The World Bank-financed Reconstruction of

the Aceh Land Administration System

(RALAS)

RALAS Research Team:

1. Abdul Jalil
2. Delima Silalahi
3. George Junus Aditjondro
4. Sri Khairil Tarigan
5. Jufriadi
6. Darmawan
Working Paper No.3, 2008

NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations
 The World Bank-financed Reconstruction of
the Aceh Land Administration System
(RALAS)

RALAS Research Team:

1. Abdul Jalil
2. Delima Silalahi
3. George Junus Aditjondro
4. Sri Khairil Tarigan
5. Jufriadi
6. Darmawan

Working Paper No.3, 2008

CONTENT

Terms And Acronyms Used i

Acknowledgement ii

Foreword iii

Introduction 1

Research Methodology 3

Research Findings 5

Conclusion 14

Recommendation 15

Bibliography 16
TERMS AND ACRONYMS USED

BI : Indonesian Bank
BPD : Regional Development Bank
BPN : National Land Agency (State Land Affairs Body)
BRI : Indonesian People Bank (State Own Bank)
BNI : Indonesian National Bank (State Own Bank)
BQ : Baitul Qiradh
CDA : Community-Driven Adjudication
FGD : Focus Group Discussion
GSF : Grassroots Society Foundation
INFID : International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development
JBIC : Japan Bank for International Cooperation
MDTFANS : Multi Donors Trust Fund for Aceh and North Sumatra
NAD : Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam
NGO : Non Governmental Organization
PNS : Civil Servant
RALAS : Reconstruction of the Aceh Land Administration System
Sekdes : Village Secretary
SKT : Land Own Letter
UTU : Teuku Umar University
YEU : Yakkum Emergency Unit

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This brief research in Aceh by the INFID Research Team has only been possible
thanks to the support of friends from Grassroots Society Foundation (GSF) in Meulaboh,
Yayasan PUSPA (Pusat Pengembangan Sumberdaya Alam) in Takengon, and the branch offices
of the ’twin NGO’ YEU (Yakkum Emergency Unit) and CD Bethesda in Meulaboh.
Hopefully, our research report can return a fraction of the good will and hospitality of these
friends in Aceh.

Medan, May 2008

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 FOREWORD
The research on the World Bank-managed project of RALAS in Aceh is one of the three
researches by INFID on the projects supported by the World Bank loans and grants from
various donors through the management of the World Bank. These researches are conducted to
look at whether the projects are of benefit for the people and to see its effects on the
development in Indonesia. The researches also look at the effects of the projects and programs
both directly on the sectors and indirectly on the government’s policies as a whole.

RALAS is one of strategic projects implemented in Aceh after the tsunami, that touch to the
heart of the long-lasting issue in Aceh, namely the property rights to natural resources. Separatist
movement was only one of the movement strategies, assuming that the independent Aceh with
its own sovereignty, the people of Aceh will have more freedom to enjoy the nature’s gratitude
and the God’s blessings for the welfare of the people of Aceh. The collective property rights
over lands that contain abundance of valuable resources underneath have become the strong
foundation for collective struggle. The Qanuns based on the Aceh Special Autonomy Law No.
18/2001 have also strengthened the recognition of the social collectivities and the collective
ownership of the natural resources. The collective ownership and the social collectivity are the
strong foundations that guarantee the achievement of welfare for all the people in the local
communities.

On the other hand collective ownership becomes the main obstacle for the investors to exploit
the rich natural resources freely. The RALAS program is one of the strategies to destroy the local
collectivities, and the tsunami has become the appropriate moment to start the total destruction.
If the tsunami destroyed the physical infrastructures, this kind of program will destroy the social
collectivity, which is in line with the intentions of the promoters of free market economy.
Echoing the statement of the American Enterprise Institute – a neoliberal think-tank in
Washington – commenting on Katrina in Louisiana saying that “Katrina accomplished in a day
….” for the things that it took years for the state to make reform for free market1, the World
Bank with RALAS program might say thanks to tsunami that provided great opportunity to
swipe out all obstacles to bring Aceh to global free market economy, and hence to bring whole
Indonesia under the control of global free market and under the tutelage of the World Bank.

When the global human solidarity was sunk into deep condolences for the victims and were busy
in looking for any effort to help the people of Aceh, the World Bank prepared the fundamental
strategy to prepare Aceh as an arena for global free market economy or to prepare Aceh in such
a way that it would be easy for the global economic actors to control and exploit its natural
resources. Like its fellow free market promoters who are happy with the Katrina disaster, the
World Bank saw the tsunami as having prepared “clean sheet” for the start of the strategy for the
control and exploitation of natural resources in Aceh without any obstacle. RALAS is the main
part of the strategies to destroy or swipe out the main foundation of the collective spirit and
collective identity of Aceh. Through the individual ownership system developed by RALAS the
local institutions that support and control the collective management of the natural resources in
Aceh will lose their roles and hence the collective ties will be easily destroyed. When the
collective ties that have been long become the main spirit of the collective struggle are vanished,
then Aceh will be ready to be exploited without any internal obstacle and will not be haunted by
the fear of the rise of collective struggle including the armed collective struggle.

