Anissa S. Febrina, Jakarta – Heartless speculators, a corrupt judicial system, an incomplete and untrustworthy land ownership database and greedy politicians.
Add them all together and you have a country covered in land disputes – only a few of which make good reading.
Retired civil servant Budi Soenarjo was a victim of a dispute involving a legal misunderstanding by land owners, the undeniable existence of a land broker and speculators, and housing developers with an insatiable need for cheap land.
With a 1,000-square-meter block of land he purchased in the mid 1960s in Sawangan, Depok, Soenarjo thought he had an investment he could count on when times became tough.
"A neighbor of mine offered to buy some lots at a housing complex for employees under the then-Ministry of Education and Culture in Bedahan village, Sawangan," Soenarjo said.
And so he bought two lots with his savings and was provided a letter of ownership and transaction. He hoped one day this land would see him build a house for his family.
Years passed and he and his family continued to live in the house provided by his office – while Soenarjo "kind of forgot" he still needed to obtain legal certificates for the land.
"One day came a letter informing me a group of people – who also owned lots in Sawangan – planned to file a lawsuit against a developer," he said. Somehow that developer had acquired a total of 40 hectares in Sawangan from military officers – and already there were houses for sale there.
Along with 300 other land owners, Soenarjo was offered in the late 1990s compensation in the form of 150 square meters of certified land – in return for every 500 square meters of the land he seemed to have lost. But this compensation package remains today a faded an unfulfilled promise.
Sawangan was later rezoned from Bogor regency to Depok municipality and the land ownership dispute remains today a relatively hopeless case.
In another dispute, one land owner has accumulated piles of documents concerning her land dispute case centered around what is now Menteng in East Jakarta.
Her numerous folders contain verdicts and other legal documents illustrating unclear interpretations of the law and an allegedly corrupt judicial system.
"I bought this land legally from PT ISTA in 1987 and for seven months I spent tiring hours obtaining the legal certificate," the woman, who has asked to remain nameless, said from her disputed home in a housing complex in Cipinang Cempedak.
A decade after she obtained the certificate, she and three of her neighbors had to face a lawsuit around the legality of their ownership.
The case unearthed years of land ownership data dating back to the Dutch colonial era. History showed the land in question was still owned by a Polish businessman who rented out houses in the complex to Dutch private companies.
After Indonesia declared its independence, the Pole left Indonesia for the Netherlands and died there, leaving his premises unattended.
According to Indonesian law, deserted property under the Dutch ownership system Eigendom would be declared state land – unless it had been inherited by an Indonesian citizen.
In this case there were no claims against it, so those occupying the Eigendom land could try to obtain legal ownership certificates by paying severance to the state.
"I did all this properly and thought the Land Agency would issue me a certificate – but I lost the case to someone claiming to represent the child of the previous owner," the woman said.
In a series of letters to the East Jakarta land agency, the plaintiff declared there were manipulations in the certificates issued on the land that used to belong to the Polish businessman.
Legal experts said however they could continue arguments around the ruling based on interpretations of the law.
What is most interesting is the plaintiff lost his argument in two similar cases supposedly decided using the same legal considerations.
These stories from Sawangan and Cipinang Cempedak are among the thousands of land disputes in Greater Jakarta.
These disputes are the result of a dysfunctional legal system and an unreliable land ownership database – so when so many thousands rely on land for survival, it's no wonder land disputes continue to create urban and rural war.
Land dispute facts and figures - There have been 2,810 land dispute cases filed to the National Land Agency as of June 2007 - Hundreds of lawsuits are filed in the Greater Jakarta area annually. Among current cases are:
- The Meruya Selatan case between residents and developer PT Portanigra
- The Rumpin case in Bogor between villagers and the Indonesian Air Force over land
- The Cikeas case in Bogor between private university Universitas Nasional and developer Agung Sedayu – Land dispute cases on average take at least five years to settle and most cases reach the Supreme Court
[Source: National Land Agency]