TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Yuyun Harmono, an activist of the Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi), said that agrarian reform programs promoted by either presidential incumbent candidate Jokowi or Prabowo Subianto that aimed at realizing justice for rights of land are problematic. Yuyun reasoned that because both camps controlled huge plot of lands.

“If someone controls a land, that is a problem and must be solved,” said Yuyun during a discussion in Cikini, Jakarta, Thursday, February 21.

An issue of land ownership was brought up after Jokowi mentioned his opponent owned 220,000 hectares of land in East Kalimantan and 120,000 hectares of land in Aceh during the second presidential debate on Sunday. In the session, Prabowo explained that the land has a status of cultivation right permit (HGU).

Yuyun stressed that there must be information that should be exposed during the debate on February 17; why there is no transparency about data of HGU lands, while in fact, the Supreme Court (MA) ruled the data must be disclosed.

The exclusive information, Yuyun opined, could eventually trigger a conflict of agrarian. Such friction would likely occur because the public did not know data of land ownership when a corporate claimed lands where they lived.

“So I think data of HGU must be made public so people can check it too,” she underlined.

Based on an investigative report of Tempo and civil group Auriga Nusantara, other than Prabowo Subianto, politicians and entrepreneurs surrounding Jokowi also owned thousands of hectares of land.

The total land controlled by corporations that directly link to Jokowi - Ma’ruf campaign team is recorded up to 140,000 hectares, while in Prabowo camp, there are at least nine corporates managing 360,000 hectares of land.

FIKRI ARIGI