The Land Bank paradox: For profit or justice?
Masked as agrarian reform, the national Land Bank is quietly dispossessing the rural poor to serve corporate profit, and a rushed new bill is about to make it permanent.
The national Land Bank, initially conceived for agrarian reform, is actually exacerbating Indonesia's rural poverty and inequality. Dubbed a tool for justice, the Land Bank is instead a vehicle for corporate profit and dispossession. With the House of Representatives set to pass a long-awaited agrarian reform bill by September 24, the issue of the Land Bank's true role remains unaddressed.
The bill's timeline is too short to allow for proper examination or public input, risking the perpetuation of the injustices it aims to address. The contradiction lies within the Land Bank itself. Established under the pro-business Job Creation Law, the agency claims to promote agrarian reform, yet it caps land for redistribution at a mere 30 percent while favoring commercial development.
This contradiction between reform rhetoric and commercial interests is further highlighted by the Land Bank's origins. Conceived to manage state lands, it has evolved into a powerful instrument of dispossession, deepening social stratification under the guise of reform. Indonesia's agrarian crisis is a result of a legal identity disorder.
The 1960 Basic Agrarian Law mandates state control of natural resources for the prosperity of the people, making it inherently redistributive. However, the Land Bank's actions contradict this mandate, undermining the very principles it was created to uphold.
Written by urgent.news from The Jakarta Post's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