1
Naomi Klein (2007). The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism ( London: Penguin Books), pg.
6.

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For the majority of human beings in the world, tsunami in Aceh and in other parts of South East
Asia in December 2004 was one of the biggest human tragedies in the last century history, and
therefore there is a need for strong human solidarity. But for the economic planners such as
those in the World Bank, tsunami was the best opportunity for introducing and integrating the
ideology of free market economy, an opportunity for developing New Aceh where the people do
not need to have collective responsibility and do not need for social collectivity for social welfare.
The market will provide the social welfare. RALAS is one of the foundations for the break-up of
the social collectivity and collective responsibility.

Tsunami has been used as the best moment to make Aceh as an area where capitalism can work
freely. Natural disaster, horizontal conflicts (inter-ethnic and inter-religious conflicts),
institutional crisis, financial crisis, fuel and food crisis, etc. for majority of human beings are
tragedy, but for the promoters of the free market (such as the World Bank) are the best
opportunities to develop strong foundations for free market capitalism. Conflicts in Indonesia
have become instruments to break up local social solidarity and collective spirit and strategies to
prepare free access to global economic actors to expropriate and exploit the natural resources
that have been long owned by the local communities. The institutional crises – such as the
corrupt government – have been used as entry to develop governance system and rules that
impose the government to adopt free market economic policies. Food and fuel crises have been
adopted as the best moment to push harder on the liberalizing the food market and fuel market,
no matter how high the costs and burdens born upon the shoulders of the poor.

The conflicts in Central Sulawesi, Papua, Kalimantan, Ambon all came from the same source and
flowed to the same directions: the destruction of local social collectivity and the take-over of the
ancestrally inherited natural resources by the domestic and global economic actors. In these cases
the international financial institutions play the roles as financial supporters to develop
infrastructures to the areas that have been left by the original owners (i.e. local communities) who
are now living in fear of new potential conflicts. The irony is that the loans for developing the
infrastructures to the new exploitation areas, that used to be the ownership of the poor local
communities, will be repaid also by these victimized poor communities in the future.

The crises and calamities have been effectively utilized by the international financial institutions
to impose free market ideology and to let the people fight on their own for their own survival.
This is what Naomi Klein calls disaster capitalism, which in Indonesia has been so real, obvious
and blatantly clear in front of everybody’s eyes and faces.

RALAS is only an example of how disaster has been manipulated for the interests of the global
economic actors who will not need other costs to take over the local natural resources from the
local owners. The questions and findings in this research show that individual ownership is not
the only way to provide certainty in property rights. There have been local institutions that can
guarantee the certainty. Hopefully the research will trigger critical reflections on the ideology of
the World Bank funded program and projects in Indonesia and the people of Indonesia will be
more aware of the agenda behind the World Bank programs and projects.

Jakarta, June, 2008

Don K. Marut
Executive Director
INFID

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 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE ACEH LAND ADMINISTRATION SYSTEM (RALAS)

THE WORLD BANK-FINANCED

RECONSTRUCTION OF THE ACEH LAND ADMINISTRATION SYSTEM
(RALAS)

INTRODUCTION

ONLY six months after the 26 December 2004 tsunami hit Aceh, the Multi-Donors Trust
Fund for Aceh and North Sumatra (MDTFANS) approved to finance the Reconstruction of
the Aceh Land Administration System (RALAS) project. According to the project’s appraisal
document, approved in June 2005, the overall goal of the US$ 28.50 million grant is “to
improve land tenure security in Aceh after the devastation caused by the tsunami and the
destruction of evidence of ownership” (Afiff 2006).

Or, in the words of then World Bank country director, Andrew Steer and European
Commission Ambassador to Indonesia, Jean Breteche, the RALAS project “will enable
citizens to use their land as collateral for financing homes and businesses, and thereby unlock
substantial dormant capital for thousands of poor families struggling to rebuild their
shattered lives” (Steer and Breteche 2006).

The implementation of the RALAS project officially started in August 2005 and will last until
this year, 2008, when it was estimated that 600,000 land owners in Aceh and Nias would
have received their legal land title documents (Afiff 2006).

By the end of 2006, however, only 7,700 titles had been distributed to tsunami survivors,
with some 20,000 land titles actually lying ready for distribution, all the paper work complete,
at the Land Offices in Aceh. For half of these titles, all that remained was for the title
certificate to be signed by the Land Office Heads, while the other half of the certificates,
which were already signed, only needed to be handed to the land owners (Steer & Breteche
2006).

Actually, the fault does not lie entirely with the bureaucrats of the district land office (Kantor
Pertanahan), as field research by INFID’s research team in West Aceh, and the two new
districts split off from West Aceh, namely Aceh Jaya and Nagan Raya, in May 2007 had
shown. It also lies with the enormous task of identifying the prospective land title owners,
surveying their parameters, bringing the result to the district land office head, signing the
newly issued land certificates, and returning it to the rightful land owners (see Aditjondro
2007).

