Faculty of Bioscience Engineering

Academic year 2014 – 2015

Farmland Conversion in Karawang, Indonesia:

Discourse Analysis

Pinta Lizti Irene

Promoter: Prof. dr. Stijn Speelman

Master’s dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the

degree of Master of Science in Nutrition and Rural Development,
Main subject: Rural Economics and Management
Copyright

“All rights reserved. The author and the promoters permit the use of this Master’s Dissertation
for consulting purposes and copying of parts for personal use. However, any other use falls under
the limitations of copyright regulations, particularly the stringent obligation to explicitly mention
the source when citing parts out of this Master’s dissertation.”

Ghent University, August 2015

Promoter

Prof. dr. Stijn Speelman

........................................

Author

Pinta Lizti Irene

...................................

i
Abstract

Along with economic growth and population pressure, the demand for land increased
dramatically. Having lower rent values compared to other economic sectors, farmland notably
in peripheral areas becomes the major victim of land conversion. Its crucial values for the socio-
economic condition of farmers, environmental aspect, and food security are neglected for the
sake of the importance of residential, industrial, and other use.

Karawang Regency as the biggest producer of rice in West Java possesses the same trend of
farmland conversion. It started in the early 1990s when the Government of Karawang Regency
placed the industrial sector as a complementary economic driver together with the agricultural
sector in Regional Development Plan. As the result of this reform, raising demand for land for
industrial area due to the rapid growth of industrial sector is inevitable. During 1995-2005, there
were approximately 181.87 Ha per year farming land converted to industrial area and other land
use.

The story of controversial farmland conversion in the study area, which is located in the
Karawang regency, started in 1990. It targeted 350 Ha of farmland in three villages to become
industrial area. A landownership dispute occurred between approximately 500 villagers and a
private company. Both actors have their own storyline about the land ownership chronology.
Although the private company won the lawsuit in 2007, the villagers reject the verdict. The case
has been pending until now and is still to be reviewed by the government.

To unfold the dynamic of farmland conversion issue in the study area, how key actors respond
to land conversion was explored in the first stage using discourse analysis. The discourse of
actors towards land conversion was described, analyzed, and interpreted by this method. Desk
research from published news and other forms of media, together with semi-structured
interviews were conducted to show the language and practice of actors towards land conversion.
In the second step, constant comparative approach to compare the emerged discourses among
actors was performed to investigate the various values that exist within farmland conversion.
Such information is valuable since this study is expected to provide new insights that reflect
typical farmland conversion case in Indonesia.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor and tutor, Prof. dr. Stijn Speelman for his
useful comments and remarks through the learning process of master thesis. His support and
guidance help me a lot to improve this thesis.

Further, I would like to thank the respondents who were willing to share their precious views
towards this topic during the interviews. Though this sensitive topic has been discussed millions
time by other medias, they were still motivated to help the process of this master thesis.

My special thanks go to my family and partner in Indonesia who helped me technically during
the survey process and supported me endlessly especially during dull periods. Apart from that,
I would also like to thank all my friends in Belgium and Indonesia who keep motivating me to
finish this (not-endless) thesis as soon as possible.

Also, I would like to thank the “ghost editor” for her assistance in upgrading the language of
this master thesis.

I recognize that this thesis would not have been possible without the scholarship from Erasmus
Mundus Lotus III. I express my sincere gratitude to the team for letting me acquire such
valuable learning experiences in Gent University.

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Table of Contents

COPYRIGHT ......................................................................................................................................................... I

ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................................................... II

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................................ III

TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................................................... IV

LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................................ VI

LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................................................ VII

1. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 1

1.1. STUDY BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................... 1

1.2. RESEARCH QUESTION .................................................................................................................... 3
1.3. TOPIC .................................................................................................................................................. 3
1.4. LIMITATION ...................................................................................................................................... 4
1.5. JUSTIFICATION ................................................................................................................................ 4

2. LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................................................... 5

2.1. LAND CONVERSION ........................................................................................................................ 5

2.2. LAND DISPUTE ............................................................................................................................... 10

3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................. 15

3.1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 15

3.2. DISCOURSE ANALYSIS AS METHOD ......................................................................................... 15
3.3. DATA COLLECTION ....................................................................................................................... 17
3.4. INTERVIEWEE ................................................................................................................................ 18
3.5. DATA ANALYSIS ............................................................................................................................ 19

4. FARMLAND CONVERSION DISPUTE IN THE STUDY AREA ..................................................... 20

4.1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 20

4.2. DESCRIPTION OF KARAWANG REGENCY ............................................................................... 20
4.3. LAND DISPUTE HISTORY ............................................................................................................. 21

5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................ 23

5.1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 23

5.2. EMERGING DISCOURSES ............................................................................................................. 23
5.2.1. DISCOURSES IN THE VILLAGERS............................................................................................. 23
5.2.2. DISCOURSES IN THE COMPANY .............................................................................................. 34
5.2.3. DISCOURSE IN THE LOCAL GOVERNMENTS ......................................................................... 38
5.3. DISCUSSION .................................................................................................................................... 43

6. CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................................................................ 48

7. REFERENCE LIST .................................................................................................................................. 49

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APPENDIX .......................................................................................................................................................... 56

APPENDIX 1 QUESTIONAIRE ................................................................................................................ 56

APPENDIX 2 MAP OF KARAWANG REGENCY ................................................................................... 60
APPENDIX 3 FARMLAND AREA .......................................................................................................... 61
APPENDIX 4 PICTURE OF LAND CLEARING CONDITION .............................................................. 62
APPENDIX 5 FLYER OF PODOMORO INDUSTRIAL PARK .............................................................. 63

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List of Figures

Figure 1 Scheme and Driving Forces of Agriculture Land Conversion ............................. .7

Figure 2 Interdependency of Land Conflict Causes ........................................................ .11

vi
List of Tables

Table 1 Categorization of Respondents in Direct Interview ............................................ 18

Table 2 Emerged Discourses between Actors ................................................................. .44

vii
1. INTRODUCTION
This chapter outlines the background information for this study. It also includes the problem
statement and the research questions, as well as the motivation and limitations of the study.

