Expert: Pulau Rempang Bukan Pemukman Tanah Adat, Tapi Kawasan Hutan!

Photo: Doc. Antara

JAKARTA - The issue of Eco City Rempang in the last few days has become the byword of the Indonesian people. This is due to the lack of public knowledge regarding facts that have not been revealed to the public, triggering the circulation of hoaxes or fake news that smells of SARA.

Even the Minister of ATR/Head of BPN Hadi Tjahjanto explained that the 17,000 hectares of land on Pulau Rempang is mostly a forest area and there is no right to land on it. In response to this, Land Law Expert, Dr. Ir. Tjahjo Arianto SH, MHum, said that Pulau Rempang is a forest cultivated by the cultivators and not customary soil. "So it must be distinguished, there Rempang is most of the former forest and former HGU. So it is not an acknowledgment of ownership, but the recognition that he has worked on, even though the cultivation (planting, livestock) is illegal," Tjahjo told reporters, Monday, September 18. Including the matter of uliyat or customary land, Tjahjo explained that there is no firm legal basis regarding what makes the existence of customary settlements on the island of Rempang.

"If strict rules don't exist, in essence, if there is a law, there is a legal logic. If they work on the land it decreases, living there it decreases, it can be said that it is customary society. But it must be investigated and and re-check what year the forest is released to the cultivators. This is the responsibility of the Mayor of Batam," he said. He added that there is also no state-owned land term, the existence of the government as the manager of the state. All Batam areas are planned to belong to the government under the management of BP Batam, with the characteristics BP Batam being given the Land Management Right (HPL). "So if BP Batam proposes cooperation with investors, then investors will get Building Use Rights (HGB) on HPL. This means that the owner of the permanent land is the government, in this case the Batam region," he explained. He said that the occupation by the people of Pulau Rempang does not necessarily make the community the land owner in question. According to him, the Kampung Tua case is different from the occupation carried out by the people of Pulau Rempang over the former HGU plantation. The occupation by the people of Pulau Rempang does not necessarily make the community the land owner in question. Regarding this population, there must be a special policy and should not be maintained like Kampung Tua elsewhere.

The model for resolving land control disputes between the community and BP Batam must begin with tracing history of land through history, cultural heritage, physical signs of nature such as the age of trees or hard plants planted, recognition and testimony of the community and traditional institutions.

Letter from the Deputy for Institutional and Community Relations of the Ministry of State Secretariat Number B.2593/Kemensetneg/D-3/DM.05/05/2015 dated May 12, 2015 is the answer to the letter of demand from the people of Kampung Tua to the President.

"The essence of this letter ordered the Governor of the Riau Islands, the Head of the Regional Office of the Riau Islands National Land Agency, and the Head of the Batam Concession Agency to conduct a study in order to resolve it," he said. Meanwhile, Public Policy Observer Agus Pambagio suspects that there is an overlap related to land ownership, resulting in agrarian conflicts on Pulau Rempang, Batam, Riau Islands.

Agus also requested that the Ministry of ATR/BPN be able to improve data related to land ownership on the island of Rempang which is suspected to have overlapped. "I suspect that after the plan to develop the island of Rempang in the 2000s, then many people are looking for land there and given a letter so that their ownership overlaps. Now this must be tidied up by the ATR/BPN," said Agus. "Because from the beginning they didn't have any, because it was state land, but it has been worked on for decades," he said. Agus said that legally, there is no regulation requiring the government to compensate for land owned by the community. "Because in regulations if land belongs to the state like HGB and so on, if requested by the state, they have to leave," he said.

The problem of agrarian conflict also backfired on the public regarding the statement of President Joko Widodo's (Jokowi) campaign promise in 2019 which was said to be giving a certificate to the public. "I saw a program if the president of the campaign in 2019 promised to love a rich certificate, you know, and it was not communicated properly," he said. So, he continued, when investors wanted to build the land, it was hampered due to the lack of data on social anthropology studies. According to him, in this case the government did not review related to human science studies and so on.

Agus also suspected that there was a conflict of interest behind the agrarian problems on Pulau Rempang.

"Yes, of course there are those who ride them. When it comes to politics, there must be other interests, let alone want elections," he said.