The land certification project in these districts was carried out in two stages, namely RALAS
2005 (July 2005-June 2006) when ten Adjudication Teams from BPN (Badan Pertanahan
Negara, or the State Land Affairs Body) were deployed in two towns and districts, followed
up by RALAS 2006 (July 2006-June 2007) with more Adjudication Teams deployed to nine
towns and districts. During RALAS 2005 about 14,000 land certificates had been printed,
while about 9,000 had been handed over to the rightful land owners. While during RALAS
2006 until November 2006, the boundaries and other physical data for 80,000 land parcels
had been identified, but only 1,000 land certificates had been handed over to the rightful
owners (idem).

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 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE ACEH LAND ADMINISTRATION SYSTEM (RALAS)

As official reports at the West Aceh Land Office have shown, the return rate of land parcels
that had already been surveyed by nine adjudication teams from BPN has been very low, as
the following examples may show. In Arongan Lambalek subdistrict, West Aceh, where
3,931 potential land certificates have been identified by BPN Team XVIII, only 1,842
certificates have been produced and safely handed over to the rightful land owners. While in
Drien Rampak subdistrict, in the same district, from the 1,180 potential land certificates
identified by BPN Team VIII, only 101 certificates had been produced and delivered to the
rightful land owners. So, from the total 20,748 potential land certificate holders identified by
nine BPN Teams from around Indonesia, only less than a third number of certificates had
been produced and delivered to the rightful land owners, by 26 April 2007. This is what the
head of the West Aceh Land Office, Budi Yazir, who also overseas Aceh Jaya, reported to
the higher levels of government (idem).

During an interview with Budi Yazir in his office in Meulaboh, on 2 May 2007, the land
officer explained the obstacles to the land certification process. First of all, since RALAS is a
national project, BPN had to recruit thirty adjudication teams from different local BPN
offices in Indonesia to carry out the assessment of potential receivers of the newly printed
land certificates, as well as to distribute them to the rightful owners. Consisting mainly of
non-Acehnese BPN staff, local BPN staff who spoke the local languages were inserted in
each team, such as in the ten teams sent to West Aceh and the two new districts split off
from West Aceh, namely Aceh Jaya and Nagan Raya. This identification process began in
mid April 2007, with each team assigned to complete distributing 5,000 new land certificates
to the proper land and other property owners (idem).

This identification process, involving two companies, PT PT Tesaputra Adiguna and PT

Surveyor Indonesia which assisted the adjudication teams with land mapping services, has
taken a much longer time than was anticipated, since it had to faces many hurdles. The huge
demographic effect of the 2004 tsunami and earth quake, which have caused the death of
thousands of land and other property owners, as well as the displacement of thousands other
people to the refugee barracks and other places, separated many land parcels from the
rightful owners. Therefore, the task of identifying the rightful owner, or inheritor of each
parcel of land was a hair-splitting job for each team, who were not accustomed to the terrain
and the inhabitants of the subdistricts assigned to them (idem).

These technical factors, however, may not be the only reasons for the high number of
undelivered land certificates, which was still the case in July 2007, when there were still 4,467
certificates undelivered to the land owners in West Aceh and Aceh Jaya, which by that time
was still under control of the West Aceh Land Office. Other factors may have had
influencing effects, such as the working quality of the Adjudication Teams, the lack of
involvement of village and subdistrict officials, the lack of enthusiasm of Acehnese villagers
themselves to obtain land certificates, which may not be too high on their priority list, or the
existence of other means of acknowledging one’s land ownership, especially under customary
law, which may make land certificates redundant.

All these factors, then, warrant more in-depth field and documentary research carried out by
young progressive researchers affiliated with INFID, employing the following research
methodology.

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 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE ACEH LAND ADMINISTRATION SYSTEM (RALAS)

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

This research is more of a qualitative rather than quantitative nature, since its main aim is to
evaluate RALAS as a policy, although it uses the high number of undelivered new certificates
as an entry point. This study is not as a survey in the conventional quantitative positivistic
sense, where the results are obtained by administering questionnaires to a number of
samples, reducing the villagers into numbers. This study is rather a semi-grounded multiple
case study, with the researchers as the main research instruments, using, but not limited to
the web chart as the interview guide.

The research methods employed by INFID’s research team consists of documentary

research, field observation and in-depth interviews, assisted by graphic methods to
consolidate the existing information and to guide the in-depth interviews.

Although this research is more of a qualitative rather than quantitative nature, the whole
process is not simply falling out of the blue. Rather than to test certain hypotheses, the whole
process has been be guided by assumptions claimed by those supporting and implementing
the RALAS project, as well as by the INFID research team. These assumptions are as
follows:

A. Assumptions of the World Bank:

• Assisting tsunami victims to regain their land certificates;

• Enable citizens to use their land certificates as collateral for financing homes and
businesses;

B. Assumptions of the National Land Agency:

• To enable tsunami victims to regain their civil rights, in particular, their right to their
land as protected by the state laws and regulations.

C. Assumptions of the INFID research team:

• The RALAS project will smoothen the influx of investors, which thereby will limit
the villagers access to their land;

• The provision of land certificates will accelerate the transformation of land from a
productive asset of the Acehnese farmers which maintains the cohesion of the rural
community to land simply as a commodity.

These assumptions were used as a ‘codification’, in the Freirean sense, which was ‘decodified’
in a focus group discussion (FGD) held in Meulaboh, West Aceh, on involving lecturers
from the local university, Universitas Teuku Umar (UTU), activists from local NGOs, and
the subdistrict head (Camat) of Samatiga, whose jurisdiction covers several villages included
in this study.