1.1. Study Background

In this decade, economic growth along with population growth continues to increase especially in
developing countries. As a result of that, demand for land as a production factor or consumption good
will also increase simultaneously. As the extent of land is fixed, continuing population pressure and
economic development imply that land conversion cannot be avoided (Liu & Guo, 2014;
Dwipradnyana, 2014). Land conversion is a process of change in land use from a particular function
to another function. Having numerous advantageous factors such as strategic location (Lambin et al.,
2001) and availability of infrastructure e.g. existing road network and irrigation (Borras et al., 2012),
prime cropland becomes the common victim of land conversion.

International cases showed that rapid economic growth is usually accompanied by land use shifting
from agriculture to urban led demands such as industry, infrastructure, and residential use (Lambin
et al., 2001; Ramankutty et al., 2002) where land is put to a higher value than before. In the middle
and high income countries, arable land has been declining regularly due to physical development; in
Europe since 1975 (Caradec et al., 1999), and in The USA since 1980 (Meyer, 1995). Leitmann
(1995) in Firman (1997) reported that in Jakarta, Sao Paulo and Tunis, agricultural production was
declining substantially as much of the more fertile land had been converted to urban use.

As an agrarian country, Indonesia greatly depends on the agricultural sector. In terms of labor, one
out six Indonesian people works in the agricultural sector, of these 46% are rice farmers (Central
Bureau of Statistic, 2013). This sector also provides a main income for the majority of Indonesian
households in the village areas. Smallholder farmers mainly work on rice, soybean, corn, fruit and
vegetables, and sometimes also hardwood plantation.

Despite its importance, tremendous farmland conversion has been taking place especially on Java,
the most populated island, where the need of land for physical development is growing rapidly. The
Central Bureau of Statistics (2014) reported that during five years from 2007 to 2012, the area of rice
field decreased by 10.000 Ha from 934.845 Ha to 925.565 Ha. Land conversion was started in the
1980s when the Government of Indonesia became more open for investment. As the result of it,
paddy fields with a strategic location and extensive land occupancy situated in peripheral areas
became the sole target of land conversion.

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Due to land conversion, the farmers, the community in general, and the government were highly
affected. From farmers’ perspectives, it led to a labor shortage in agricultural sector as well as to an
increase in off-farm activities (Wu et al., 2011).This condition is dilemmatic because on the other
side, Central Government of Indonesia mandates to protect farming land. Based on Law No 41 Year
2009 about Protection of Sustainable Farming Land, the Central Government forced the Local
Government to protect the existing sustainable farming land to be able to maintain national food
safety and food sovereignty. Moreover, the Central Government is eager to re-activate non-
productive land such as ex-mining area to become farming land. In addition to that, abundant
incentives such as physical infrastructures and subsidy for seeds and fertilizer have supported the rice
production since 1960.

The increasing farmland conversion is certainly related to the issue faced by the Local Government
and the farmers themselves. From the government side, inadequate planning, poor implementation
and failure in land development management cause more farmland conversion to happen (APO, 1992
in Firman, 1997). This is worsened by the fact that land tax and land right fee became responsibilities
of the Local Government. This stimulated Local Government to convert farming land to a more
beneficial land use.

From the farmers’ side, low income from working as farmer due to low land occupancy
(approximately 0.7 Ha per farmer), risk from crop failure at harvest due to vulnerability towards
climatic change (Naylor et al., 2007) and the high prevailing farmland prices drive them to sell their
land easily. Consequently, land conversion in the outskirt or peripheral area of large city seems to be
almost inevitable (Firman, 1997; Irawan, 2005).

Numerous studies related to the farmland conversion and land dispute in Indonesia have been
conducted, usually through case studies. They focused on the impact of farmland conversion on the
socio-economic (Irawan, 2005; Subali, 2005; Erviani, 2011; Dwipradnyana, 2014) and legal aspect
of land conflict (Rifai, 2004), and land conflict with palm oil company (Colchester, et al., 2007;
McCarthy, 2010). However, in-depth understanding of the main actors involved in farmland
conversion in disputed area got only a little attention.

This study focuses on one controversial farmland conversion case that has been occurring in
Karawang Regency since 1990. This land conversion targets 350 Ha of farming field in three villages
namely Wanasari, Wanakerta, and Margamulya Village in West Teluk Jambe District.
Approximately 500 villagers are affected by this land conversion from farmland to industrial land
use.

2
This farmland conversion becomes controversial due to a conflict of interest and agrarian issues
concerning the farmland between the villagers and Sumber Air Mas Pratama Corp. (further called as
SAMP Corp.), with the local government as a mediator. The villagers and the company, both serving
their own interest, have rigorously been disputing the ownership of the land since 1990. It becomes
the most prolonged land dispute in Karawang Regency and causes exhaustion to all related actors.

Numerous actions have been organized by both the villagers and the company. The former have
brought the lawsuit to the District Court and appealed to the Supreme Court in the early 2010s,
blocked the access to toll-road in May 2014, and staged demonstration to various government
institutions. The latter won most of the case in juridical forum, and lately in June 2014 performed
land clearing of the farmland.

Although the land clearing has been executed, the villagers asked the District Court to reopen the
case and submitted new evidences. As the land status is not yet clearly established, the National Land
Agency cannot process the land certificate and Building Right Title for the company. As a result of
this, the conversion of the farmland to an industrial zone, namely Podomoro Industrial Park has been
kept on hold until now. Besides, the villagers cannot enter the farmland anymore due to the intense
security by the company and the police.

Therefore, this research focused on a range of meanings attached to the phrase of “farmland
conversion” in the disputed land described by involved actors. Nonetheless, the majority of previous
studies on this topic focused mainly on economic and legal aspect. Through a comprehensive
investigation by using discourse analysis, several aspects were explored to acquire a clearer
understanding. At the end, this study could add some insights to the existing literatures.

1.2. Research Question

In regards to farmland conversion that occurred in the disputed land in Karawang Regency, there
were some questions that need to be answered:
(1) Which discourse(s) influence the farmland conversion inside the key actors?
(2) How do key actors respond to the farmland conversion?

1.3. Topic

Topic of this research is “Farmland Conversion in Karawang, Indonesia: Discourse Analysis“

3
1.4. Limitation

This research has some limitations regarding the data collection and analysis. First, there is a certain
degree of subjectivity in the answers of the respondents. As this research was performed in a
qualitative study, there is a high dependency on the response of the respondents. Nonetheless, the
reliability and honesty of answers cannot be ensured since the respondents tend to provide arguments
that are profitable to them. Second, research quality is highly dependent on the researcher’s skill in
interpreting the argument from the respondents. This may include personal belief that influences the
analysis and simplification of a complex situation. The third limitation is related to the sample size
of the respondents. During primary data collection, the information from the company and the local
government was relatively limited compared to that from the villagers. If the sample size was larger,
a greater insight and deeper analysis of all stakeholders might be gained.

