MPR Chair Encourages ATR Minister Hadi Tjahjanto To Fight Land Mafia

MPR Chairman Bambang Soesatyo (ANTARA/HO-Dok Bamsoet)

JAKARTA - Chairman of the MPR Bambang Soesatyo urged the Minister of ATR/Head of BPN Hadi Tjahjanto to eradicate the land mafia because it hurts the community and harms investors.

"The rampant practice of the land mafia not only hurts the general public, but also harms investors. Not infrequently in carrying out their operations, these land mafias also collaborate with the judicial mafia," said Bambang Soesatyo, quoted by ANTARA, Friday, June 18.

According to him, eradicating the land mafia must be carried out from upstream to downstream, from fixing the system at the Ministry of ATR/BPN to building close cooperation with law enforcement.

Bamsoet assessed that Hadi Tjhahjanto's strong leadership spirit was very suitable to face the various challenges and homework faced by the ATR/BPN ministries, such as eradicating land mafia, expanding agrarian reform and resolving agrarian conflicts.

"President Joko Widodo since 2015 has intensified agrarian reform as part of resolving agrarian conflicts that occur in the community," he said.

Bamsoet explained that various targets to be pursued in agrarian reform have been stated in Presidential Regulation Number 2 of 2015 concerning the National Medium-Term Development Plan. However, according to him, until now some have not been fully achieved because there are still big challenges faced in the field.

"Some that have been achieved and even exceeded the target include the legalization of assets from the target of 4.5 million hectares of land by the end of 2021 which has reached 7.79 million hectares. Land registration legalization (PTSL) has also exceeded the target of 3.9 million hectares to 7.68 million hectares," he said.

Meanwhile, according to Bamsoet, the unfinished targets include land redistribution from the target of 4.5 million hectares, only 1.44 million hectares have been achieved and the redistribution of land from the release of forest areas from the target of 4.1 million hectares has only been realized at 298,404 hectares.

He explained, President Joko Widodo at the summit meeting of the Agrarian Reform Task Force (GTRA) Summit 2022 in Wakatobi, Southeast Sulawesi, Thursday (9/6) revealed one of the obstacles to agrarian reform is the sectoral ego between ministries and institutions.

"Therefore, strong 'leadership' is needed from the Ministry of ATR/BPN as a 'leading sector' in the success of agrarian reform," he said.

Bambang Soesatyo assesses that by the success of agrarian reform which is President Jokowi's flagship program, the Ministry of ATR/BPN has not only helped the president overcome the problem of inequality in land tenure and ownership, but has also provided solutions to improve economic access while at the same time prospering the people.