Land control
The Jakarta Post’s two-part reportage on Monday and Tuesday strived to portray the severe impact due to the absence of effective laws on land appropriation on the country’s infrastructure development. A senior official at the National Land Agency (BPN) hinted that the land problems in the country are much more severe and damaging than many people had thought.
This newspaper reported that the House of Representatives is expected to pass a much awaited bill on land acquisition in the near future. The law is urgently needed because many mega infrastructure projects, including toll roads and other public utilities, cannot be realized because landowners demand prices that are too high for their land.
According to the draft bill, the government has the right to evict those on land to be used for public interests such as roads, railways, dams, irrigation canals, ports and airports. A clear compensation mechanism will be set up to ensure the projects and the rights of landowners to payment.
During Soeharto’s 32-year-rule until his fall in May 1998, the government very often resorted to the use of force to take land from people on the pretext of public interest. Many people did not receive anything although their land was used for commercial purposes.
Since 1998, the situation changed dramatically. People often set up their own conditions for the release of their property and chaotic land business become one of the stumbling blocks for the return of foreign investments to Indonesia.
A new equilibrium must be found.
In February, the presidentially sanctioned Judicial Mafia Taskforce announced it had found strong indications of massive corruption in the country’s land management sector. Taskforce member Mas Achmad Santosa urged the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to focus on the BPN.
“All this time the country has focused on reforming the National Police, prosecutors and the courts. But the land sector is murky as well,” Mas Achmad said.
KPK spokesperson Johan Budi told the Post that his office had looked at graft in the land sector and concluded that the land agency was just as corrupt as other corrupt institutions such as the police.
The KPK’s 2010 Public Sector Integrity Survey, which was conducted between April and August of last year and involved 12,616 respondents in 22 cities, showed that the land agency, which has local offices across the country, failed to reach the KPK’s minimum standards of integrity.
Just go to a BPN office. Bribery and red tape practices are overt and it is nearly impossible to obtain their services, for example land titles, for free as guaranteed by BPN slogans in the front of their offices. Fake land certificates are reportedly often issued by individual officials at the land agency.
But, according to a BPN official, land ownership in the country is dominated by a small group of rich and powerful people. They are untouchable and even worse their control over land is used to obtain cheap banking credit, many of which become problematic loans.
“The government can issue as many as regulations on land, but the mighty law is this small group of powerful businesspeople who practically have the final say on major land policies,” the official recently told this newspaper.
If the official’s claim is true, then the country still has to endure more devastating problems caused by the country’s chaotic land management.
This newspaper reported that the House of Representatives is expected to pass a much awaited bill on land acquisition in the near future. The law is urgently needed because many mega infrastructure projects, including toll roads and other public utilities, cannot be realized because landowners demand prices that are too high for their land.
According to the draft bill, the government has the right to evict those on land to be used for public interests such as roads, railways, dams, irrigation canals, ports and airports. A clear compensation mechanism will be set up to ensure the projects and the rights of landowners to payment.
During Soeharto’s 32-year-rule until his fall in May 1998, the government very often resorted to the use of force to take land from people on the pretext of public interest. Many people did not receive anything although their land was used for commercial purposes.
Since 1998, the situation changed dramatically. People often set up their own conditions for the release of their property and chaotic land business become one of the stumbling blocks for the return of foreign investments to Indonesia.
A new equilibrium must be found.
In February, the presidentially sanctioned Judicial Mafia Taskforce announced it had found strong indications of massive corruption in the country’s land management sector. Taskforce member Mas Achmad Santosa urged the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to focus on the BPN.
“All this time the country has focused on reforming the National Police, prosecutors and the courts. But the land sector is murky as well,” Mas Achmad said.
KPK spokesperson Johan Budi told the Post that his office had looked at graft in the land sector and concluded that the land agency was just as corrupt as other corrupt institutions such as the police.
The KPK’s 2010 Public Sector Integrity Survey, which was conducted between April and August of last year and involved 12,616 respondents in 22 cities, showed that the land agency, which has local offices across the country, failed to reach the KPK’s minimum standards of integrity.
Just go to a BPN office. Bribery and red tape practices are overt and it is nearly impossible to obtain their services, for example land titles, for free as guaranteed by BPN slogans in the front of their offices. Fake land certificates are reportedly often issued by individual officials at the land agency.
But, according to a BPN official, land ownership in the country is dominated by a small group of rich and powerful people. They are untouchable and even worse their control over land is used to obtain cheap banking credit, many of which become problematic loans.
“The government can issue as many as regulations on land, but the mighty law is this small group of powerful businesspeople who practically have the final say on major land policies,” the official recently told this newspaper.
If the official’s claim is true, then the country still has to endure more devastating problems caused by the country’s chaotic land management.
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