PAPUA – The Center of Economic and Law Studies (Celios) views the National Strategic Project (PSN) food estate in Merauke, South Papua Province as a form of land grabbing by the government and companies. Celios legal researcher, Muhamad Saleh, assessed that the practice of land grabbing was made easier by the revision of the Papua Special Autonomy Law (Otsus).
This, said Saleh, was because the revision of the Papua Special Autonomy Law caused a legal vacuum. “Changes in the scheme make the regions have a legal vacuum in terms of carrying out spatial arrangements,” Saleh said at the launch of a report entitled ‘National Strategic Projects (PSN) Eroding Otsus and the Rights of Indigenous Papuans’, via Zoom Meeting on Monday, December 23, 2024.
Saleh said, until now, the provincial regulation on the Regional Spatial Plan or RTRW has not been ratified. But even before the stipulation of the RTRW was implemented, the PSN program had entered the South Papua region. “The food estate program itself was determined ahead of the RTRW design,” he said.
According to Saleh, the revised law also weakens community consolidation at the regional level. This is due to the increasingly easy division of the region. It is known that the revision of the Papua Special Autonomy Law also regulates that the government and the House of Representatives (DPR) can expand the region without the approval of the Papuan People’s Assembly (MRP) and the Papuan People’s Representative Council (DPRP). Whereas previously, regional expansion must be approved by the MRP and DPRP after paying close attention to socio-cultural unity, readiness of human and economic resources, and future developments.
“Regional expansion carried out in Papua through the revision of the Special Autonomy Law has facilitated the practice of seizing indigenous peoples’ land,” Saleh said.
The indigenous people of Merauke have expressed objections and rejection of the Merauke PSN project several times. They held a hearing with Committee II of the South Papua Regional Government Council (DPD) at the Merauke Regent’s Office, Papua, on Monday, December 2, 2024. In the hearing, the indigenous people who are members of the Merauke Solidarity firmly rejected the National Strategic Project to print new rice fields and sugar cane plantations.
“We are from the Malind Indigenous Peoples Forum who rejected from the affected districts, Tabonji district, Kimaam district, Ilwayab district, Tubang district, Ngguti district, and Eligobel district,” said Chairman of the Kondo Digul Indigenous Peoples Forum Simon Petrus Balagaize in a press conference, quoted from the live broadcast of the Papua Legal Aid Institute.
The indigenous people of Merauke have also protested at the Ministry of Defense Office on Wednesday, October 16, 2024. They demanded that the project be stopped. “The project was brutal, without any socialization and without consultation to get the agreement of the indigenous people,” said Father Pius Manu, a religious leader and customary landowner in a press conference after the protest in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Overall, said Father Pius, the Merauke food estate area consists of five clusters and is spread across 13 districts. All of them are located in the territories of the Malind, Maklew, Khimaima and Yei indigenous peoples. It is estimated that there are more than 50,000 indigenous people living in 40 villages in and around the PSN Merauke project site.
According to Father Pius, heavy vehicles entered indigenous territories and displaced and destroyed natural forests, hamlets, and swamps. Their movements were escorted by security forces from the police and TNI. Customary signs that had been made as a prohibition were simply violated.
“We are hurt and grieving because our customary lands and forests, the place where animals live and the sacred place of Alipinek that we protect, inherited by our ancestors, were destroyed without remaining,” said Yasinta Gebze, a representative of the affected indigenous people from Wobikel Village, Ilwayab District, Merauke Regency.
