Land Control Abandoned Reaps Polemic, Minister Of ATR/BPN Conveys Apology

JAKARTA - Minister of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/Head of the National Land Agency (ATR/BPN) Nusron Wahid apologized for his viral statement regarding the policy of controlling abandoned land.

In his recent statement, he said, the entire land of the people belongs to the state.

"On behalf of the Minister of ATR/Head of BPN Nusron Wahid, I apologize to all Indonesian people, to the public, netizens for my statement some time ago which went viral and caused polemics in the community and sparked misunderstandings," Nusron said at a press conference at his office, Tuesday, August 12.

Nusron explained that he made the statement referring to Article 33 Paragraph (3) of the 1945 Constitution (UUD).

The law states that the earth, water and natural wealth contained in it are controlled by the state and used as much as possible for the prosperity of the people.

The Golkar politician emphasized that the control was carried out for productive rice fields, yards and inheritance land owned by residents, especially with the status of Certificate of Ownership (SHM).

This means that the control targets land with the status of Cultivation Rights (HGU) and Building Use Rights (HGB).

"So, this solely targets the land status of HGU and HGB, which covers millions of hectares, but is unemployed or not used and unproductive. Not targeting people's land, people's fields, people's yard or inheritance land, especially those that already have ownership and rights to use certificate status," he said.

According to Nusron, he made the statement with the intention of joking.

He admitted that he did not expect his statement to lead to a wrong perception.

In the future, Nusron is committed to being more careful in choosing words so that government policy messages are delivered properly.

"After I witnessed it again, we realized and acknowledged that the statement, jokes called it inappropriate, inappropriate and inappropriate for us to convey, let alone conveyed by a public official. So that it can lead to wrong and wild perceptions in society," he concluded.