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 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE ACEH LAND ADMINISTRATION SYSTEM (RALAS)

The selection of the villages where in-depth interviews and field observation where held,
were based on a typology with the following categories, namely:

(1) contrasting villages with a high level of delivery with those with a low level delivery
of new certificates adjudicated by the BPN teams;

(2) finding a combination of urban-based villages versus more rural villages;

(3) contrasting the villages in (a) and (b), with villages not covered by the RALAS
project;

(4) contrasting villages where the local people have obtained certificates but had to sell
their land to large corporations or government projects, with villages not covered by
the RALAS project, but where the villagers had to sell their land to a large
government project, in this case the proposed Peusangan hydropower project.

All the selected villages according to the (a) and (b) categories where located in three districts
covered by the RALAS project, namely Aceh Jaya, West Aceh and Nagan Raya. Meanwhile
selected villages according to the (c) and (d) categories were located in the district of Nagan
Raya, which was covered by the RALAS project and the district of Central Aceh, which was
not covered by the RALAS project.

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 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE ACEH LAND ADMINISTRATION SYSTEM (RALAS)

RESEARCH FINDINGS:

1. Not all the people who have received the new certificates are tsunami victims

Some villagers which were not hit by the 26 December 2004 tsunami received the free land
certificates, while other villagers which were hit by the tsunami did not receive those
certificates. For instance, from the twelve gampong (villages) in the Samatiga subdistrict (West
Aceh) which were hit by the tsunami, only people in six gampong received certificates. While
those who were also supposed to receive certificates were replaced by villagers from six other
gampong, which were not hit by the tsunami, namely Cot Seumereung, Cot Ploh, Cot
Mesjid, Cot Seulamat, Gampong Cot and Cot Lampise.

Other villagers are still waiting for their free certificates, after being interviewed by the
adjudication teams since 2006, and having the photocopies of their identification card and
household card being collected. This occurred for instance in Suak Seuke, Samatiga where
villagers interviewed by the INFID research team claimed that they have filled in forms, have
filed their identification and household cards to their keuchik, and have had their land
measured by BPN staff in early January 2007. However, until the end of this field research,
they have not received their free certificates.

The project also allows other forms of corruption to occur. Quite often the keuchik
prioritize the issuance of new land certificates for his relatives and friends. In Suak Pandan, a
family close to the keuchik received three free certificates. Likewise, Mulyadi, SH, Kabag
Hukum Pemkab Aceh Barat said that in the Gampong Sinebuk there was also the same case,
where one individual received 3 - 5 free certificates.

2. The quality of the RALAS project depends heavily on the activity of the
Adjudication Teams and the National Land Affairs Office (BPN).

According to Budi Yazir, the head of the West Aceh Land Affairs Office, each Adjudication
Team was assigned to adjudicate and distribute 5,000 certificates. In Aceh Jaya and West
Aceh, however, the actual number of certificates distributed to the rightful owners was far
below those targets, ranging from only 1,657 certificates distributed by one adjudication team
in Johan Pahlawan subdistrict in Meulaboh (West Aceh) to 4382 certificates distributed by
another team in Arongan Lambalek subdistrict (West Aceh). Overll, no adjudication teams
was able to finish distributing 5000 certificates.

The distribution of certificates to the rightful owners have also faced several constraints,
caused partly because BPN and the adjudication teams did not informed the keuchik and
Camat about the heaps of certificates in the land affairs office. According to the West Aceh
BPN official, the certificates should be distributed by the adjudication teams. However, after
their contracts had expired, they just left the thousands of certificates in the West Aceh
office. The local BPN officials just left those certificates in their office, claiming that they
have no budgets to distribute those documents.

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 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE ACEH LAND ADMINISTRATION SYSTEM (RALAS)

In Aceh Jaya, according to Sayuti MB, a villager from Kedai Panga and Teuku Marhedi, a
villager from Kuta Tuha, the local land affairs office refuse to distribute those certificates,
claiming that the project had already finished.

Another example is in Meurebo subdistrict, where the people from fifteen gampong had
provided their family data and land papers (Akte Tanah), but only the people from seven
gampong had received their certificates.While the people from the eight gampong had not
received their land certificates, after delivering their Akte Tanah to the Adjudication Team to
be changed to land certificates. One of those victims who have lost their Akte Tanah is
Anwar a member of Meurebo’s tuha peut.

All such things would not have happened, if the adjudication teams had finished their job
according to what has been targeted, until the certificates would be in the hands of the
rightful owners.

3. The implementation of the RALAS project has not involved the local
communities, and has violated a number of government regulations and NAD
qanun:

Contrary to the World Bank claim that the process was a community-driven adjudication (CDA)
process, the adjudication staff worked simply as in other projects. They only symbolically
involved the local keuchik and camat, who received small honoraria. Three staffpersons from
the subdistrict received a Rp 400,000 monthly honorarium for nine months. Strangely
enough, those three persons were not involved in the entire adjudication process.

Members of the local communities were also not involved in the adjudication process, except
for determining the boundaries of each individual land plot. The local people were also not
told what indicators or parameters were used to choose which village would be included in
the RALAS project.

