Territoriality and the market system—Adat land vs. state regulations on land matters in Bali

Abstract

This article discusses in detail the eroding impact of the basic regulation on land matters and Agrarian principles (BRLMAP), and the implications of the modern planning system imposed by the Indonesian state over the Balinese territorial principles of the Adat—customary law. The aspirations underlining market-based practices of the BRLMAP and the communal practices of the Adat became the fundamental cause for the emergence of spatial competition among diverse interests in land acquisition and use. The overriding economic interests promoted by the state and its development partners through Bali's tourist industry, recognition of individual rights, the establishment of a land market, and dominant state control over land, has led to the elimination of the Adat land tenure, disintegration of tanah Adat–Adat land, and weakening of the Desa Adat Institution as the community representative over land matters. These institutions are critical elements, not only to the sustenance of Adat territoriality, but to Balinese culture as a whole. The idea of state systems supposedly balancing the differing development attitudes through ‘neutral’ professional governance is therefore in doubt. Development capital, the state, and the ‘public interest’ as represented by the Desa Adat therefore remain a conflictual set of practices, which demand resolution.