President Promises to Distribute Land
Thursday, 01 February, 2007 | 15:22 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has promised to start the Agrarian Reform Program or distribution of land for the people starting this year.

“This is what I call as the principle of “Land for People’s Justice and Welfare,” said the President in his state of the nation address at Merdeka Palace, yesterday (31/1).

The 59-page speech started at around 4.15pm and ended at 6.45pm without the United Indonesia cabinet ministers’ attendance.

The president stopped his speech a total of four times for breaks.

According to the President, land distribution is absolute because for 43 years (between 1961 and 2004), the total amount of state land distributed to the people was only 1.15 million hectares.

Land distribution, said the President, was important in order to increase people’s welfare.

The policy will be realized by allocating land for the most under-privileged, including land from converted forest and other land, which according to the land law may be used in the interests of the people.

In addition, in the context of Agrarian Reform, the government will not charge anything for the administration of 110,000 land cluster certificates.

Land distribution has actually been a mandate of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) since 2001.

Now most of the state land available is used by major companies and only a little is used for the under-privileged.

To support the program, the House of Representatives (DPR) is currently composing three laws to provide legal standing.

The National Land Agency (BPN) has also prepared six scenarios for implementation.

In addition to distributing land to the under-privileged, the government will add to the budget for the under-privileged reduction program, from Rp42 trillion in 2006 to Rp51 trillion (Rp1.3 million per person) for this year.

A reduction in the amount of under-privileged people and just distribution are what made the President decide to disband the Consultative Group on Indonesia (CGI).

Through the disbanding, Indonesia can design its own economic program.

SUTARTO