Kicked Out from Own Land

KOMPAS/EMANUEL EDI SAPUTRA

Children in Kampung Semunying Bungkang in Bengkayang regency, West Kalimantan, play near their houses, which are surrounded by oil palms, Wednesday (26/9/2018). The aggressive expansion of oil palm plantations have left them with inadequate space to play.

Fransiska, 28, felt quite sad in her home. She was used to busying herself on the farm during the day. Eight years ago, she lost her family’s land because a company had acquired it for an oil palm plantation.

Fransiska now lives in Semunying Bungkang village, Jagoi Babang eistrict, Bengkayang regency, West Kalimantan. She and her family live in a new settlement area. She and 31 other families were relocated from their old residential area. Some were relocated in 2008/2009. The old settlement area is about 500 meters from the new residence.

Their old villages, along with their rubber plantations and other farming areas, have become a vast oil palm plantation area. Now everything has changed. In fact, the area for the public cemetery is quite limited. The distance between the cemetery and the oil palm plant is only about 2 meters.

The memory of one morning in 2010 is still fresh in Fransiska\'s mind, when she and her husband, Asbung, 38, planned to tap rubber on their 3-hectare farming area. After arriving at the location, they found that the land had been cleared by a company. "A number of companies had often tried to persuade us to sell our land, but we rejected their offers. In addition to the fact that the rubber plantation was their main source of income, the price offered was quite low, only Rp 1.5 million (about US$100) per hectare. Finally, they forcibly acquired the rubber plantation," Fransiska said on Wednesday (26/9/2018).

Finding themselves without a source of income, Fransiska\'s husband became a palm oil worker in Malaysia. Only three days after Fransiska\'s husband left for Malaysia, the company cleared their 2-hectare land.

After clearing the rubber plantation and other farming areas, the company offered compensation of around Rp 70 million. Fransiska and her husband were forced to accept the money considering that all the land had been taken and they had nothing.

When Fransiska returned home, her house and property had been burned. "In fact, the compensation was only for the acquisition of the rubber plantation and other farming areas," she said . Fransiska and her husband were forced to follow the company’s relocation plan and moved to a new settlement area. In 2012, Fransiska and her husband were the last to be relocated.

They were the most persistent in defending the land. Jeliman, 54, has another story. He willingly relquinished his 4-hectare garden and 3-hectare rubber plantation to the company because he was promised a jobs as a plasma farmer and free education for his son. It turned out that it was only an empty promise and the child dropped out of school. Some 30 other families in the village also shared the experiences of Fransiska and Jeliman. The converted land consists of around 1,420 hectares of customary land, about 30 hectares of rice fields, and individual properties including rubber plantations of about 117 hectares.

Loss of independence

Residents are now forced to work on plantations with a wage of around Rp 70,000 per day. While still having gardens and rubber plantations, their basic needs are fulfilled by farming. Incomes from selling vegetables and latex reach between Rp 3 million and Rp 4 million per month. Now, they have to purchase both rice and vegetables with their low income.

Local customs are almost extinct. A thanksgiving tradition after harvest and blessings for a new farming equipment have almost disappeared because they no longer have land to plant. Social relations between local people have been destroyed.

Similar stories have occurred in almost all rural areas, reflected in land conflicts in West Kalimantan. According to data from the Indonesian Forum for the Environment of West Kalimantan, cases of land conflicts continue to grow. The number of land conflicts, which totaled only 100 cases in 2015, rose to 115 cases in 2016 and 127 cases in 2017.

The chairman of the Alliance of the National Indigenous Peoples (AMAN) in West Kalimantan, Stefanus Masarana, said the size of West Kalimantan reached 14.7 million hectares. The government has issued a number of investment permits for about 11.7 million hectares of the total area. Oil palm plantations, for example, have covered about 4.5 million hectares, mines about 2.7 million hectares, forest concession about 1.3 million hectares and industrial forests about 3.2 million hectares.

The size of land managed by the local community total only about three million hectares. In fact, according to a research conducted by AMAN of West Kalimantan, the local people would have been economically stronger if they managed the area independently.

False growth

The professor of economics at the Tanjungpura University, Pontianak, Eddy Suratman, said that the economy of West Kalimantan grew but falsely. A number of important indicators did not change much despite the increase in investment. This West Kalimantan Gini index has stagnated for the last three years. It means that there is no improvement in income of the most people.

Human Development Index is 66.26, lower than the national figure of 70.81. The decline in poverty is not significant. The poverty rate, which reached 7.88 in March, dropped slightly to 7.77 in March 2018. West Kalimantan has the highest poverty rate in Kalimantan.

Villages are far from progressing. West Kalimantan Governor Sutarmidji said of the total 2,031 villages in West Kalimantan, only one village was considered independent. As many as 452 villages have not received electricity. In fact, West Kalimantan is the second largest producer of crude palm oil (CPO) in Indonesia.

West Kalimantan did not receive export taxes from the palm oil exports because the commodities were shipped overseas through ports in Jakarta and Sumatra. In fact, the potential of export taxes for the province reached between Rp 1.8 trillion and Rp 2 trillion per year.

Executive secretary of the Association of the Indonesian Palm Oil Producers in West Kalimantan, Idwar Hanis, said oil palm was a strategic investment that required vast land. "When we want to invest, we apply with the government. The government determines the location," he said.