These practices violates Government Regulation No. 24/1997 on the Process of Land
Registration on two points, namely:

a. Article 8 verse 2.b.3, which determines that the Village Head, in this case, the
Keuchik, has to be appointed as a member of the Adjudication Committee,
and only be symbolically involved.
b. Article 26 verse 1 dan 2 states that the result of measurement of each parcel
of land has to be announced on the bulletin board at the Village Head. This
has not be done by the adjudication teams.

The implementation of the RALAS project further violates Qanun No. 5/2005 of the
Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD) province on the Gampong Government, which
stipulates the roles of the keuchik staff in charge of agriculture affairs , known as keujreun
blang and peutua seuneubo. They were not involved in the RALAS project, and neither were

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 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE ACEH LAND ADMINISTRATION SYSTEM (RALAS)

the Tuha Peut, a kind of council of elders, who are the counterparts of the keuchik, as
stipulated in that Qanun.

In addition to violating that Qanun, the implementation of the RALAS project has also not
involved the Imeum Mukim (mukim head), which violates Qanun No. 2/2003 on the
Hierarchy, Position and Authority of the Districts and Towns in the NAD Province, as well
as Qanun No. 4/2003 on the Mukim Government in the NAD.

MUKIM STRUCTURE

(according to Qanun No. 4/2003)

IMEUM
MUKIM

MPM: IMEUM MUKIM:

1. Imeum Mukim 1. Imeum Mukim

2. Keucik 2. Secretary
3. Tuha Peut 3. Tuha Peut
4. Secretary
5. Chair of
Customary
Institutions

TUHA PEUT Secretary

Imeum Keujrue Syah Pang Village Special

Institutions Institutions

Keuchiks

According to those two Qanun, the Mukim, which is lead by an Imeum Mukim, who
coordinates several Gampong, and simultaneously act as an intermediary government level
between the Gampong dan the Subdistrict (Kecamatan). In other words, the Imeum Mukim
is an intermediary between the Keuchik and the Camat, which is one of the uniqueness of
the government administration in Aceh. The fact is, that although the Keuchik and Camat

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 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE ACEH LAND ADMINISTRATION SYSTEM (RALAS)

are symbolically or only pro forma involved in the work of the Adjudication Teams, the
Imeum Mukim are not involved at all.

The Adjudication Teams lived in isolation from the village communities, only consulted with
the tsunami victims in a very limited, technical manner, and left when their contracts had
expired, often even without saying good bye to the village heads. In the rush to return to the
provincial capital, two members of adjudication teams died in traffic crashes.

4. There has been no coordination between the adjudication teams, BPN, and the
District Government:

According to Mulyadi, the Head of the Law Division of the West Aceh District
Government, they have also not been involved in the RALAS project. Even the list of
certificates which has not yet been distributed to the villagers has not been provided by BPN
to them.

Several problems have emerged because of the absence of coordination between BPN and
the West Aceh District Government. Mulyadi has deplored this absence of coordination,
since the Government Division of the West Aceh District Government could help to
distribute those certificates, through their Government Division,

5. Land certificates do not easily enable the tsunami victims to obtain access to
bank loans:

The World Bank claims that the RALAS distributed land certificates, “will enable citizens to
use their land as collateral for financing homes and businesses, and thereby unlock
substantial dormant capital for thousands of poor families struggling to rebuild their
shattered lives” (Steer and Breteche 2006). However, research by the INFID research team
has obtained different information from several informants. In general, the World Bank’s
claim is not entirely true, and the majority of the tsunami victims cannot easily obtain access
to bank loans with their certificates, especially those who are farmers.

The biggest access to bank loans is provided to business people and civil servants. This is,
according to the head of the credit division of the Meulaboh branch of BRI (Bank Rakyat
IndonesiaI), because the principle of BRI’s credit program is capital expansion. Thereby they
only lend loans to expand existing businesses, while the tsunami victims generally had no
businesses left, after all their belongings were destroyed by the tsunami. Hence, BRI is very
strict in rarely allowing loans with only land certificates as collaterals, since they will be
reprimanded by the Central Bank (Bank Indonesia), if they have a high number of
problematic loans.

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 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE ACEH LAND ADMINISTRATION SYSTEM (RALAS)

A similar information have been provided by a clerk of the Credit Division of the Aceh Jaya
branch of BPD (Bank Pembangunan Daerah) Aceh in Calang. According to this person, BPD
Aceh only provides loans for business expansion, not for initial capital to start businesses.

At any rate, the Aceh Jaya branch of BI in Calang provided the information that about fifty
civil servants who had been tsunami victims had put their newly acquired land certificates as
collaterals to obtain loans from the bank. That amount in lower than tsunami victims who
are businessmen, seventy of whom had put their certificates as loans.

Different information have been provided by local government officials in Aceh Jaya.
According to the Camat of Krueng Sabe, 30 % of this citizens had put their certificates as
collateral to a certain bank. Not individually, however, but through a contractor as middle
person. While according to the keuchik of Ladang Baro, from the 80% of his citizens who
have received certificates, only two or three persons had put their certificates as collateral to
a bank.

