Why Did Agrarian Conflicts in Indonesia Escalate Under Jokowi's Presidency?

5 months ago 2

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Agrarian conflicts person expanded importantly implicit the past decade, with millions of Indonesians losing onshore and livelihoods contempt repeated authorities pledges to resoluteness the issue.

Data from the Consortium for Agrarian Reform (KPA), an advocacy radical established successful 1994, amusement that betwixt 2014 and 2024, during Joko Widodo’s presidency, agrarian conflicts spanned a full of 7.4 cardinal hectares. Within that period, 3,234 disputes were recorded, affecting astir 1.8 cardinal families.

“These families person mislaid not lone their onshore but besides their livelihoods and future,” said KPA Secretary General Dewi Sartika during a property league marking National Farmer’s Day successful Jakarta connected September 21, 2025.

Jokowi’s Agrarian Reform successful Question

KPA criticized the agrarian betterment programme nether Jokowi arsenic a failure, arguing that the authorities prioritized large-scale concern projects and extractive industries astatine the disbursal of section communities.

Agrarian betterment itself is simply a law mandate, anchored successful the People’s Consultative Assembly Decree No. IX/2001. Jokowi issued Presidential Regulation No. 86/2018 to formalize the programme and aboriginal renewed it with Regulation No. 62/2023 connected accelerating implementation.

The policies outlined 5 strategies: legalizing assets, redistributing land, empowering communities, strengthening institutions, and boosting participation.

In practice, however, the government’s efforts leaned heavy connected issuing escaped onshore certificates done the plus legalization program.

While popular, KPA argued this attack reduced agrarian betterment to paperwork, sidelining the redistribution of onshore to landless farmers, which is the halfway of the betterment agenda.

Sources of Conflict

The bulk of disputes nether Jokowi’s medication stemmed from plantation projects. KPA recorded 1,243 plantation-related cases, peculiarly involving thenar lipid estates overlapping with assemblage lands. These unsocial displaced much than 103,000 families crossed 1 cardinal hectares.

National strategical projects (PSN) were besides flashpoints. Intended to accelerate economical growth, galore of these projects alternatively triggered onshore disputes successful affected regions.

Mining was different large driver. After the 2020 revision of the Mineral and Coal Mining Law, which expanded opportunities for nickel and ember concessions and designated immoderate arsenic strategical projects, agrarian conflicts escalated. From 2020 to 2024, 136 mining-related disputes were reported.

Each conflict, KPA noted, often progressive violence. Between 2015 and 2024, the consortium documented 2,841 cases of criminalization, 1,054 assaults, 88 shootings, and 79 deaths linked to agrarian disputes.

Conflicts Continue Under Prabowo

The concern has shown small betterment nether President Prabowo Subianto. In his archetypal 100 days successful office, KPA identified 63 caller conflicts affecting 66,000 hectares and much than 10,000 families.

Some of these disputes were tied to nutrient information projects. In Majalengka, West Java, for example, farmers successful Sahbandar Village were evicted to marque mode for maize and legume cultivation by a section government-owned enterprise, PT Sindangkasih Multi Usaha. The farmers not lone mislaid their onshore but besides faced accusations of obstructing the program.

KPA has presented its findings to the House of Representatives (DPR), urging legislative action. Deputy Speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad announced that parliament would signifier a peculiar committee connected agrarian conflicts, with the determination to beryllium finalized astatine the plenary league connected October 2, 2025.

According to Dasco, this measurement followed an assemblage with KPA earlier this year, during which the enactment submitted 9 demands. Parliament agreed to three: forming a peculiar committee, expediting the “one map” policy, and improving spatial planning.

“The House volition property the authorities to accelerate the unified representation argumentation and signifier spatial plan wrong the nationalist territory,” Dasco said astatine the DPR analyzable connected September 24, 2025.

From the authorities side, Deputy State Secretary Juri Ardiantoro pledged to code the concerns but cautioned that solutions would instrumentality clip fixed the complexity of onshore disputes.

“We request a broad knowing of the basal causes of onshore ownership issues,” Juri told farmers’ representatives successful a gathering astatine the State Secretariat, coinciding with a farmers’ rally extracurricular the palace and parliament.