Minister AHY Admits That Land Grabbing Cases By Land Mafia Are The Biggest Challenge For Him

Minister of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/Head of the National Land Agency (ATR/BPN) Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (AHY)/ Photo: Antara

Since 2018, efforts to eradicate the land mafia have been carried out through synergy and collaboration between the Ministry of ATR/BPN and law enforcement officers, namely the Indonesian Police and the Indonesian Attorney General's Office.

Minister of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/Head of the National Land Agency (ATR/BPN) Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono or AHY revealed that the land mafia is detrimental to the people and the state while inhibiting investment.

The land mafia has suffered the community. The victims are threatened with losing their land rights as well as buildings that may be the only wealth or asset and this is clearly unfair behavior. Land mafias also harm the country and create legal uncertainty, thus hampering investment," said AHY, ANTARA, Sunday, March 17.

Land crimes, which are generally caused by the land mafia, according to AHY, must be eradicated immediately. This is stated in a memorandum of understanding followed up with the establishment of the Anti Land Mafia Task Force which is tasked with uncovering land crimes by the land mafia.

The Anti Land Mafia Task Force has succeeded in obtaining data on the 2024 Land Crime Operations Target (TO), which is 82 cases with a potential loss of more than IDR 1.7 trillion and a total land area of approximately 4,569 hectares. This number is larger than in 2023 which reached 60 cases.

"We are serious about showing the people how the synergy and collaboration we are carrying out can produce progress in order to uncover various criminal acts. This is proof that synergy and collaboration can lead us to success in the context of law enforcement related to land issues in Indonesia," said AHY.

Not only collaborating with external parties, Minister AHY is also committed to upholding justice internally at the Ministry of ATR/BPN.

"We will act decisively if anyone commits acts against the law, both external and internal, they must get the same treatment. Therefore, we firmly will take action if there are internal ranks involved. However, we also do not want any ranks to become victims because not a few people get reports they become victims. We want to be truly objective, there are clear facts and data, then return them to the applicable law," said AHY.

It is known that the Minister of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/Head of the National Land Agency (ATR/BPN) Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (AHY) revealed that his ministry is serious about eradicating land mafias that are troubling the small people, corporations and even harming the Indonesian state.

The Ministry of ATR/BPN has an important task in establishing a land anti-mafia task force with the aim of resolving various cases, formats including criminal practices committed by the land mafia throughout Indonesia. Many of them become victims, namely the small people who suffer the most, but also corporations including countries that will be severely harmed economically.

AHY himself admitted that the land grabbing case by the mafia was the biggest challenge for the agency he currently leads. He also asked for support from the community so that the responsibility that is now part of the "homework" of the Ministry of ATR for public services can be completed immediately.