1.5. Motivation

This research would lead to a better understanding of farmland conversion in Indonesia. The majority
of former research deals with farmland conversion with quantitative methods looking at the welfare
effect on the villagers. This research attempts to provide a more comprehensive and in-depth insight
by doing qualitative analysis and gaining the perspective not only from the villagers but also from
the other stakeholders.

4
2. LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Land Conversion

Land is an important means for society in rural area. Land becomes a vital base for livelihood to do
crop farming, herding, or collecting fuelwood (IFAD, 2010). It determines the number of other
production factors needed and ensures certain investment for business particularly for farming
business (Caldeira, 2008). According to Grigg (1995), land also becomes the livelihood’s standard
of living which determines the amount of food supplied for subsistence farming and potential income
for business farming (IFAD, 2010). In addition, it holds socio-political value which reflects the social
status/ identity of people (Caldeira, 2008; IFAD, 2010; Borras et al., 2010), homeland and place of
ancestry value (Sumanto, 2008).

There are 45% of people living in rural areas in developing countries (Barati et al., 2014) who have
a high dependency on the land. Despite the importance of land to rural dwellers, the trend of farmland
conversion kept intensifying both in developing and developed country. According to Tan et al.
(2009), the intensity of farmland conversion in developed countries is much lower compared to
developing countries. For instance, farmland conversion in The Netherlands was 17 hectares per day
during 1996-2000, while in the Germany was 114 hectares per day in 2006. By contrast, China
experienced 802 hectares of farmland converted per day in 2004 and Indonesia had 514 hectares of
farmland converted per day during 2000-2002 (Agus & Irawan, 2006). However, this number may
depends on the availability of existing farmland areas and total land area. As the consequences of
excessive farmland conversion, an intense mix between agricultural and non-agricultural use is
commonly found in rural area (Zui, 2001).

Farmland conversion is the process by which land is converted from agricultural uses to other uses.
Azadi & Barati (2013) argued that it is not the same between one place and another because of
different drivers, trends, and intensities. Farmland is commonly targeted because it has lower
economic rent compared to other uses (Grigg, 1995; Mazzocchi, 2013). Additionally, the higher the
productivity parameters indicating high price, e.g. fertileness, good access to water resource,
developed road infrastructure, the higher the willingness of landowners to sell the land to in the land
market (Irawan, 2008).There are three parties affecting the process of land conversion, i.e. private
developers/ company, government, and landowners. The connection between all of these actors
caused land conversion processes to be complicated in character (Firman, 1997). According to Irawan
(2005), the impacts of land conversion on wetlands are permanent, cumulative, and progressive to
the nearby land.

5
Azadi & Barati’s study (2013) showed that high population density and growth, rapid economic
growth, and urbanization process are the most influential factors of farmland conversion. According
to Azadi et al. (2011), increase in economic growth will lead to change in economic structure from
agricultural to non-agricultural. This results in the development of commercial and industrial sites
attracting more people to find jobs closer to the area. In response to that, demand for housing and
other facilities will rise up and spread to the peripheral areas which are typically used for agriculture
function. Also, with rising income, demand for agricultural products will decrease parallel with an
increment of non-agricultural products (Barati et al., 2014). Hence, farmland conversion will be
triggered in order to meet the demand of non-agricultural products (Irawan, 2005).

In addition, Debolini et al. (2013) noted that farmland conversion might occur due to human activities
abandonment and marginalization of agriculture land by the farmers themselves. The same authors
and Hietel et al. (2007) admitted that too-high intensification of farmland which creates soil
degradation leads to abandonment of farmland.

According to Setiawan & Purwanto (1994) in Firman (1997) and Mazzocchi (2013), there are two
main determinants of farmland conversion i.e. external and internal factor. The former includes
industrialization, urbanization (Lichtenberg & Ding, 2008; Barati, et al. 2014), road infrastructure
development, and government policy, whilst the latter includes land productivity (location and land
potential), technology intensity, and ownership patterns, including land size, household size and
income, and structural weakness.

Hietel et al. (2007) and Lichtenberg & Ding (2008) focused their research on the socio-economic
situations of landowner that influence farmland conversion. According to Hietel et al. (2007), there
are several human-behavior components that influence the farmland conversion including (1)
demography such as population density and age structure, (2) employment and economy such as off-
farm job alternative and working outside rural area, and (3) agricultural structure such as farmland
coverage and production type. In addition, Lichtenberg & Ding (2008) noted that when villagers have
an off-farm job that is more profitable to them, there will be little incentive to invest in the farmland
as it is not highly economic to them. This is worsened by the lack of agricultural infrastructures such
as farming market, road, electricity, crop storage, and price volatility which undermine the economic
incentive for farmers. Notably for young generations, limitation of farming capacity and limitation
of labor time leads to letting farmland uncultivated.

6
Some scholars focused on the huge influence of institution and policy to farmland conversion.
According to Lichtenberg & Ding (2008), existing institutional and policy structure affects
willingness of farmers to convert the farmland and provides high incentives to the private sector for
converting farmland for urban use. For the former, difficulty in having tenure security triggers those
who have partial or unclear ownership title to under-utilize the land (Lichtenberg & Ding, 2008).
While for the latter, the government opens the investment opportunity for the establishment of
industrial area, economic development zones, or residential area through farmland conversion (Azadi
& Barati, 2013). The purpose is to promote the economic growth and raise the government’s income.

In summary, Azadi & Barati (2013) illustrated the scheme and driving forces of Agriculture Land
Conversion as in Figure 1 below. The authors pointed out five main drivers including: (1) Economic
Driver, identified as low profit and high risk of agricultural sector, (2) Social Driver, identified as
migration from rural to urban areas, (3) Political and Institutional Driver, identified as government
abandonment of farming sector, (4) Environmental Driver, focused on lack of agricultural water, and
lastly (5) Technical and Infrastructure Driver, related to development of residential, industrial area,
and transportation infrastructure. Also, according to them, the weight and effect of each driver might
be different depending on temporal and spatial profile of an area.

