The sweet promise of land reform in the Jokowi era

• The land reform of President Joko Widodo’s (Jokowi) government is considered an illusion. The plight of farmers is difficult, the confiscation of land for investments and infrastructure projects is commonplace from Aceh to Papua. The fact that the government is siding with investors further worsens the plight of farmers.
• Jokowi’s government allows corrupt practices in the field of agrarian and natural resources and the land mafia. In fact, in a national economic structure that relies on the extraction of wealth from agrarian resources, the main epicenter of corruption is within the government agency that issues permits and the right to manage.
• The national strategic project (PSN), food sector, also creates problems. Until 2024, the confiscation of popular lands for the benefit of the PSN in 134 localities will reach 571,000 hectares and 1.86 million hectares in 11 provinces for food plantation projects.
• KPA data shows that over the course of a decade, there were 2,939 agrarian conflicts covering an area of ​​6.30 million hectares, resulting in 1.7 million families becoming victims of agrarian conflicts. A total of 2,442 farmers, indigenous peoples, women and activists were criminalized.

The land reform of President Joko Widodo’s (Jokowi) government is considered an illusion. The plight of farmers is difficult, the confiscation of land for investments and infrastructure projects is commonplace from Aceh to Papua. The fact that the government is siding with investors further worsens the plight of farmers.

In Jakarta, for example, farmers in Kampung Bayam are struggling to farm on minimal land because they were displaced when the Jakarta International Stadium (JIS) project started in 2019.

Most of us are currently crashing agreesvegetables, melons, agriculture as before ajathe difference is the location ofNo There is. With a minimum of land don’t worry, wear it pot, said Muhammad Furqon, chairman of the Madani Spinach Farmers Group, at Mongabay on National Farmers Day some time ago.

Kampung Bayam is located in Papanggo Village, Tanjung Priok District, North Jakarta. Today, the land they lived on is where JIS stands. Around 138 families in Kampung Bayam are affected.

“As farmers on the outskirts of the city, we have been eliminated, blocked, the state has not been present among the population, the urban poor and the farmers,” Furqon said.

They had been moving from place to place, starting with setting up tents around the JIS project, occupying Kampung Susun Bayam which was established by the government until now in a temporary residence at Jalan Tongkol Pergudangan Kerapu 10, Ancol, North Jakarta.

Today, farmers are starting to organize their lives from scratch. They started farming but on limited land. At least agricultural products can help sustain life.

He said the hype around land reform was just empty talk by the government. The government has not been there for the people.

There was no government presence, we were just stuck. “We live in the North with limited land,” he said.

Ato, a farmer from Indramayu, West Java, is also finding it increasingly difficult to farm. A 52-year-old farmer who lives in Suka Slamet village said hundreds of hectares of agricultural land in his village could not be harvested due to weather conditions.

He believes that government aid is minimal and poorly targeted to farmers.

The current situation of farmers is worrying because there are land confiscations, as happened in Majalengka by sugarcane companies.

There, farmers, Ato said, rent land from the company, but there is no clarity. Eventually, the company took control of the residents’ land and didn’t move.

So he (the company) said here is a photocopy of the KK KTP (family card) later rented first (land). This proved difficult to take. Arable land, just work on Already llama.

Gagal land reform

Dewi Kartika, secretary-general of the Agrarian Reform Consortium (KPA), said there were 18 crimes against the agrarian constitution during Jokowi’s era, involving deforestation, mining, land use for infrastructure and development on small maritime coasts. This crime, he explained, caused a prolonged conflict with the community and farmers.

“Even though this government promised from the start that it would carry out agrarian reform on an area of ​​9 million hectares, including in the context of land redistribution and the resolution of agrarian conflicts,” he said. he declared.

Dewi said Jokowi failed to carry out land reform in accordance with the constitutional mandate of Article 33 of the 1945 Constitution and the 1960 Basic Agrarian Law (UUPA) through land reform.

The Ministry of Agrarian Territorial Planning (ATR/BPN) limited itself to distributing land titles, did not target areas of agrarian conflict, did not correct land inequalities and did not redistribute land rights. land, he said.

KPA noted that during the period 2015-2023, Jokowi, through the Minister of ATR/BPN, was only able to regulate the abandoned lands of the former HGU and HGB covering an area of ​​77,000 hectares on 7.24 million hectares of land marked as abandoned.

Jokowi’s government allows corrupt practices in the field of agrarian and natural resources and the land mafia. In fact, in a national economic structure that relies on the extraction of wealth from agrarian resources, the main epicenter of corruption is within the government agency that issues permits and the right to manage.

He gave an example, through the Job Creation Act’s policies regarding land reserves, forest areas with special management and forgiveness for illegal logging, mining and palm oil companies. Through these three political channels, the legalization of agrarian and natural resource corruption has reached 8.84 million hectares.

Jokowi’s land reform is just a sweet promise. Government policies, he said, had actually resulted in conflict. The Job Creation Law, for example, perpetuates land grabbing in the name of investment.

KPA data shows that over the course of a decade, there were 2,939 agrarian conflicts covering an area of ​​6.30 million hectares, resulting in 1.7 million families becoming victims of agrarian conflicts. A total of 2,442 farmers, indigenous peoples, women and activists were criminalized.

Among the victims of the agrarian conflict, 181 people were women. Additionally, 1,062 people were persecuted and arrested for defending their constitutional rights to land and sources of life.

“Under Jokowi’s administration, thousands of farmers were arrested, thousands of farmers were intimidated and even killed, 79 died in agrarian conflict areas during the 10 years of Jokowi’s administration” , he said.

In the management of agrarian conflicts, the approach always involves the TNI and the Polri.

In addition to investments, agrarian crimes are also perpetrated under the pretext of national strategic projects (PSN), food sector. Until 2024, he said, the confiscation of popular lands for the PSN in 134 localities will reach 571,000 hectares and 1.86 million hectares in 11 provinces for the sake of projects food sector.

Instead of maintaining food sovereignty through projects food sector The government continues to import food. It is proven, based on the data of the Ministry of Commerce and the Central Statistics Agency for 2023, that foreign products are distributed in the market, such as 7.26 million tons of rice and 5.56 million tons vegetables. Similarly, fruits reached 4.24 million tonnes, sugar 35.70 million tonnes and even salt reached 16.18 million tonnes.

The government is systematically encouraging the development of food agriculture to rely more on food businesses as suppliers of food products. food sector. Farmers are becoming smaller and poorer, and their position as farmers and fishermen as food producers continues to be weakened.

The Jokowi government’s food policy also eliminates women’s sovereignty over local production systems.

Faced with these various problems, they demanded a solution from the government. Among other things, the government must carry out land reform in accordance with the 1945 Constitution and the 1960 UUPA, institutional reform to support land reform and repeal the Employment Creation Act and its derivative legal products.

Next, draft and ratify the Land Reform Bill and the Indigenous Peoples Bill to strengthen the ideals of the UUPA. Then, thoroughly investigate abuse of authority, agrarian corruption and land mafia.

Then, stop and severely punish the practices of the food import mafia which destroy the production of farmers, fishermen, breeders and salt growers and weaken the realization of rights and even food sovereignty.
Dissolve land banks, free farmers, indigenous peoples, fishermen, women, the urban poor and agrarian activists who have been imprisoned and criminalized for fighting for land rights.

Another demand, they urge an end to violent and authoritarian methods in the management of agrarian conflicts. Protect and stop coastal areas, small islands and fishing grounds food sector.

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Pasundan Farmers Union, Building an Educational and Economic Center for Farmers