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Indonesia

Indonesia has great natural wealth but many of its citizens live in extreme poverty. Democratic progress has been made since the resigation of former president Suharto in 1998, but many civil society organisations feel that far too little progress has been made towards sustainable management of the country's resources, and ensuring that Indonesia's diverse communities have a real say in decisions which affect their future.

Policies and practice: favouring big business over communities

DTE 93-94, December 2012

In this article we highlight some of the influences at work inside Indonesia which are contributing to the ongoing transfer of land from communities to corporations. These influences include national and local government policies, laws, governance and practices, whose provisions for supporting indigenous peoples and communities’ rights and livelihoods have been deprioritised in favour of large-scale, commercial ‘development’ projects. The result is a growing disparity between rich and poor, worsening imbalance in the control over agrarian resources and more and more conflicts between communities, private sector and the state.

Why systemic agrarian conflicts are continuing to break out across the land

DTE 93-94, December 2012

By Noer Fauzi Rachman*

The systemic agrarian conflicts referred to in this article are protracted conflicts arising from opposing claims made on particular pieces of land, or over natural resources and community-owned areas or territories, by giant corporations in the business of infrastructure, production, resource extraction and conservation, and where each opposing side is taking direct or indirect action to negate the claim of the other.

How much land?

DTE 93-94, December 2012

Snapshots of corporate control over land in Indonesia

Many of Indonesia's wealthiest business players control extensive landholdings for large-scale projects such as oil palm and pulpwood plantations, mining, oil and gas, logging, tourism and property. Some of the country's highest earning conglomerates, including the Bakrie Group and the Royal Golden Eagle Group have interests in several sectors which demand large areas of land.

Energy policy ignores renewables

Down to Earth No 67  November 2005

Indonesian NGOs are concerned that fuel price rises are increasing poverty, while long term energy plans are failing to encourage alternatives to fossil fuels.

Indonesian politics have been dominated throughout the fasting month of Ramadan by the government policy to reduce fuel subsidies. The move breaks a promise made by SBY that fuel price rises in March would be the last this year. It has sparked weeks of angry protests and is already causing hardship for ordinary people.