Police Reform Tested In Lumajang: From State Land To Fictitious Assets

Illustration of the National Police (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Police reforms often begin with big words, digitization, modernization, or precision-based governance.

But in Besuk Village, Lumajang, all the jargons were tested by the simplest thing, namely damaged bamboo fences, neglected land certificates, and police reports received without legal basis.

The case of the report of Muhammad Maliki, became the microcosm of the old Polri disease, namely the procedure obeyed on paper, but justice died in the field.

On this matter, the Secretary of the Founder of Indonesian Audit Watch (IAW) Iskandar Sitorus for the Commission for the Acceleration of Police Reform, paid attention to the report of Muhammad Maliki and the P2T2 DAS Working Community of Lumajang Regency.

For IAW, from the Dutch colonial era to the Lumajang Police today, the land of Stren Afvor Brubi became a silent witness on how the law could change its form, namely from a tool of justice to a tool of power.

"From the river border that was previously regulated for the irrigation of the people, it has now turned into a tug-of-war arena between residents guarding state land and officials who have turned a blind eye to legal evidence," said Iskandar Wednesday, November 12.

Data from IAW, during the Dutch East Indies, this area was known as Afvor Broeby, part of a colonial irrigation network. Agrarische Wet 1870 emphasized that its status is a domestic van de stat or state land.

So according to Article 33 paragraph 3 of the 1945 Constitution and the 1960 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia after independence, this kind of land automatically belongs to the state, with its main function, namely, benefit for the people.

For IAW, the state simply recognizes cultivators, gives rights, and records tax payments.

"This is the first legal basis for citizens. It is not illegal mastery, but the management of the state by the people," he explained.

IAW noted that a new problem arose when the Lumajang Regency Government in 2004 rented a plot of land in the area into a garbage shelter sourced from the APBD.

It is a sign that the Regency Government is aware that it is not the owner. But the irony is, two decades later, namely that in 2020 the status of the land suddenly changed on paper, namely that this river border land was actually put into the Goods Inventory Card (KIB) A of the Lumajang Regency PUTR Service without a handover report, without a legal basis.

"From here a large anomaly was born. The district government became the owner of state land from the original lease to master. Sadly, in 2020, the Lumajang Regency Government issued a Retribution Decree (SKR) on land that was never its legal asset," he said.

Not only that, IAW data turns out, there are allegations of levies of Rp. 17.5 million and became the basis for the conflict between the cultivators represented by Eko Prabekti and his friends with a tenant named Muhammad Agus Saifullah.

Even more sad, when Muhammad Agus Saifullah sued residents civilly, the Lumajang District Court decided firmly that the lawsuit was Niet Ontvankelijke Verklaard (NOV), meaning that Agus did not have a legal standing to sue, because he was not the rightful owner of the land.

"This is evidence of how the Lumajang Police fail to implement a balanced principle of justice," he said.

"And this is where the tragedy begins, namely that reports that should be rejected are accepted and processed quickly, because one of the investigators is suspected of having a personal relationship with the reporter," he explained.

IAW emphasized that there is a conflict of structural interest, and this is the most dangerous disease in law enforcement.

"This kontras is a portrait of the opaque law enforcement, where Eko and Maliki's two legal reports were abandoned, while the reports of the losers in court were accommodated," he said.

IAW's legal analysis shows that there are five serious violations by Lumajang Police investigators, namely, not verifying the legal standing of the reporter, conflicts of interest of investigators, not giving SP2HP to the reporter Maliki and Eko naturally, not conducting field audits and processing crime scenes in cases of vandalism, as well as indications of abuse of authority in accordance with Article 421 of the Criminal Code because investigators processed reports that should have been legally killed.

IAW appreciates President Prabowo Subianto's move to form the National Police Reform Acceleration Commission to eliminate the practice of legal inequality and abuse of authority.

But the reform will be meaningless, if it is not tested in real cases, and Lumajang could be his first laboratory.

"Police reforms cannot stop at Headquarters, but must touch small spaces, where residents face the apparatus. This is where legal morals are tested, not by theory, but by treatment of the small people," he explained.

In order to create justice, IAW recommends accelerating Polri reform, with systemic actions in the form of integrating SPKT and SP2HP databases, so that the public can monitor transparency in the handling of reports.

"Collaboration across institutions such as the National Police, BPN, the Prosecutor's Office, the Inspectorate to resolve land disputes that have the potential to be criminalized. Involve the KPK in the audit of the issuance of SKR, so that the potential for extortion does not repeat itself," he asked.