Agriculture
Land
Conversion

Figure 1 Scheme and Driving Forces of Agriculture Land Conversion

7
During the farmland conversion, there will be land relinquishment process from the buyer and the
seller. Hui et al. (2013) focus on the particular compensation to the farmers in China as the
consequence of farmland conversion. Possessing unclear guidelines for compensation, farmers
apparently have no choice for land acquisition compensation. The compensation tends to be ad hoc
and arbitrary for farmers. Consequently, the land lost farmers who are insufficiently compensated
become financially worse off.

Land conversion creates some impacts, not only the direct impact on agricultural production and
other related variables but also on environmental aspect. Some scholars (Lichtenberg & Ding, 2008;
Cui & Kattumuri, 2010; Barati et al., 2014) acknowledged the threat of farmland conversion to the
food security. In order to obtain food security, a country must provide safe and nutritious food that
meets all people dietary needs at all times and ensure that all people have physical and economics
access to it (FAO, 2006). Hence, a country must produce sufficient food internally or partially import
it from another countries. For a country with high populations, food import cannot be considered as
a good solution to supply food since a too large dependency on the world market prices of food can
be dangerous. Therefore, most countries aim at self-sufficiency to be able to produce sufficient food
to feed the internal population. However, not all cropland losses indicate that food security is
endangered because of the difference in production capacity or soil condition. The important issue is
when the farmland conversion occurred in a productive farmland (Lichtenberg & Ding, 2008).

While in the low-middle income countries, farmland conversion is more focused on food security
issue, in the middle-high income countries the concern is more targeted to environmental issue (Tan,
et al., 2009). Converting farmland could decrease the water holding capacity of the soil due to
construction of non-agriculture land use building. In addition, Barati et al. (2014) pointed out that
farmland conversion affects climate change back and forth excessively.

Farmland conversion also impacts the farmers directly. In regards to labor force, farmland conversion
will lead to loss of labor in the agricultural sector as well as to an increase in off-farm activities (Wu
et al., 2011) and more migration from rural area to urban area (Azadi & Barati, 2013). In their study
case in China, Hui et al. (2013) found that in terms of socio-economic factors, the farmers are not
able to maintain the basic living standard without the farmland. The same authors also noted the
emerging issues namely cultural and psychological impact on the former landowners. When the
farmers do not have any job in rural and transmigrate to the city for work, their situation will be
worse when they cannot adapt to the urban character easily. In short, the impact of farmland
conversion will be different depending on the farmers. Azadi & Barati (2013) reported that poor

8
farmers with a small plot of land, the less educated, and the old ones will suffer more in the case of
farmland conversion.

Realizing the negative impacts of farmland conversion and the importance of farmland, many
countries have tried to avoid and protect agriculture land from being converted to urban uses. In
China and The US for instance, the government decrees Basic Farmland Protection Regulation to
preserve productive land from being converted to other function (Lichtenberg & Ding, 2008). If a
particular land is converted, the same amount of land in other place must be converted into farmland
in order that the total amount of basic farmland is kept stable.

Another popular farmland conversion control tool implemented in The US is the scheme of Farmland
Preservation Program which gives easement or compensation to the farmland owners. Through this
scheme, the landowners who are granted easement can continue farming in the land but are not
allowed to sell the land for conversion. Brinkman et al. (2005) and Plantinga & Miller (2013) in their
study found that this scheme is quite successful in attempts to avoid farmland conversion. Brinkman
et al. (2005) specifically noted the positive impact of the easement payment which may be used as
an extra capital investment by the farmers. Due to its high costs, however, this policy can only well
applied in the developed countries.

In addition, Irawan (2005) and Azadi et al. (2014) noted the importance of the Land Use Plan which
takes into account comprehensive consideration including socio-economic matters of the citizens and
the environmental issue. By planning, urban expansion can be directed in desired ways that can
protect the fertile agricultural land. Together with it, legal approach should be combined with the
economic approach including tax incentives and agricultural subsidies (Azadi et al., 2014). As
agricultural sector is considered as a low profit and high risk sector, intervention in the economic
drivers will encourage farmers not only to preserve the land but also to improve the farming activities.

9
2.2. Land Dispute

Land conflict is a social conflict that involves at least two parties, because of different interest and
perception in regards to the access right to the land, the right to use and manage the land, to generate
income from it, to exclude others, to transfer ownership the land, and the right to compensate it
(Wehrmann, 2008). Similarly, according to Appendini (2001) in Kim & Dorjderem (2012) land
conflict is more associated with the question of who has the right; what the right is; and how the right
to the land is handled and enforced in free market society. Additionally, Arma (2012) confirmed that
the problem of disputed land focused on boundaries, area, status, formal ownership, land right
ownership, and transfer process of land right ownership. In short, land conflict will start when the
claim towards particular land becomes multiple.

Land conflict might be triggered either between parties in the same group (family, ethnic) or different
group (civil group with other civil group, civil with state, civil with company). It can also be identified
based on the land, either state land, private land, or commonly owned land and its location in urban,
peri-urban or rural area. In the case of urban land, struggle over parcel boundaries and ownership of
right dominates the debates, while the conflict between community with company or states becomes
a common discussion in the rural area (Obala & Matyingly, 2013).

Figure 2 shows the interdependency of land conflict causes (Wehrmann, 2008). The author
comprehended diverse drivers of land conflict, which showed connection between poor condition in
society, lack of institutional performance, and opportunity for economic gain by illegal actions. The
author outlined the interconnectedness of three main drivers of land conflict namely poverty,
institutional change and change in society, demography and ecology between themselves and with
diverse unfavourable drivers that lead to a land conflict.

10
 Figure 2. Interdependency of Land Conflict Causes

In the process of conflict in general and land conflict in particular, Fisher et al. (2000) in Wehrmann
(2008) elaborated phases that occurred commonly during a conflict. Firstly is the pre-conflict stage
when the conflict is hidden in general, though one or both disputants notice about the potential of a
confrontation. Further is the confrontation when the conflict is more open, and low level of violence
occurs. After that is the crisis level when the tension becomes intense and the conflict peaks. Next is
the outcome stage when both parties agree to negotiate, but the conflict is not settled yet. And lastly
is the post-conflict stage when relation between disputant becomes normal.

