Land reform and the myth of the small farmer in Indonesia's nucleus estate and smallholders program, 1977-2001: insights from West Java

Abstract

Land disputes were a serious and recurring problem in Indonesia's Nucleus Estate and Smallholders (NES/'PIR') program between 1977 and 2001. While many of these disputes arose during President Suharto's 'New Order' regime (1966-1998) a large number remain unresolved and are a continued source of tension and conflict in some communities. Explanations of the causes of these land disputes have focused on the controversial land policies that sacrificed the rights of local communities to the interests of state agencies and large companies, particularly in the context of the oil palm 'boom' in the Outer Islands. What has largely been overlooked are the actual land reforms implemented in project locations and their role in shaping the dynamics of land disputes. This study uses a political ecology approach to investigate the land reforms in the NES program and their contribution to the numerous land disputes that plagued the program from its inception. It shows how disputes in schemes were not simply the result of a large-scale land grab by government agencies and plantation companies but rather were the consequence of land reforms that transformed customary (adat) property rights and agro-ecological systems and, in the process, dramatically restricted access to land. Drawing on debates about the peasantry, contract farming and agrarian transitions, the study argues that land reform policy was above all shaped by the state's desire to create ideal capitalist small farmers who possessed unique cultural characteristics. Although the study focuses on the modern era, it adopts an historical approach to investigate how state authorities in Indonesia have moulded customary property rights overtime through land policies in order to recruit peasants into broader capitalist circuits of production. The focus of the research is the province of West Java, one of the first areas of Indonesia to be incorporated into the Dutch colonial state and the setting for numerous agrarian conflicts dating back to the Dutch colonial era. The research used quantitative and qualitative research methods to explore these processes in historical and contemporary context. In depth case study field work was undertaken of nucleus estates in West Java to analyze the dynamics surrounding land use change, and struggles over land and the meanings of adat in the context of large-scale land reform programs. The findings of the research support the contention in the common property literature that customary institutions, such as adat property rights, are resilient and may endure and adapt in the face of external development interventions. It shows how in many parts of Indonesia, the livelihoods of smallholders continue to be supported by a successful l relationship between customary property rights and the agro-ecological systems to which they are intimately connected, or what might be called the 'political ecology of adat’. It calls for tree crop development policies that work within this political ecology of adat, rather than seeking to transform and undermine it through land reforms that continue to promote the myth of the small farmer in order to justify control over land by large plantation companies.