InfoSAWIT, JAKARTA – The agrarian conflicts in Indonesia keep being the unsolved issues namely about indigenous land rights and natural resource cultivation of big companies. One conflict took place in the Village of Pasir Mayang, East Kalimantan where the indigenous people fought for to get their indigenous land that palm oil company took over to be palm oil plantations.
Referring to the research journal “Resolusi Konflik Antara Perusahaan Perkebunan Sawit dengan Masyarakat Adat di Village of Pasir Mayang” (Rahmi & Murlianti, 2024), as InfoSAWIT quoted from Ejournal Pembangunan Sosial, Volume 12, Nomor 3, 2024, Universitas Mulawarman, Sunday (22/9/2024), the indigenous people of Pasir Mayang faced the big challenges to maintain their indigenous land. The conflict started from the changes of their indigenous land borders with the business rights of palm oil plantation company - PTPN XIII. The land takeover without available compensation but with threats, seized the indigenous people’s land as their sources of living.
Data from konsorsium pembaruan agraria (KPA) showed that in the era of Joko Widodo and Jusuf Kalla (2014 - 2019), 1.769 agrarian conflicts took place in Indonesia, including in Kalimantan Island. Village of Pasir Mayang and Modang would be the villages where palm oil plantation company, PTPN XIII expanded its own plantation. The plasma smallholders that got promise to be better from the plantations were disappointed for unrealized promise.
In 1980s, palm oil plantations started developing in the Regency of Paser, East Kalimantan Province with the support of the government through PTPN XIII. But the indigenous people negatively got the impacts from the new planting, such as, the environmental damages and the changes of borders of their ancestors’ land. The villagers of Pasir Mayang now claim the company to give back their land with force.
The land use change from agriculture and livings to be palm oil plantation and mine, raised impacts, not only for the environment but also for the local people’s life style. As time goes by, the land takeover without permits or fair compensation, created deeper unsatisfaction to the indigenous people.
Besides agrarian conflicts, the local conflicts got worse by the local elites and new comers that were considered to take andvantages on the situation to approve the company’s area expansion. This made worse to maintain their land.
Until now, the villagers of Pasir Mayang keep trying to take back their ancestors’ land. The conflict also reflected deeper issue in natural resource cultivation in this country where the indigenous people would always be the victims for the corporate’s interests and the government’s policies that did not take partnership for them (indigenous people).
In this context, it would need deeper understanding to solve every agrarian conflicts. It would need more comprehensive and fairer approach so every same conflict would not happen in the future. It needs to maintain social and environmental sustainability in the regions where they got the impacts. (T2)