Land dispute brings the negative impact to both disputants and government socially and
economically. For the peasants, a land dispute whether it is peaceful or violent might lead to
displacement until death (Boone, 2012) and reduce human security (Barron et al., 2007). Conversely,
Kim & Dorjderem (2012) and Dhiaulhaq et al. (2015) described a possible positive impact that
increases the social bond between communities due to the development of collective action.
However, it is not clear whether the potential positive impact exceeds the potential negative impacts.
In specific for the case between local peasants and company, the effect in economic terms will be
faced by both of them. The former will lose the land as capital and shelter; specifically as the
production factor (Wehrmann, 2008) and will have largely reduced productivity (Deininger &
Castagnini, 2004). In addition, Kim & Dorjderem (2012) noted that land conflict furthermore affects

11
poor peasants who are financially weak and lack of education and information. While for the latter,
the unresolved land conflict may increase project’s operating cost in the short term and endanger the
future of company in the long term (Munden Project, 2012).

From the government’s perspective, unorganized and unstructured land development might increase
additional cost for infrastructure provision that will be borned by the entire society (Wehrmann,
2008). Additionally, land dispute might create political instability (Boone, 2012) and become major
barrier to development in a long run (Barron et al., 2007).

Several authors focused on the lack of constitutive and regulatory institution performance involving
land market which influences land conflict (Mudjinono, 2007 in Alting, 2013; Wehrmann, 2008;
Colchester, et al., 2007; Deininger & Castagnini, 2004; Kim & Dorjderem, 2012; Calleros-
Rodríguez, 2014). It includes the practice of land registration and land information system, rule of
law, property rights to the land, and land management. In specific, Deininger & Castagnini (2004)
and Kim & Dorjderem (2012) found a lack of clarity in the role of formal and informal implementing
agency for land administration and land legislation. Frailty of land registration and management
either intentionally or not (Hui et al., 2013) paired with the illegal action such as lobbyism and
corruption (Wehrmann, 2008; Boone, 2012; Obala & Matingly, 2013) will result in the occurrence
of land dispute. One likely explanation is that the state tends to favour the powerful actors
(Colchester & Chao, 2011; Boone, 2012; Kohne, 2014). According to Wehrmann (2008), this case
particularly happened in most developing countries where the institutions have significant functional
deficit.

In the process of defending land right, the community will go through the law channel and
contentious action (Calleros-Rodríguez, 2014). In the law channel, land politics and policy decide
which rights will be recognized by the state (Boone, 2012). In China, Hui et al. (2013) found that the
absence of independent court worsens the matter for the farmer losing land. It is worsened when the
institution does not place a legal procedural mechanism to protect local right and take account of
local interest, livelihood, and welfare in case of land dispute (Cotula et al., 2009). Further, power
inequality is common leading to prioritizing the powerful actor only. Consequently, the powerless
disputant for instance poor people (Kim & Dorjderem, 2012; IFAD, 2010) and female and widow
(Deininger & Castagnini, 2004) will lose their land (McCarthy 2010). As a result, the powerless party
will continue the litigation endlessly, until the highest level to win the case (van Leeuwen, 2010) or
must accept the result of ownership declaration by the government deliberately (Hui et al., 2013).
When the powerless is unable to influence the political and economic decision-making on the land
conflict, the complaint will lead to more violent actions (Urdal, 2004 in Barron et al. 2007).

12
In order to address a land conflict constructively, a comprehensive approach, starting from the history
of conflict, actors, and stages of conflict is crucial to be carried out (Wehrmann, 2008). The same
author noted that position, interest, and desires of involved actors should be reviewed. Calleros-
Rodríguez (2014) added that the characteristics of them in dealing and resolving land conflict also
should be taken into account. There are some approaches to transform the conflict, including
facilitation, negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and adjudication based on the involvement of third
party and time of conflict (Engel & Korf, 2005; Wehrmann, 2008). Here, IFAD (2010) noted that
addressing process of one land conflict with others cannot be equalized due to the diversity in land
character, community, norms, and practice. In this case, it is important to use appropriate approach,
otherwise more intense conflicts could occur (Engel & Korf, 2005).

A land conflict should be addressed from political, economic, socio-economic, socio-cultural, legal,
administrative, technical, demographic, and ecological context (Biezeveld, 2004; Wehrmann, 2008).
More importantly, dealing with a land conflict must be started from the core problem, if not the
existing land conflict can easily grow (Kim & Dorjderem, 2012) and new land conflicts can emerge
in other areas. As land conflict mainly occurs because of multiple of claims to particular land (Boone,
2012), institutional arrangement especially land administration and land management should be
conducted (Wehrmann, 2008). In this case, creating land deal more transparent and responsible is the
core logic to address the problem of land conflict.

In dealing with land conflict, some disputants ask for a mediator to facilitate the negotiation process
between them to achieve an agreement that meet all parties’ interest and need (Engel & Korf, 2005).
In some instances, a mediator could be a NGO, either local or international, or a government
institution depending on the disputant’s agreement. The mediator should influence the process only,
without intervening the outcome of process (Wehrmann, 2008). Dhiaulhaq (2015) also added the
importance of impartiality and neutrality of a mediator, as if it is not perceived by one conflicting
part, it may create distrust and cause land conflict longer.

Some scholars introduce pro-poor land policy and service to protect and secure the land property
right of poor people (Boras & Franco, 2010; IFAD, 2010; Boone, 2012). For instance, van Leeuwen
(2010) argued the importance of handling conflict with mediator from local institution that would be
fairer towards poor and vulnerable people compared to using the formal judicial system.

13
There is also a large variation in land conflict form and level across Indonesia. Barron & Sharpe
(2005) in Barron et al. (2009) found how conflicts are expressed seemingly driven by local cultural
behaviours and norms, economic condition, and institutional structures. The occurrence of land
conflicts in Indonesia is increasing throughout the decades. Liau (2015) reported the increase of
agrarian conflicts from 198 cases in 2012 to 369 cases in 2013 and 472 cases in 2014. Over the period
of 2004-2010 there have been 1520 agrarian conflicts on 6.5 million ha. These land conflicts are
seldom solved in an amicable way. Some cases also involved human rights abuse such as land
confiscation and expropriation (Rifai, 2004). They emerged between citizens and government,
citizens and private sector, government and government, and intra society. However, according to
Alting (2013), the majority of them happened between local government and private company versus
local people.

