Calls Land For Two Years Not Used To Be Taken By The State, Nusron Wahid: Inaccurate Jokes

Minister of ATR/BPN Nusron Wahid (Photo: Theresia Agatha/VOI)

JAKARTA - Minister of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/Head of the National Land Agency (ATR/BPN) Nusron Wahid gave an explanation regarding his statement that sparked a polemic about the policy of controlling abandoned land.

In a recent statement, he had said that "all people's land belongs to the state". Then, the sentence caused a broad misunderstanding.

Nusron explained that the viral statement was actually conveyed with the intention of joking, but he did not expect that it would lead to a wrong perception.

"We are aware and acknowledge that the statement, the joke is inappropriate, inappropriate and inappropriate for us to convey, let alone convey it by a public official," Nusron said at a press conference at his office, Tuesday, August 12.

He also publicly apologized for his viral remarks regarding the policy of controlling abandoned land.

"On behalf of the Minister of ATR/Head of BPN Nusron Wahid, I apologize to all Indonesian people, to the public, to netizens for my statement some time ago which went viral and caused polemics in the community and sparked misunderstandings," he said.

The Golkar politician explained that he made the statement referring to Article 33 Paragraph (3) of the 1945 Constitution (UUD). The law states that the earth, water and natural wealth contained in it are controlled by the state and used as much as possible for the prosperity of the people.

He emphasized that control is carried out for productive rice fields, yards and inheritance land owned by residents, especially with the status of Certificate of Ownership (SHM). This means that the control targets land with the status of Cultivation Rights (HGU) and Building Use Rights (HGB).

"So, this solely targets the land status of HGU and HGB, which covers millions of hectares, but is unemployed or not used and unproductive. Not targeting people's land, people's fields, people's yard or inheritance land, especially those that already have ownership and rights to use certificate status," he said.