Meanwhile, the Land Affairs Office in Meulaboh provided the information, that from the
30.847 certificates that had been provided by seven adjudication teams to tsunami victims in
Aceh Jaya and West Aceh, only 5 % have been put as collateral to the local branches of BPD
Aceh, BRI, and BNI. So did the head of the West Aceh Land Affairs Office, Budi Yazir, told
the INFID research team.

Using land certificates as collateral could become boomerangs to the tsunami victims, far
from the World Bank’s hope for those victims to play an active role in the local or provincial
economy. In the villages of Suak Pandan in Samatiga, a citizen, R, had borrowed Rp 5 million
from BRI to expand his motor cycle business, using his land certificate as collateral. But after
facing difficulties in paying his installments on time, now R rarely stays at his house in Suak
Pandan but has moved to his in-law house, to avoid the Bank’s debt collector.

According to the keuchik of Kuta Baru (Nagan Raya), many tsunami victims have put their
certificates to the banks and micro-finance credit institutions. But since their loans from the
banks were not for productive ventures, they will face the danger of losing their land if they
cannot repay their debts and rates. The free-of-charge certificates have moved the citizens to
become more consumptive, since only a small portion of the bank loans have been used for
productive ventures.

The complicated bureaucracy and the difficult requirements have discouraged most of the
tsunami victims from borrowing money from the banks. Observations and interviews in the
Meulaboh area has shown that not banks have accepted many land certificates as collaterals,
but micro-finance lending institutions, while those who wanted quick money, even for very
high rates, have turned to rent-seekers.

Micro-finance lending institutions, according to Islamic Syariah law, which forbid high
profits, or riba, such Baitul Qiradh (BQ) Amanah Ummat in Meulaboh, have attracted many
tsunami victims, with its profit-sharing scheme which benefits ordinary citizens. BQ officials
are, however, not only focused on land certificates as collaterals, because for them, trust is
the main basis for providing loans. Most BC clients borrow money without collaterals. The

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BQ officials fear that in the future, many Aceh citizens will lose their land to the rent-seekers.
the strong cohesion among these communities and their economic well-being (from shark
hunting in the Andaman and Nicobar waters, in India’s maritime sphere), enable them to
lend and borrow sums of up to Rp 50 million among themselves, without collaterals, and
even sometimes without bills. They are not interested to borrow money from the bank,
where they fear the bureaucracy of the bank. But apart from borrowing money from fellow
villagers, they also borrow money from the toke bangku , the fish middle persons, using their
fish catch as guarantee.

6. Sertificates enforces the citizens to pay more tax.

The certificate distribution scheme has not contributed to the local villagers economy, by the
use of certificates as collaterals to borrow money from the bank. On the contrary, the
scheme has contributed more to the state economy rather than the villagers’ economy,
because the certificates have enforce the obligation of the villagers to pay taxes related to the
sale of land, as well as the normal land tax, based on the size and location of the land, as
stipulated in UU No. 21/1997 and PP No. 28/1997.

While failing to “unlock dormant capital for thousands of poor families struggling to rebuild
their shattered lives” (Steer & Breteche 2006), the ‘free-of-charge’ certificates do incorporate
the poor tsunami victims deeper into the Indonesian state economy, since, unlike other
proofs of land ownership, land certificates enforce the certificate holders to pay the land
taxes according to Law No. 21/1997. The tsunami victims have been tolerated to postpone
paying their various forms of land tax, but after that grace period is over, they still have to
pay those land taxes, which amount to tens of millions of rupiah.

In other words, the certificates are free, but now the certificate holders have to pay more tax
to the Indonesian State. Taxes which in turn, will partly used to pay Indonesia’s debts to the
foreign creditors, which include the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and bilateral
creditors, such as USAID (USA) and JBIC (Japan). That is the World Bank’s hidden agenda
behind this free-of-charge certificate scheme.

7. Land certificates are not the only land ownership proofs recognized by the people
of Aceh.

Budi Jazier, West Aceh Land Office head claims that the RALAS project is very important in
returning the civil rights of the tsunami victims, especially their land rights. Before the
tsunami, however, there were already several proofs of land ownership which have been
already recognized by the Aceh people, such as the Land Ownership Letter, or Surat
Kepemilikan Tanah (SKT) and the land ownership document, namely Akte Tanah, signed by
the Camat.

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Those two types of land ownership proofs are very strongly respected by the Aceh people.
This is now changing. The presence of land certificates obtained with the World Bank grant
is changing the people’s mind as if those certificates are legally the strongest proof of land
ownership, causing Aceh citizens who have not yet received these documents fear that they
land ownership can be challenged and they may lose their land.

The strength of people’s belief in already existing land ownership proofs, prior to land
certificates can be seen from the case of the problems encountered during the planned
expansion of the Cut Nyak Dien hospital in the city of Meulaboh. The planned expansion
faced a stumbling block on piece of land which had been given as waqaf, an Islamic form of
land gift, by the late owner of that land, who had stated that the land could only bne used for
Islamic religious education. This shows that a waqaf letter could also not been violated by the
people of Aceh.