Barron et al. (2009) linked between the securities of land right in rural areas with violent conflicts in
Indonesia. There are three types of land ownership of agricultural land: privately used land and titled,
privately used land and not titled, and community land. With less-defined ownership right, land
conflict is apparently increasing. Besides that, there are two versions of land title, old version and
new version, each has a different significant power as ownership evidence. Many villagers still keep
the old version title, which is often presumed as partial proof only. This property right becomes a
great insecurity for villagers (Biezeveld, 2004).

Rifai (2004) noted about the Indonesia’s failure to implement rules of law influencing the occurrence
of many land disputes. He quoted the existence of three basic elements of rule of law based on
Logeman (1996): (1) guarantee of human right protection without distinction of sex, race, cultural
background, economic condition, and political conviction, (2) existence of independent and impartial
judiciary, and (3) strict adherence to the principle of legality. When the rule of law is violated by the
government itself, for instance by sided to the powerful people, it will lead to distrust to the
government, especially the legal institutions including the court system (Barron et al., 2009). It is
worsened by the fact that security and justice sector in Indonesia are corroded by corruption, and
vastly under-funded (Barron et al., 2009). As the result of that, land conflict keep continued without
any clear direction and solution.

Besides the breaking of the rule of law, Ruwiastuti (1997) as quoted in Rifai (2004) noted that land
disputes appeared to be due to the unwillingness of the Government of Indonesia to recognize
communities land right which is inconsistent with its policy to make more land available for
investment. When the ownership of land is not sufficiently clear and the data from old era has not
been updated and registered; there will be double claims on land that leads to land dispute.

14
3. Research Method

3.1. Introduction

In this chapter, the technical matters of research are explained in detail. First, the method of discourse
analysis used to answer the research question is described. Further, the technical method in acquiring
the data and overview of the interviews are explained. Finally, how the data were analysed will be
pointed out.

3.2. Discourse Analysis as Method

A discourse is defined as an ensemble of ideas, concepts, and categories which meaning is given to
social and physical phenomena, produced and reproduced through an identifiable set of practices
(Hajer, 2005). In line with this definition, Artz & Buizer (2009) in Inghelbrecht et al. (2014) stated
that a discourse exists in the minds of people and in the social network of which they belong to. It is
based on their experience and history, of which they may be conscious or unconscious, but affects
how they speak and act. According to Foucalt (1972) in Ahl & Nelson (2014), the effects of discourse
have power implication which influences thought and action to be feasible or infeasible, legitimate
or illegitimate, and also orders people.

Discourses consist of structures embedded in language (Hajer, 2005; Hardin, 2003 in McCabe &
Sambrook, 2013) that influence the articulation of individual accounts. As language, discourse might
be expressed in conversation and dialogue, debate, and in written form through official report and
discussion (Ahl & Nelson, 2014). A discourse does not refer to a discussion, but to set of concepts
that structure the contribution of participants to be discussed.

The relation between discourse and practice is close as Phillips et al. (2004) stated that practice is
always embedded in discourse, and at the same time discourse always relies on the practice.
According to Hardin (2003) in McCabe & Sambrook (2013), these practices are situated in their
social, cultural, political, and historical context.

Biezeveld (2004) stated that the community will choose a particular discourse to phrase their right
based on their interest. Therefore, it is crucial to explicitly state the setting and the social position of
the actor in characterizing discourse (Zimmerer, 1966 in Wolf & Klein, 2007). Additionally,
according to Hajer (2005), an individual may have more than one discourse drawn in their language
upon closer examination.

15
A discourse is commonly associated with a particular group of actors (Hajer, 1993). When a group
of actors share similar understanding of a particular storyline of discourse, in the context of an
identifiable set of practice, over a period of time, it is called a discourse coalition. More specifically;
the author also noted that the key actors in a discourse coalition have influence in deciding which
issues are relevant for discussion and the direction of possible solution.

The same author (2005) also focused on the discourse’s influence towards certain groups because of
power and dominance. There is the term of discourse structuration when discourse leads the way of
group or policy domain in conceptualizing the world. Another terminology is discourse
institutionalization that appears when discourse has blended in a particular institution. The same
author furthermore pointed out if discourse structuration and institutionalization appear at the same
time, it means that a certain discourse is dominant and powerful.

A discourse analysis has an analytic commitment to study discourse as texts and talks in social
practices (Potter, 2004). In particular, it does not focus only on language that constructs reality, but
also on what people do in which part of their social life (Fairclough, 2003). As a source for discourse
analysis, transcripts of common or institutional setting talk, interview, or document may be used
(Potter, 2004).

A discourse analysis consists of description, interpretation, explanation, and in some variant critique
of discourse, including their development and what consequences they have for the phenomenon
under study (Cruickshank, 2012). It generally starts from a particular discursive phenomenon rather
than a pre-formulated hypothesis (Hajer, 2005). It also avoids prior assumption of researcher towards
interviewee or discourse which might dispute the result (Hajer, 2005).

McCabe & Sambrook (2013) recommended that a good discourse analysis should contains quotations
of text and the authors should do more than just summarize themes. A discourse analysis has a deep
focus, not merely on the available content of material (Ahl & Nelson, 2014). It describes what is
included and what is not; what is implied and what is stated. As concluded by the same authors, a
discourse analysis considers data not only as a representational but more as a productive one.

16
3.3. Data Collection

In this research, the data was gathered through desk research and interviews with key actors from a
group of villagers, company employees, and government officials. Farmland conversion, particularly
in the study area, was determined as the object of data collection and analysis. The study area is
specific on the disputed area in West Teluk Jambe District, consisting of Wanasari, Wanakerta, and
Margamulya Village.

Desk research was performed in order to grasp the former story line of farmland conversion. It was
performed by analyzing secondary data, e.g. newspaper articles and reports. Some actors’ statements
were also quoted from the secondary data, however this quotations limited the sources from the
newspaper articles only. In order to get a broader idea from a policy perspective, a literature study
on local and national regulations related to farmland conversion was also executed.

