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Clashes between local residents and security forces during a protest against a plan to build the world’s second-largest glass and solar panel factory on Rempang Island, Indonesia, on Sept. 7, 2023. Image courtesy of BP Batam.
The Indonesian government and civil society have signed a joint statement, marking a shared commitment to fast-track agrarian reform in the country.
The joint statement was signed by various ministries on Feb. 19 during the first day of the Asia Land Forum in Jakarta, the largest regional forum focused on land rights and agrarian issues in Asia.
In the joint statement, the Indonesian government and civil society organizations commit to working together on accelerating agrarian reform and strengthening agrarian reform policies, seen as key strategies for poverty alleviation and achieving food self-sufficiency in Indonesia.
Strong commitment and political will from the government to tackle agrarian issues in Indonesia are important as the country is grappled with worsening land ownership inequality, land-grabbing and agrarian conflicts.
As much as 68% of lands in Indonesia are controlled by 1% of the population as the government prioritizes giving concessions to large corporations.
These large-scale infrastructure and resource extraction projects have pushed marginalized groups such as farmers, Indigenous communities and fisherfolk off of their lands.
From 2015 to 2024, there were 3,234 agrarian conflicts across 7.4 million hectares (18.3 million acres) of land, affecting 1.8 million households.
This highly unequal land distribution also resulted in many farmers’ plots of lands shrinking. Official data show there were 16.9 million farmers with plots smaller than 0.5 hectares (1.2 acres), up from about 14.3 million in 2013.
“How can smallholder farmers, with land holdings of less than 0.5 hectares, achieve economic security, let alone national food self-sufficiency?” said Dewi Kartika, secretary-general of the Consortium for Agrarian Reform, an Indonesian NGO that organized this year’s Asia Land Forum.
That’s why the government must redistribute land to small farmers, not only for their survival but to strengthen national food security, she said.
This aligns with the platform of President Prabowo Subianto, who has prioritized achieving both food and energy self-sufficiency as cornerstones of his administration. Since his election campaign in late 2023 and early 2024, Prabowo has emphasized the need for Indonesia to achieve sovereignty in these critical sectors to bolster economic resilience and national security.
To do so, he has set a target to expand harvestable land to 4 million hectares (9.9 million acres) by the end of his term. But it remains unclear whether this will involve land redistribution to small farmers or further corporate-controlled food estate projects.
Dewi pointed out that this can be easily achievable by strengthening the land rights of existing small farmers and redistribute land to them from large corporations, including those that are operating illegally and have abandoned their concessions.
Land tenure is not just the foundation of food security, it’s essential for Indonesia’s economic growth and development, said Budiman Sudjatmiko, the head of the government’s poverty alleviation acceleration agency who also signed the joint statement.
“I want to debunk a common misconception that agrarian reform only benefits poor farmers. This is not true,” he said. “Agrarian reform resolves centuries-old land injustices, allowing nations to focus on new challenges. A country that has not completed agrarian reform still carries unresolved burdens from the past, preventing progress.”
In Indonesia, agrarian reform is often seen as disruptive rather than essential for economic progress, Budiman said.
“Many countries in Southeast Asia and South Asia remain stagnant in their economic growth because they have never fully addressed land inequality, relying instead on temporary economic solutions rather than structural reforms,” he said.
This is something the president understands, Budiman said.
“We are fortunate that in our last cabinet meeting, President Prabowo instructed his ministers to tackle extreme poverty by granting land to the people,” he said.
The president ordered his administration to seize lands from any companies found to be evading taxes or failing to contribute to the economy and redistribute them to farmers, calling it a solution to eradicate extreme poverty, Budiman said.
Land redistribution programs are not new in Indonesia. From 2015 to 2024, former President Joko Widodo aimed to redistribute 4.5 million hectares (11.1 million acres) of state-owned lands and retired concessions to marginalized communities.
As of the end of 2023, however, the government was only able to redistribute 1.8 million hectares (4.4 million acres) of land to communities, well short of its 4.5-million-hectare target.
Contradiction
While Prabowo has emphasized land reform as part of his economic agenda, his approach to food security raises concerns that agrarian reform may take a backseat to corporate-led agricultural projects.
The president has put large-scale agricultural projects as a key solution for achieving food self-sufficiency, arguing that they’re necessary to meet Indonesia’s growing food demands and reduce reliance on imports.
However, critics say these projects often displace local farmers and prioritize corporate interests over community-led agriculture, with the government handing over vast tracts of land to companies.
For instance, Prabowo has tasked the Jhonlin Group, a company owned by influential Bornean tycoon Andi Syamsudin Arsyad, popularly known as Haji Isam, to carry out a food estate project in Indonesia’s easternmost region of Papua.
The project will see the development of 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of rice fields in the district of Merauke, which borders Papua New Guinea.
Critics have raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest, as Isam is the cousin of Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman.
Jhonlin, whose business interests range from palm oil to coal mining, has also allegedly been involved in past land conflicts with local communities and environmental violations, making its role in food estate projects highly controversial.
When asked about this contradiction, Budiman said that just because Prabowo wants to empower small farmers by giving them greater access to lands, it doesn’t mean he’s anti-business.
Therefore, large corporations will still be able to carry out food estate projects, but farmers will be given the opportunity to have majority shares in these companies, he said.
“President Prabowo is not against corporations. He has clearly stated that large businesses will not be disrupted — but they must support food self-sufficiency, downstream processing and industrialization,” Budiman said. “Yes, the private sector will remain, but they will be in a minority position.”
Villagers of Bangkal protest against palm oil company PT Hamparan Masawit Bangun Persada (HMBP), an affiliate of the BEST Group, in October 2023. Image courtesy of the National Workers Union (SPN).
Call for leadership
To further strengthen the government’s commitment toward an agrarian reform agenda, the president should issue a decree that declares agrarian reform as an emergency and a national priority, Budiman said.
Ida Nurlinda, a professor of agrarian law at Padjadjaran University, agreed that the agrarian issue is an emergency, and thus it requires extraordinary policies, commitments and actions from the government.
One breakthrough that could speed up agrarian reform in Indonesia is having the agenda led directly by the president himself, Budiman said.
To implement Indonesia’s agrarian reform policies, the government has established the Agrarian Reform Task Force, which operates at multiple levels, and at the national level, it’s led by the minister for coordinating economic affairs.
As a result, the task force hasn’t been able to solve bureaucratic inefficiencies, which have prevented real actions from being taken, Dewi said.
“True agrarian reform can only happen under the president’s leadership,” Budiman said.
Therefore, Dewi said she hopes the joint statement is followed by issuance of a decree by President Prabowo and a decision to lead the agrarian reform agenda himself.
Another thing the government should do, she said, is create a roadmap with detailed plans and targets for agrarian reform.
“We must strike while the iron is hot and immediately follow up with concrete plans,” Dewi said.
This article was originally published on Mongabay under the Creative Commons BY NC ND licence. Read the original article.