8. Land certificates are no guarantee of the strength of individual land ownership.

Although land certificates are, in the eyes of the law, the strongest proof of one’s ownership
of a piece of land, this does not mean that that certified land is well-protected from
encroachment by big investors. With or without land certificates, the invasion of big
investors on the land of Aceh villagers is still happening with the support of the Indonesian
state and some mukim chiefs (imeum mukim) and gampong chiefs (keuchik). A large piece of
land, 65 hectares in total owned by 30 family heads who had already received certificates for
their land in Suak Puntong (Nagan Raya) has recently been bought by the State Electricity
Corporation from those villagers for Rp.100.000 per square meters. Initially, that land had
already been certified during the 2007 RALAS project. However, within a year’s time the
land owners were forced to sell their land to PLN to build a steam power plant in a joint
venture with Sinohydro, a huge electric power builder from China.

Meanwhile, the keuchik of Kuta Makmu in Nagan Raya has collaborated with the Media
Group in obtaining the land rights of the local people for a very cheap price, in order that
this company, owned by Surya Paloh, a national business tycoon of Acehnese origin, to open
a coal mine and build a coal-fired steam power plant in the village. The coal mine and the
steam power plant are now operating, without proper consideration for its environmental
impact, with barely any local villager on its payroll. None of the villagers have, by the way,
obtained any free-of-charge land certificate from the World Bank.

In those two cases, the role of the Village Secretary (Sekdes) is more dominant than the
keuchik in facilitating the inroad of investors in taking over the villagers’ land. Those big
companies use the services of the Sekdes, from taking over the people’s land to the
construction of gampong roads. This role of the Sekdes is stipulated in Government
Regulation No.45/2007 on the Criteria and Procedure in Appointment of the Village
Secretary as a Civil Servant ( Pegawai Negeri Sipil, PNS). Likewise, Article 116.2 of LoGA
No. 11/2006 has also stated that the Gampong Secretary will be appointed as a Civil Servant.

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Meanwhile, in the Gayo highlands in Central Aceh, where the local people have been
exempted from the RALAS project since they had not suffered directly from the tsunami. In
this mountain province, PLN has also taken over many tracts of land along the Peusangan
River, the natural outlet of the Lot Tawar Lake, where the Government of Indonesia is
planning to build two hydropower plants of 40 Megawatt each. Since 1995, the people of
Senehen in the Silihnara subdistrict were forced to sell their land to PLN for a very cheap
price, to build the diversion weir for the first Peusangan hydropower dam. Although very
reluctantly, the people had to sell their land “for public interest”, and because they feared of
being accused of being against “development”.

9. Land certificates facilitates the transformation of land ownership from a tool of

production and social cohesion into a commodity.

According to informers from Suak Pandan, Suak Seukee, Kuala Bubon (Aceh Barat), Kuala
Baru and Suak Puntong (Nagan Raya), certificates increases the value of land, compared to
land only equipped with land titles signed by the Camat (Akte Tanah). Land equipped with
certificates can sell faster than land which are only equipped with Akte Tanah. In the
people’s way of thinking, certificates can be used more easily as a collateral to borrow money
from the bank, according to Faisal Muhammad Ali, the keuchik of Kedai Panga.

The people’s desire to obtain land certificates is mainly driven by the desire to borrow money
from the bank, and also to be able to sell their land for a higher price. In some places, land
certificates also constitute status symbols. People who have no land certificates feel inferior
to their neighbors who do have certificates.

Land certificates also open the chance for outsiders to become part of Aceh’s community,
gradually reducing the function of land as the cohesion basis of Aceh’s customary society.
Obedience to Reusam Gampong, the traditional formula in allowing land to be transferred to
others, which has been handed over from generations in the past, has watered down. In the
past, if someone wants to sell his or her land, that person has first to offer it to his or her
relatives. Only when no relative is interested, can the land be sold to the neighbor of the
initial landowner. When the neighbors are not interested, the land has to be offered by
fellow villagers. Finally, if no fellow villager is interested, can the land be offered to outsiders.

While losing their respect to the ages-old reusam gampong, the mayority of the villagers do not
realize, that the ownership of land certificates brings a new burden to the people, namely the
obligation to pay land taxes, as has been described earlier.

10. This massive land certification project contradicts the spirit of honoring the
historical tradition and customs of the Aceh people, where the interests of the
villagers should be guaranteed and protected by the mukim and gampong chiefs
and their officials, as has been stipulated in various laws on Aceh, and recognized
in the Helsinki agreement between the Government of Indonesia and the Free
Aceh Movement on 15 August 2005.

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This massive land certification project, which has only involved the keuchik and the Camat,
has completely ignored the role of the mukim chief (imuem mukim) which structurally
ignored the role of the most specific institution in protection the customary rights of the
gampong people.

By not involving the imeum mukim and the gampong officials in charge of managing the
villagers’ land, water, and other natural resources, and also by not respecting the reusam
gampong, all of which has been stipulated by the various qanun issued by the Government of
NAD, the RALAS project is threatening the entire fabric of Aceh’s customs and traditions.

Although many new qanun based on Law No. 11/2006 on the Aceh Government still need
to be issued, the memorandum signed by the Government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh
Movement in Helsinki on 15 August 2005, stipulates in point 1.1.6. that ” Kanun Aceh will be
re-established for Aceh respecting the historical traditions and customs of the people of Aceh and reflecting
contemporary legal requirements of Aceh”.