The second resource is using interview results. Semi-structured and in-depth interviews were
performed in order to reconstruct the discourse which actors approached to (Hajer, 2005). Each
interview contained the same broad topics and gave the flexibility to the interviewee in providing
answers. When key information emerged during the interview, the researcher explored it by asking
more detailed explanation. In general, the interviewees were asked to describe their perception about
the farmland conversion in the study area. Further questions focused on the past and future practice
in response to farmland conversion. There was also one group discussion organized by request of
villagers from one village. The interview lasted approximately one hour and was conducted in the
interviewee’s office or house.

Informed consent was pointed out by researcher before carrying out the interviews. The respondents
were briefed about the purpose of the study, what was expected from them as respondents, their
consent for their words to be quoted, and anonymity of their name for privacy reason. Some of the
respondents asked for result of the study.

The responses from group of actors to the interview were quite different. While the villagers and
government employees enthusiastically agreed, the company employees tended to avoid giving
opinion. Their reason for rejecting the interview was either lack of man power or high peak of
business. Only after three requests did they give their permission for interview.

The data gathering process took place from January to April 2015. Specifically for the interview, it
was conducted in March 2015. The interview was taken in Indonesian language and recorded through
note taking and tape recording (for academic purpose only). Further, it was translated into English
and transcribed into full text format to be analyzed.

17
3.4. Interviewee

To bring structure in unfolding the discourse, three different groups of interviewees were analyzed
independently: villagers, company employees, and government officials. In table 1, the
categorization of respondents in direct interview is presented. Villagers are the local peasants who
claimed the farmland ownership and utilized the farmland. Interviewees were picked from three
villages, Margamulya, Wanasari, Wanakerta. The key informants of each village were chosen
through purposive sampling and snowball method. The head of the each village facilitated the
selection of representatives who were considered to have holistic knowledge of farmland conversion
and acknowledged by most of the villagers in providing answers. There were two direct interviews
and one group discussion that invited 17 villagers. During group discussion, however, only some
dominant persons communicated their opinion while the rest supported insignificantly. Nevertheless,
the results of this group discussion were consistent with those of the individual interviews.

An interview was conducted with the person in the company in charge of legal matters of farmland
ownership. Although the land dispute is with SAMP Corp., the person in charge came from Agung
Podomoro Land Corp. (further called as APL Corp.), the company that has acquired SAMP Corp. in
2012. As a complement, a short interview was also conducted with the General Affairs Manager of
SAMP Corp. While the company sample size from company was rather small compared to that of
the other stakeholders, the depth of the interview was expected to be sufficient to be elaborated.

Three levels of government were interviewed, the regency, district, and village level. From the
regency level, the interviewer had two Sub-Managers in National Land Agency in Karawang
Regency as interviewees, one from Conflict Sub-Division and Case Sub-Division. While in the
District Office, the interviewer conducted an interview with the Economic Division. Lastly from the
village level, the head of village became the interviewee. Government officials tend to delegate
interview only to one person in one institution.

Table 1 Categorization of Respondents in Direct Interview

Group Initial
Villagers A, WK, U, H, W, M
Company Employees H, R
Government Officials U, K, W, T, A

18
3.5. Data Analysis

There are two steps of analysis performed. Firstly, a desk research was conducted on secondary data.
It was performed in order to complete the information from the primary data (interviews). Here,
researcher analyzed the content of language and practice towards the farmland conversion by the
actors captured by the media. In addition, general history of farmland conversion were also taken
from the secondary data. Further, descriptive coding of the sentence stated by actors and the practice
performed were produced.

Secondly, the interviews were analyzed. To begin, the result of interview was coded into a qualitative
table. Careful attention was focused on the re-listening and interpreting of the interview results.
Similar patterns of language and behavior of each interviewee group were then selected and placed
under the same categories. Next, the results from secondary data were combined with the relevant
results from the primary data. The analysis focused on the discourse in farmland conversion, based
on actor’s perspective and past and future practice towards farmland conversion. Throughout the
process, each category was analyzed and elaborated simultaneously.

Further, discourses among actors were compared by using constant comparative approach. This adapt
the terminology developed by Boeije (2002) with focus on comparison of interviews with different
groups. The goal is to describe the variety value that exists within the subject under study. It was
conducted by looking for similarities and differences in behavior and reason. It is described in a
descriptive and explanatory way. The main questions to be responded are: what does the group of
villagers say about certain theme and what does the group of private company and/or local
government have to say about the same theme; which themes appear in the group of villagers but not
in the group of company and/or local government and vice versa; why do they see things similarly
or differently.

19
4. Farmland Conversion Dispute in the Study Area

4.1. Introduction

In this chapter, general explanation about Karawang Regency is given and the history of land dispute
is described. This will allow us to picture the background of the land dispute and to see why several
discourses occurred in this matter.

4.2. Description of Karawang Regency

Karawang is a regency of West Java Province. It is centrally located between DKI Jakarta the capital
city of Indonesia, and Bandung the capital city of West Java Province and well connected with
Cipularang toll road. In Appendix 2, a map of Karawang Regency can be found.

In terms of economy sector1: Karawang Regency has two main sectors. The first is the agricultural
sector, mainly rice farming. The regency produces up to 865.000 tons per year and is responsible for
the biggest share of rice production in West Java and also national. Even so, the contribution of
agricultural sector to the economy declined tremendously from 37.04% in 1985 to 14% in 2005
(Karawang Regency Government, 2005). The second is the industrial sector, which now occupies
13.718 Ha or 7.85% of land of Karawang Regency. In 1989, it was mentioned in Presidential Decree
No 53 about Industrial Zone Development that Karawang Regency is chosen as one of areas to
develop the industrial area. This implies that there will be more companies coming and investing in
Karawang Regency. As a result of this, the industrial sector has been dominating the Gross Domestic
Regional Product (with more than 50%) since the 1990s with increasing trend of growth. The
development of industrial activity in 2014 was focused in the Southern part of the regency: Klari,
Cikampek, West Teluk Jambe (the study area), East Teluk Jambe, Purwasari, Karawang, Jatisari,
Pangkalan, and Cikampek.

According to the Karawang Regency Government (2005), as the result of industrial area
development, during 1995-2005 approximately 181.87 Ha of farmland were converted to private
house area (1.5%), residential area (54.6%), industrial area (34.4%), and service sector (9.5%) per
year. By plotting the industrial sector together with the agricultural sector as the main economic
drivers, more farmland conversion is likely to occur.

