The National Police Chief Is Asked To Follow Up On A 6-year-old Land Grabbing Case In Jambi

Executive Director of the Indonesia Public Institute (IPI), Karyono Wibowo/ Photo: IST

JAKARTA - The stalled report on the alleged seizure of land for 6 years at the Jambi Regional Police has again received criticism from the Indonesia Public Institute (IPI). IPI said that the matter must be resolved directly by the National Police Chief in order to improve the image of the Police in the community.

"The National Police Chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo must immediately intervene to resolve the alleged land grabbing case whose report has been stalled for 6 years at the Jambi Regional Police," said the Executive Director of the Indonesia Public Institute (IPI), Karyono Wibowo, in a written statement received, Tuesday, February 13.

Karyono Wibowo also hopes that the National Police Chief will immediately summon the Jambi Police Chief in the near future to immediately resolve the case of land grabbing for the poor.

In addition to urging the National Police Chief to deal with the problem of grabbing the land of Jambi residents, IPI also asked KSP (Presidential Chief of Staff) Moeldoko to immediately intervene to help resolve the land grabbing problem that occurred in Jambi.

"KSP is given a special task to deal with land dispute problems, namely the Acceleration of Agrarian Conflict Resolution and Strengthening Agrarian Reform Policy which is the mandate of President Joko Widodo," he said.

Furthermore, Karyono Wibowo criticized the performance of the National Police Chief and KSP which only focused on the 2024 election. The reason, continued Karyono, is that the problem of land grabbing that has not been resolved for 6 years is also very detrimental to the poor in Jambi.

"Don't just be busy taking care of the 2024 election. The issue of land rights and agrarian justice for the community is more important. (they) Their job is to enforce the law and justice must be prioritized," he said.

Previously, two Jambi residents named Junaidi and Mustafa Kamal complained about their fate to the Center For Budget Analysis (CBA) over the alleged land grabbing case allegedly carried out by oil palm entrepreneurs with the initials A at KM 13 - 16 Sungai Gelam Village, Sungai Gelam District, Muaro Jambi Regency.

As a result of the seizure of the land, the two Jambi residents were forced to stay in a rented house because all of their land had been confiscated.

Based on CBA data, their land allegedly controlled by entrepreneurs with the initials A is around 2,000 hectares in the form of SKT (land certificate) and 320 hectares in the form of SHM (Owned Rights Certificate).

"Junaidi and Mustafa Kamal have reported the case of land grabbing to the Jambi Regional Police, and the Jambi Regional Police issued an investigation letter No.Sp.Lidik/126/II/Res.1.2/2019/Ditreskrimum, dated February 20, 2019," said Director of the Center for Budget Analysis (CBA), Uchok Sky Gaddafi in his statement, Monday, February 5.

However, until now, said Ucok, the Jambi Police have not named a suspect in the report on the land grab case.

"Are the police afraid of palm oil entrepreneurs?" he said.