The value of the immaterial lawsuit is because the place where he lives is very valuable because he has many memories.
Anomaly
President Jokowi's promise to eradicate the land mafia and resolve agrarian conflicts actually deserves support. Not only that, the promise also needs to be encouraged so that its realization is not only limited to mere words. The reason is that agrarian conflicts during the Jokowi administration did increase significantly compared to the previous administration.
There is something interesting from the data of the Agrarian Reform Consortium (pdf). In its 2020 Year-End Report, KPA noted that there were anomalies that occurred from data on agrarian conflicts throughout the year.
Logically, when the COVID-19 pandemic crisis hits, according to KPA, this will be able to stop the eruption of agrarian conflicts. This is because economic growth that is minus assumptions will affect many investment plans and expansion of domestic and foreign business groups.
But what happened was the opposite. "There was an anomaly, a pandemic and minus economic growth turned out to be unable to stop let alone stop the pace of corporate expansion to seize people's lands," he wrote.
Illustration of land dispute resolution (Photo from Antara)
As we know, in early 2020, our economy was on the verge of a recession due to minus growth. Even in the second quarter, the Ministry of Finance recorded Indonesia's economic growth of -5.32 percent due to the PSBB restriction policy.
"Nevertheless, the economic crisis situation and the PSBB have not paralyzed the repressive practices of land grabbing and land acquisition by giant business entities. As a result, the eruption of agrarian conflicts in the field continues during the pandemic," KPA wrote.
Double increase
Throughout 2020 KPA recorded that there had been 241 eruptions of agrarian conflicts in 359 villages/villages, involving 135,337 families on a land area of 624,272,711 hectares. Compared to 2019 as many as 279 conflicts, the decline is only around 14 percent this year.
For comparison, in the April-September 2019 period, our economy recorded growth of 5.01 percent, and agrarian conflict eruptions in that period recorded 133 conflict eruptions. Meanwhile, in the same period in 2020, in the midst of Indonesia's economic growth which reached minus 4.4%, the eruption of agrarian conflicts reached 138 incidents.
Then for another comparison, when the global economic crisis occurred in 2008, KPA's agrarian conflict data showed a decrease in the number of eruptions of agrarian conflicts. "In 2008, KPA recorded "only" 24 eruptions of agrarian conflicts that occurred during the year. However, the current situation is far different, with 241 eruptions of agrarian conflicts that occurred in 2020 in the midst of the national economy being in recession."
Secretary General of KPA Dewi Kartika explained that agrarian conflicts in the Jokowi era, which has only been running for 7 years, have drastically increased. In fact, according to him, the number of agrarian conflicts is far from the previous era's government.
Dewi explained that during 2015 until now there were 2,291 agrarian conflicts. This number is doubled compared to 10 years under President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's leadership of 1,770 agrarian conflicts.
"This shows that there is a very massive land grabbing process in all parts of Indonesia, both in villages occupied by agrarian, maritime, rural, customary and peasant communities. This is an endless agrarian crisis," said Dewi. He said that this should not be allowed, because the Basic Agrarian Law (UUPA) number 5 of 1960 emphasized that the national agrarian law must embody the values of Pancasila.
Dewi also revealed that 68 percent of Indonesia's landmass is already controlled by one percent of business groups and large corporations, this is the worst land tenure inequality since the UUPA was passed. And this condition is further exacerbated by the enactment of the Job Creation Act by the government.
*Read other information about Agrarian CONFLICT or read other interesting articles from Ramdan Febrian Arifin.