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Jokowi's agrarian reform agenda stalls
Jakarta Post - October 24, 2016
The agrarian reform agenda was included in Jokowi's multifaceted Nawacita development program and consists of seven initiatives, including agrarian conflict settlement, land distribution to farmers and nationwide land legalization.
But none of the three have shown encouraging progress, analysts have said, highlighting the government's lack of will to make its commitments a reality during the last two years, when the country has seen two different agrarian ministers as a result of Cabinet shake-ups.
In several regions, farmers and activists are still fighting brutal battles with companies, the military and the police in land-use conflicts. Hostility toward local communities sometimes leads to torture and can end in bloodshed.
The Agrarian Reform Consortium (KPA), an NGO that seeks to create a fair agrarian system, recorded 252 agrarian conflicts concerning 400,430 hectares of land and involving 108,714 households in 2015. In the first half of 2016 alone, the number of agrarian conflicts reached 270, the group said.
The most recent land-use cases occurred in Tulang Bawang, Lampung, and in Karawang, West Java, which saw a number of farmers and activists arrested by the police for their alleged involvement in clashes with security forces hired by companies to secure their businesses.
KPA secretary-general Iwan Nurdin said the government's efforts to ease land conflicts were minimal, referring to the latest Presidential Office (KSP) report concerning the accomplishments of Jokowi's administration in its first two years.
The KSP recorded 932 cases of land-use disputes and conflicts in 2015, of which 515 were settled. During the first eight months of the year, the figure soared to 2,642 cases, with the government resolving a mere 251 of them.
"It is unlikely that the government could settle agrarian cases if there is no task force established in regard to this issue. How can it manage lots of cases if no serious efforts are taken to address them?" Iwan said on Saturday.
Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam) executive director Wahyu Wagiman said efforts to address agrarian conflicts had hit a snag because they were carried out by a number of government institutions, which was ineffective for resolving cases smoothly.
"There is a study group established by the KSP to map out the root causes of agrarian conflicts. Also there are initiatives carried out by the Agrarian and Spatial Planning Ministry and the Environment and Forestry Ministry. It becomes a sporadic effort, rather than an integrated one," Wahyu said.
KSP data also showed that, of the targeted 4.5 million ha plots of land to be redistributed to farmers, only around 63,900 ha and 123,280 ha, respectively, were processed in 2015 and in the first eight months of 2016.
Iwan said the lack of coordination between the Agrarian and Spatial Planning Ministry and the Environment and Forestry Ministry had partly contributed to the stagnating redistribution process.
Land to be distributed includes areas within forests to be released by the Environment and Forestry Ministry, as well as land with expired cultivation permits (HGU) and neglected plots of land to be released by the Agrarian and Spatial Planning Ministry.
"Also, the government has yet to finalize the draft of two presidential regulations on agrarian reform and on the acquisition of land inside forest areas until now. Those are the instruments needed if the government is serious in its agrarian reform," Iwan said.
The KSP recorded that land certification was also not progressing. Of the targeted 4.5 million ha of land to be legalized by 2019, only 424,573 ha was completed between 2015 and 2016. Iwan said the land legalization process was hampered by rampant illegal levies in land offices.
Agrarian and Spatial Planning Minister Sofjan Djalil has said the ministry is set to establish a task force in a bid to eradicate illegal levies in land certification. The move is part of President Jokowi's new pledge to combat illegal levies within all government institutions.
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/10/24/jokowi-s-agrarian-reform-agenda-stalls.html.
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