BRIN Report Reveals Economic Motive Behind the Claim of the Cek Bocek Indigenous Community Worth Rp7 Trillion

Illustration. (Photo: Dok. Antara)

JAKARTA - A cross-disciplinary study conducted by the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) on the Cek Bocek Selesek Reen Sury (CBSR) community in Sumbawa Regency provides a new perspective in the polemics of claims of indigenous peoples' identity that have been developing. BRIN assesses that the identity narrative built in the claim has a close relationship with economic interests, especially related to compensation claims worth Rp7 trillion to the mining industry.

In its study report, BRIN assessed that the value of the compensation claim did not emerge through the traditional mechanism of assessing customary wealth, but was formed in the process of negotiation and the dynamics of agrarian conflicts that developed with the mining company after 2000. BRIN categorized this phenomenon as identity revival or ethnogenesis, namely the process of forming a new social identity in response to social-political changes.

BRIN also highlighted the use of administrative documents such as the Land Ownership Certificate (SKPT) which serves as the basis for land release claims and compensation claims. In the report, BRIN assessed that the documents show how the identity of the CBSR is used in the context of economic bargaining. BRIN noted that there were the same actors involved in the issuance of the SKPT and also played a role in the preparation of the compensation claim, thus illustrating the interrelationship between village administration, social movements, and claim dynamics.

Coordinator of the BRIN Research Team for the Assessment of the Existence of Indigenous Communities in Sumbawa, Dr. Rusli Cahyadi, through a written statement, reminded the importance of caution by local governments in responding to claims of recognition of adat.

"The Sumbawa Regency Government needs to be very careful in granting recognition. If recognition is given based on instruments that are not legally valid, such as Perdes and SKPT unilaterally, this risks creating legal uncertainty and triggering horizontal conflicts in the community," said Rusli, in his statement, Monday, February 23.

Meanwhile, the academic of the Faculty of Law of Samawa University (UNSA), Endra Syaifuddin, S.H., M.H., emphasized that recognition as an Indigenous Legal Community (MHA) has strict requirements and cannot be met only through unilateral claims or the sudden formation of an indigenous institution.

This BRIN study and the views of academics are a reminder for the public and policymakers to be more careful in responding to claims of identity in the agrarian conflict area. BRIN emphasizes that protection of citizens must remain the state's concern, but the process of recognizing adat needs to be carried out carefully, data-based, and through legitimate mechanisms, so as not to cause legal uncertainty and wider social impacts.

"The substantial conditions set out in national regulations are cumulative, ranging from the history of authentic origins to the existence of customary legal institutions that are still alive and are carried out in community life," he explained.

This BRIN study and the views of academics are a reminder for the public and policymakers to be more careful in responding to claims of identity in the agrarian conflict area. BRIN emphasizes that protection of citizens must remain the state's concern, but the process of recognizing adat needs to be carried out carefully, data-based, and through legitimate mechanisms, so as not to cause legal uncertainty and wider social impacts.