JAKARTA —
President Joko Widodo is targeting community land certification matters throughout the country to be completed next year. He conveyed this when distributing land certificates in Sidoarjo district, East Java, Wednesday (27/12).
“We want to work hard so that next year it can be completed. But if you slip up, maybe it’s still six million. This means that next year, all land in Indonesia, in our country, will all have certificates. “This is hard work from the BPN, district, provincial and central offices,” said Jokowi.
According to him, land certificates are very important because they are proof of land ownership. Ownership of land certificates, he said, can reduce conflicts or land disputes. Jokowi said that during every work visit to various areas, the problem most often expressed by the community was land grabbing.
Jokowi admitted that resolving the problem of community land certification was not easy. Since 2015, he said, there have been 126 million pieces of land in various parts of the country that have to be certified. However, at that time, only 46 million land had certificates considering that the National Land Agency (BPN) only issued 500 thousand land certificates per year.
“This means that there are still 80 million who have not been certified, so there are many conflicts in our country because of the land, the land has not been certified. “There are those with neighbors, brothers and sisters, between communities and the government, communities and private companies, everywhere,” he explained.
“And now I go to villages, to regions, 1-2 are still there, but this is reducing land conflicts, reducing land disputes,” he explained.
Distribution of Land Certificates Cannot Resolve Agrarian Conflict
Chairman of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) for Advocacy and Networking, Zainal Arifin, said that issuing community land certificates cannot resolve the agrarian conflict which is still shackling Indonesia.
According to him, distributing land certificates to the community is the government’s obligation to legally recognize the relationship between the community and the land they own. However, he emphasized that the distribution of land certificates would not solve agrarian problems or conflicts.
“The question is, does land certification reduce agrarian conflict? We see and note that the problem is not in the context of land certification, but in relation to resolving existing agrarian conflicts. “There is an imbalance of power that has not yet been resolved,” said Zainal.
He explained that it is possible that the land certified by the government in the current Jokowi era is not conflict land, but community land that has not been certified due to various factors, including the lack of funds to manage it.
According to Zainal, there are still many agrarian conflicts that have not been resolved. He mentioned a number of national strategic projects (PSN which often confiscate community land, such as what happened in Wadas village, Central Java; Rempang Island in Riau; and Obi Island in South Halmahera.
“Jokowi’s resolution of the agrarian conflict today is fake agrarian reform. “In fact, through the Job Creation Law, agrarian conflicts are increasing,” he concluded.
“Until the end of Jokowi’s two terms (in office), the Indigenous Peoples Bill had not been passed. “Indigenous communities are still struggling to defend their land in forest areas,” he added.
Zainal did not deny that there was an agrarian conflict accompanied by YLBHI which could be resolved. so that the community can seize the rights to the land they own. However, this is also because the company that seized the community’s land no longer has Cultivation Rights (HGU).
“The state came to certify, then they said I had given the certificate. Yes, that is the end, but it is not in today’s context what we expect in agrarian conflicts, that the state comes to resolve agrarian conflicts between communities and companies that are invading, grabbing the land of indigenous peoples. The state should be present there because it is the state that creates problems by granting crazy concession permits. “Especially after the Job Creation Law, there was crazy bleaching of palm oil in forest areas,” he stressed. (gi/ab)