56
5.2 ViSibility And recognition in indoneSiA
Harumandala is a village in West Java in Indonesia. The village consists of
several sub-villages or kampungs and is located within a steeply sloped
landscape. After independence in 1945, the area saw many confrontations
over land control between the Indonesian army and Communist groupings. The confrontations died down around 1961. The area was formally
under the territorial authority of the Provincial Forestry Service of West
Java, and the entire area was classified as ‘forest’. However, most of the
area was, in fact, populated with villages and kampungs. Generally, people
were farming paddy rice on terraces, as well as different crops on forest
plots. In practice, people could clear land for paddy rice farming and other
activities without much interference from the authorities. No legal rights
ensured people’s access to land, but the Provincial Forestry Service tolerated farming and people regarded the land as their own.
In 1978, all the forestland controlled by the Provincial Forestry Service
in West Java—close to a million hectares—was transferred to the State
Forestry Corporation which had previously operated only in Central and
East Java (Peluso 1992; Rachman 2011). As a parastatal institution with
its own uniformed ‘forest police’, and as a part of an authoritarian regime,
the State Forest Corporation was inaccessible to ordinary people seeking
to argue or negotiate their case. The Corporation established boundaries
to create teak and mahogany plantations, clearing the area of any farmed
fields that might be in the way. Moreover, it started to act as a landlord
charging rent for the fields people cultivated within the area. These farmers thus became tenants of the Corporation, and in the process consolidated its land control. The rent consisted of 33 per cent of the villagers’
rice production: There was no legal basis for this rent, and it was never
registered as official income of the company.
During the late 1990s, agrarian protest became ever more frequent as
the Suharto regime spiralled into decline and crisis. Different social organisations, groups and movements were formed in a period of political transformation in Indonesia. Democratisation and decentralisation appeared to
offer opportunities to transform society, and not least the agrarian structures. The protests were accompanied by land occupations, where farmers
seized land from state forests or private and government plantations. The
occupations were controversial. On the one hand, they were condoned
and even hailed by popular movements as the realisation of the longawaited land reform. On the other hand, government condemned occupations as theft (Lucas and Warren 2013).
C. LUND
5.2 ViSibility And recognition in indoneSiA
Harumandala is a village in West Java in Indonesia. The village consists of
several sub-villages or kampungs and is located within a steeply sloped
landscape. After independence in 1945, the area saw many confrontations
over land control between the Indonesian army and Communist groupings. The confrontations died down around 1961. The area was formally
under the territorial authority of the Provincial Forestry Service of West
Java, and the entire area was classified as ‘forest’. However, most of the
area was, in fact, populated with villages and kampungs. Generally, people
were farming paddy rice on terraces, as well as different crops on forest
plots. In practice, people could clear land for paddy rice farming and other
activities without much interference from the authorities. No legal rights
ensured people’s access to land, but the Provincial Forestry Service tolerated farming and people regarded the land as their own.
In 1978, all the forestland controlled by the Provincial Forestry Service
in West Java—close to a million hectares—was transferred to the State
Forestry Corporation which had previously operated only in Central and
East Java (Peluso 1992; Rachman 2011). As a parastatal institution with
its own uniformed ‘forest police’, and as a part of an authoritarian regime,
the State Forest Corporation was inaccessible to ordinary people seeking
to argue or negotiate their case. The Corporation established boundaries
to create teak and mahogany plantations, clearing the area of any farmed
fields that might be in the way. Moreover, it started to act as a landlord
charging rent for the fields people cultivated within the area. These farmers thus became tenants of the Corporation, and in the process consolidated its land control. The rent consisted of 33 per cent of the villagers’
rice production: There was no legal basis for this rent, and it was never
registered as official income of the company.
During the late 1990s, agrarian protest became ever more frequent as
the Suharto regime spiralled into decline and crisis. Different social organisations, groups and movements were formed in a period of political transformation in Indonesia. Democratisation and decentralisation appeared to
offer opportunities to transform society, and not least the agrarian structures. The protests were accompanied by land occupations, where farmers
seized land from state forests or private and government plantations. The
occupations were controversial. On the one hand, they were condoned
and even hailed by popular movements as the realisation of the longawaited land reform. On the other hand, government condemned occupations as theft (Lucas and Warren 2013).
C. LUND