So, the Indonesian government is bound, nationally and internationally, to defend and
facilitate the transition of Aceh’s government and regulations to revive the more socially and
ecologically sound wisdom of past generations, and not merely carry out a World Bank,
which seems to be free-of-charge but in later stages force the tsunami victims to pay
Indonesia’s international debts.

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CONCLUSIONS:

(1) The implementation of the RALAS project has been hindered by the poor adjudication
quality of the teams send by BPN from all over Indonesia to Aceh, contrary to the
project’s claim to carry out “community-based adjudication” (CBA). This low quality
implementation of the RALAS project has opened the door for various forms of
manipulations, such as:
- Prioritizing the adjudication and delivery of certificates to persons close to the village
apparatus;
- Provision of certificates for villagers from villages which were not hit by the 2004
tsunami, as has happened at six villages in the Samatiga subdistrict in West Aceh;
- Although there is a regulation that the free-of-charge certificates have to be
prioritized to house kits, in reality certificates have also been provided to plantation
land, which were subdivided into two-hectares plots.
(2) The implementation of the RALAS project has violated national and provincial laws: The
merely symbolic involvement of the keuchik (village head) in the adjudication process
violates of the Government Regulation No. 24/1997 on the Land Registration Process
(Peraturan Pemerintah No. 24/1997 tentang Pendaftaran Tanah), especially Article No. 8.2.b.3,
and also violates several Qanun that has been issued by the Province of NAD (Qanun
No.2/2003 on the Hierachy, Position and Authority of the Districts and Towns in the
Province of NAD; Qanun No. 4/2003 on the Gampong Government; and Qanun No.
5/2003 on the Mukim Government).
(3) The distribution of land certificates is not an urgent matter for many Acehnese tsunami
victims, since all the pre-existing proofs of land ownership are respected by and among
the villagers.
(4) Rather than strengthening the local people’s participation in the local and provincial
economy, the widespread distribution of land certificates have not provided them with
more access to the banking system, but has rather facilitated a deeper penetration the
Indonesian state and business corporations into the gampong.
(5) Since the mukim structure is not yet functioning properly, because it has only been
revived in Aceh since the end of Soeharto’s dictatorship, the people have – with or
without land certificates – practically no bargaining power against the influx of large
development projects which are backed up, or carried out by the Government of
Indonesia.
(6) From all that has been concluded above, it can be concluded on a higher and broader
level, that the RALAS project contradicts the basic spirit of all legal reform in Aceh,
namely to revive Aceh’s governance based on Islamic law and Aceh’s adat law and adat
structure, based on the gampong and mukim system, which guarantees a stronger
protection of the local people’s land, water, and natural resources, which has been
adopted by the national laws on Aceh’s provincial government (first by UU No.
44/1999; then by UU No. 18/2001, which has been replaced by UU No. 11/2006 and
also acknowledged by the August 15, 2005 MoU between the Government of Indonesia
and the Free Aceh Movement.

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RECOMMENDATIONS:

As concluded by the discussion of the INFID research team with lecturers, NGO activists
and a Camat in Meulaboh, on Wednesday evening on 8 May 2008, we want to recommend
two points:

1. The State Land Affairs Body, or Badan Pertanahan Negara (BPN) should not continue the
RALAS project, which is funded by a World Bank grant, since this project has caused
numerous problems on the grassroots level, such as:

• Gaps between gampongs whose villagers who have not received certificates and
their neighboring gampongs who have received such certificates, apart from distrust
if villagers of their keuchik, when they have not received the free-of-charge
certificates;
• On the higher level, this massive land certification project has reduced the
sovereignty of the people of Aceh in face of the strength of the Indonesian state and
big capital, which contradicts the spirit of legal reform in Aceh.

2. In accordance with the spirit of this legal reform, which has been reinforced by Law No.
18/2001, which have been renewed by Law No. 11/2006, and internationalized by the
Helsinki Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Indonesia and the
Free Aceh Movement on 15 August 2005, what needs to be strengthened instead is the
function and role of the customary government system, especially the role of the mukim
as the intermediary institution between the gampong people and the Indonesian state on
the subdistrict level.

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Bibliography:

Aditjondro, George Junus (2007). Profiting from Peace: The Political Economy of Aceh’s Post-
Helsinki Reconstruction. Working Paper INFID No. 3.

Afiff, Suraya (2006). Notes on Some Potential Impacts of the Implementation of Reconstruction of the
Aceh Land Administration System (RALAS) on Customary Land Rights Institutions. Draft of
paper presented at the 11th Biennial Conference on International Association for the
Study of Common Property in Bali, Indonesia, June 19-23.

Harley (ed) (2008). Mukim Masa ke Masa. Banda Aceh: Jaringan Komunitas Masyarakat Adat
(JKMA) Aceh.

Syarif, Sanusi M. (2003). Riwang U La’ot: Leuen Pukat dan Panglima La’ot dalam Kehidupan
Nelayan di Aceh. Banda Aceh: Yayasan Rumpun Bambu.

Steer, Andrew and Jean Breteche (2006). “Land Titles in Aceh: So Much Hope, but More
Action Needed.” The Jakarta Post, 2 December.

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