By Elisabetta Cangelosi
Tanjung Karang is a village in the Tasikmalaya district, in West Java, 100Km away from Bandung. It represents an important case in the framework of Indonesian Agrarian Reform.
For a long time, during Dutch colonial times, the land of Tasikmalaya District was used for large-scale plantations, in particular tea. After independence, the land started being managed by the Indonesian Government. In 1974 the State-owned enterprise PT Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN) claimed 2000ha. of community land through Cultivation Rights, displacing entire villages and families. When people returned to their villages, at the end of the 1990’s and claimed their rights on what was some of PTPN’s unused and abandoned land, it resulted in a 15 year conflict, resolved in 2013 with the police withdrawing and 350 households being granted access to 140ha. of land.
Villagers and peasants fought for their land rights, and while they do not yet hold land certificates, the community has achieved a significant social and economic change. The village area hosts both individual and collective plantations, well-integrated in a multi-cropping system; they produce for themselves and their families as well as for local markets, while restoring and preserving the land’s ecological functions. In fact, in the use and management of their land, the peasants of Tanjung Karang rely upon the idea of ecological and sustainable systems.
The Pasundan Farmers Union (SPP) played a significant role in achieving these results. This union, originally created as a Students Union, evolved over the years and crucially contributed to achieve the result of gaining rights over land and advocated to include Tanjung Karang in the Agrarian Reform process (LPRA).
While the Agrarian Reform (accurately presented by the Head of the Land Office of BPN Tasikmalaya Regency) is still an ongoing process – with some controversial aspects that led to the inclusion of this village in the priority location for the agrarian reform – positive results of the struggle for land are already real. Furthermore, access to and control over land also ensured the creation of schools, libraries, mosques, roads and water supply systems on the basis of mutual cooperation.
This is the community we visited on 21 and 22 September 2018, just before the Global Land Forum. These are the people that welcomed us in their homes. The children who smiled at us are the sons and daughters of those who fought for their rights, and for those of future generations. The eldest among them belong to the Students Union. The women we met are active part of the SPP and defend their rights to land together. The youth of this community engaged to contribute to farmers schools to ensure access to education and training for the children of the community.
We were 30 participants, from Latin America, Asia and Africa and we enjoyed the mutual learning exchange with the different actors of this land struggle: from government officer to unions, from local authorities to women and youth groups. It was interesting and stimulating. We learnt from the struggles and achievements of the community, but also had the opportunity to share our own experiences.
Among the thoughts that we bring back home:
“Lucha y persistencia por la reforma agrarian y el accesso a la tierra!”
“People who love their territories, live off their land in dignity and cooperation”
“El campo esta alegre porque hay gente llena de vida y en comunidad, no como en tierra del agronegocio, donde hay desiertos verdes sin gente”
We met a welcoming community, a community that showed us their culture, their land, their cultivation.
We met a community that fed us with the products of their land, which are the products of their fight!
We support this community, which is still fighting to be included in the agrarian reform process, but has already won the most important struggle: they are protecting their territory and can build their future!
The field visit included several components:
1. Discussion with Pasundan Farmers Union representatives
Session I: The History of the Peasant Movement and of the Pasundan Farmers Union, with special focus on the local peasant organizations in the Tanjung Karang Village presenting the the process to achieve agrarian reform.
2. Discussion with the Head of the Land Office of BPN Tasikmalaya Regency.
This discussion allowed all participants to learn about the support that the BPN in the Tasikmalaya Regency is offering to the struggle of the Pasundan Farmers Union and to other local farmers organizations in the Tanjung Karang Village.
3. Discussion with the Government of the village
Discussion with the government of the Tanjung Karang Village on the support of the Village Government to the struggle of the Pasundan Farmers
4. Discussion with local communities, women’s group and youth group
During this session, local peasant organizations, especially youth and women organizations, and the participants to the field visit shared their experiences regarding initiatives about the role of women and youth at village level.
This session included a presentation of the the schools organized by local farmers organizations in the Tanjung Karang Village.
5. Visit to the farmed land of the struggle and learning about the processing of tobacco and vetiver.
• Visit to the swimming pool managed by the organization as a form of organizational economic work, also open to tourists.
• Visit to the areas of land reclaimed by farmers and now used as collective and individual land
