condition that the company would keep that land for shifting cultivation. Tanah
kosong was integrated into the customary law and people could clear as much as they
wished while paying to the sultan or the community; on the other hand, the idea of
woeste grond (waste land) originated from the colonial administration. At the
practical level, the question arose as to whether East Sumatra had any waste land.
In the eyes of the Malay and Batak people there was no entirely unused land or waste
land, since all land served as hunting ground and was used for growing forest
products. But above all, it was potential land for swidden agriculture. In short, all
land contributed in one way or another to the support of the inhabitants (Pelzer 1978,
pp. 71–72).
Meanwhile, in the area directly controlled by the government, people were
prohibited from clearing land without permission from the government, according
to the Ontginningsordonnantie (Exploitation Law) of 1874. Since applying the
concept of woeste grond, there appeared many cases of illegal logging and illegal
clearing because almost nobody got the required permission from the government
(Mizuno forthcoming).
Europeans who had the property right were given a written certificate (een
schriftelijk bewijs). Local people (Indonesian people) who only had the holding
right (bezitrecht) were given a letter of extract from the land tax list book (buku letter
C) called girik on Java Island from the 1920s. In the development of Java’s land tax
policy, the government made efforts to conduct a cadaster survey to identify the
taxpayer base and the land that was taxed. However, the government failed to
identify the landowners. The girik is a letter of land tax that shows the name of
taxpayer but not the name of the landowner (Mizuno 1991). On the other hand, in
outer Indonesia, people might have a letter of statement (SKT, surat keterangan
tanah) that was issued by the village office or the sub-district office since the 1930s
in Jambi, Sumatra. This letter was also not included in the land registration system in
Indonesia, so it could not show the property rights implied by the Agrarian law
(Agrarisch Besluit) of 1870.
23.3 Land Use and Business After the Independence
23.3.1 State Land, State Forest Area, and Customary
Communal Right of Disposition (hak ulayat) After
the Independence
The independent Indonesian government renewed the agrarian and forestry system
according to the purposes of the independent Indonesian state.
The Basic Agrarian Act (Undang-Undang Pokok Agraria) of 1960 revoked the
Agrarian Law of 1870 and related laws and regulations, explaining that the concept
of the state’s domain in the colonial era did not concur with the Indonesian people’s
concept of the law. Article 33, Item 3 of the 1945 Constitution, which served as a
634
K. Mizuno et al.
kosong was integrated into the customary law and people could clear as much as they
wished while paying to the sultan or the community; on the other hand, the idea of
woeste grond (waste land) originated from the colonial administration. At the
practical level, the question arose as to whether East Sumatra had any waste land.
In the eyes of the Malay and Batak people there was no entirely unused land or waste
land, since all land served as hunting ground and was used for growing forest
products. But above all, it was potential land for swidden agriculture. In short, all
land contributed in one way or another to the support of the inhabitants (Pelzer 1978,
pp. 71–72).
Meanwhile, in the area directly controlled by the government, people were
prohibited from clearing land without permission from the government, according
to the Ontginningsordonnantie (Exploitation Law) of 1874. Since applying the
concept of woeste grond, there appeared many cases of illegal logging and illegal
clearing because almost nobody got the required permission from the government
(Mizuno forthcoming).
Europeans who had the property right were given a written certificate (een
schriftelijk bewijs). Local people (Indonesian people) who only had the holding
right (bezitrecht) were given a letter of extract from the land tax list book (buku letter
C) called girik on Java Island from the 1920s. In the development of Java’s land tax
policy, the government made efforts to conduct a cadaster survey to identify the
taxpayer base and the land that was taxed. However, the government failed to
identify the landowners. The girik is a letter of land tax that shows the name of
taxpayer but not the name of the landowner (Mizuno 1991). On the other hand, in
outer Indonesia, people might have a letter of statement (SKT, surat keterangan
tanah) that was issued by the village office or the sub-district office since the 1930s
in Jambi, Sumatra. This letter was also not included in the land registration system in
Indonesia, so it could not show the property rights implied by the Agrarian law
(Agrarisch Besluit) of 1870.
23.3 Land Use and Business After the Independence
23.3.1 State Land, State Forest Area, and Customary
Communal Right of Disposition (hak ulayat) After
the Independence
The independent Indonesian government renewed the agrarian and forestry system
according to the purposes of the independent Indonesian state.
The Basic Agrarian Act (Undang-Undang Pokok Agraria) of 1960 revoked the
Agrarian Law of 1870 and related laws and regulations, explaining that the concept
of the state’s domain in the colonial era did not concur with the Indonesian people’s
concept of the law. Article 33, Item 3 of the 1945 Constitution, which served as a
634
K. Mizuno et al.