What happened to Land Reform in Indonesia?

This is the interesting comic from one of the networks of the ASA in Indonesia called Alliansi Gerakan Reforma Agraria (AGRA) or in English, Agricultural Reform Movement Alliance. During my visit to Jakarta for the ASA together with the FMN, I managed to attend a forum on the land reform.

The issues of the land reform already been struggled by numbers of peasant organizations, but it never become the agenda of the Indonesian government. Surprisingly the agreement of the Indonesian government to open the debate of the land reform and invite different organizations to join the consultation. Many of the organizations were looking at this as the channel for them to promote their issues and pressure the government to take the genuine land reform.

Besideds, the peasants in Indonesia not only facing with the scarce land for them to curtail, but also the dropping price of their crops. The Indonesian government using the excuse of the flood and lack of rice for consuming to import the rice from Vietnam. This is another challenge for the peasant in Indonesia.

With the transition period for the ASA, there are a lot of youth peasants in Indonesia that need to be organized. AGRA as the alliance of the peasant groups, it can be the organization that become the working partner of the ASA to reach out to more youth.