President SBY's signing of the Government Regulation no. 36/2005 on land acquisition as reported in Jakpost's editorial yesterday is indeed a crucial move to address one most important aspect in the public infrastructure development. Land acquisition has been a major obstacle to infrastructure development, and this kind of development is one domain where Indonesia is seriously lagging behind its neighbors. As Indonesia does not have adequate fiscal capacity to finance infastructure development, it usually turns to external borrowing.
Tris, a good friend working for an international development agency, confirmed that land procurement was among the most crucial problems in infrastructure development. He added that land acquisition guarantee is a conditio sine quanon at the time of signing of loan agreements. Ideally, land acqusition problems have been resolved by the time of the signing. Otherwise it will create serious problems to the national and/or respective regional government. Moreover, cases were abound where the prices of land for future public infrastructure projects skyrocketed, mostly by well-informed preempters. Soon, in extreme cases where acquisition negotiation cannot resolve within 90 days, regional land agencies can ask the national land agency to revoke the property rights under the President's approval.
I agree this is a good move from the government, albeit with some reservations. This stern policy may work well without gravely violating basic human rights or impairing the sense of justice of the people if and only if the stipulated conditions are thoroughly met and the procedural steps are properly obeyed; hence the crucial importance of the implementation. It's often too easy for the powers that be to justify themselves by saying: it's for our greater common good. To officials, pieces of land acquaired may mean a job well done; to affected individuals, this may shatter their whole universe. How are landowners, for instance, protected against the oknum? Such overacting officers do exist everywhere in the country, as everyone Jack (or Badu?) agrees. It would thus be ideal to include elements of civil society and/or local wisdom/traditional leaders in regional land committees so that the people can get fair representation. Surpressing and squezzing the common folks is an old song. It's time to deliver, really. To show that the government actually exists, and serves its people.