1The information of Karawang Regency is retrieved from http://www.karawangkab.go.id/dokumen/gambaran-umum

20
4.3. Land Dispute History

The land history started in 1949 when the private land owned by NV TegalWaroe Landen (The
Netherlands Company) handed the land to the Government of Indonesia. There, the villagers were
allowed to exploit the land for cultivation and other activities after the Basic Agrarian Law of 1960.
In 1962, the land became land reform object. However, due to tragedy of the Thirtieth of September
Movement by Indonesian Communist Party2 (Gerakan 30 September Partai Komunis Indonesia) in
1965, the land reform was set on hold temporarily. After the politics condition went calmer, land
reform object was distributed to villagers with a legal decree and in 1971/1972 the land was
distributed to villagers by circulating old ownership certificate (Girik3). This reform was registered
with the label Village Letter C4. In 1970/1971, there was an instruction from the government to record
the exploited land by the villagers.

In 1974, the head of the village announced to the landowners holding Girik that Dasa Bagja Corp.
planned to rent 350 hectares land located in Wanakerta Villages5 for three years. The company paid
for the land and borrowed some of the legal ownership proofs (Girik).Three years later, the plantation
failed and the villagers started to resettle and manage the land again. When the villagers asked their
Girik to the head of the village, he could not hand them but insisted the villagers to keep working on
the land and pay the land tax. In 1986, Dasa Bagja Corp. handed over the land to Makmur Jaya Utama
Corp. which handed it over again to SAMP Corp. by legal notary in Bogor Regency in 1990.

This became the early story when SAMP Corp. started to process the Building Right Title to National
Land Agency in 1998. Because of rejections from the villagers who claimed that the land had not
been legally relinquished by them, the process was kept on hold. After the villagers voiced their
opinion to the Regency Level of House of Representatives, the Karawang Regent advised SAMP
Corp. to relinquish the land to the landowners.

2
A tragedy, when six Indonesian Army General were killed in a coup d’état attempt. The army blamed the Indonesian Communist Party, resulting in a
mass killing of thousands of alleged communists especially in Java Island. The condition created social and politics instability.
3
Land ownership title in Indonesia comprises two categories, traditional land title (adat land right) and certified title. A typical terminology of the
traditional title is “Girik”. Actually, Girik is not an ownership title, but only the old version of land tax bill, comparable to modern bill called SPPT-
PBB. However, Girik was considered as land title and can be the basis of transaction. Traditional land title should be converted into certified titles to
National Land Agency in order to hold a higher formal power.
4
Land tax assessment paper.
5
In 1981/1982, Wanakerta Village was proliferated to 3 villages, which were Wanakerta, Wanasari, Margamulya.
21
Higher tension of opposing the farmland conversion occurred when APL Corp. acquired part of
SAMP Corp. stocks in 2012. This company is well known as a giant property developer company in
Indonesia. Since the demand for industrial area in Indonesia increased, the area claimed to be owned
by SAMP Corp. was assigned to be converted to industrial block land use.

The village leaders first tried to negotiate with the company. But as the negotiation approach failed
to solve the conflict, the representatives of the villagers further submitted a legal action against SAMP
Corp. to the Karawang District Court to defend their land right using some Girik and other legal
supporting documents. In the meantime, SAMP Corp. made a counterclaim against the villagers. The
judiciary process in the District Court was won by SAMP Corp. Further appeal from the villagers to
the High Court and the Supreme Court reinforced the previous verdict. At last, Attorney General
decided that the villagers did not own strong legal ownership to the land they claimed and legitimized
the land clearing by the company.

The peak of land conflict was erupted in June 2014 when land clearing was performed. There were
approximately 500 villagers, including “landowner”, sympathizers from nearby factories, and other
villagers from neighbouring villages striving to hamper the land clearing. In contrast, more than 4000
policemen and armies came to guard the execution. During the event, there were physical clashes
between the villagers with the police and the army. As a result, 13 villagers were arrested, in detail 9
villagers and 4 factory labours, and 10 villagers were injured. This accident filled the headlines of
Indonesian national and local medias.

More recently i.e. in March 2015, the cleared land started to be guarded by policemen, APL Corp.
security guards, and some hoodlums. Both the company and the villagers were not allowed to utilize
the land. While the company cannot start converting the land to be industrial area because of the
postponement of Building Right Title by the National Land Agency (land must be on clean and clear
condition from any unresolved land dispute case), the villagers were also strictly forbidden to utilize
the land for grazing, horticulture plantation, rice farming or place for living. The case is still pending
because the villagers have proposed for a judicial review with new evidences (novum) submitted.

22
5. Results and discussion

5.1. Introduction

This section explains the discourses that emerged from the three main actors which are the villagers,
the company that is involved with land dispute directly and the local government as a mediator. First,
the most common discourses based on the language and practice of actors are identified. The
discourses are illustrated by quoting the relevant text from interviews and articles. In the next part,
they are analyzed and explored based on the context of the actors. At the end, they are compared to
investigate the variety of values which exists within farmland conversion.

5.2. Discourse Emerged

The field visits revealed that the farmland conversion is a well-known issue which could easily be
discussed with the villagers and local government. They stated that this land conflict has taken place
for a long period and is considered as a chronic case because of unsolved condition. By contrast, the
company tended to avoid providing detailed information. Only after performing informal approach
to one key actor from the company, an interview was successfully conducted.

5.2.1 Discourse in the Villagers

The discourse analysis of farmland conversion from villagers’ side identified eight different
discourses, exemplified by citations and are discussed below:

Farmland is owned by the villagers

A persistent and widespread discourse that occurred as a consensus among the villagers is the belief
of legitimated ownership of the targeted farmland. This argument was confirmed not only by direct
owners (the name listed in the existing ownership document) but also by the heir of the former
owners. This discourse became the underlying concern which led to further act opposing farmland
conversion. This discourse was strengthened by three forms. The first was related to the certainty of
land history from the 1960s and was voiced confidently in detail. They emphasized that the land was
granted to them in 1960s and until now there was no legal land transaction/ land relinquishment.

23
“In the beginning, all of the land was Ex-Wana Landen6. After the war ended, all of the land was
returned to the state, so it should be managed by the state again. In 1970/1971, there was Klasiran7,
and my grandfather’s name was also included in there. It was measured about 6 Ha per person.
Afterwards, there was Girik Cirebon7 in 1971/ 1972. In 1974, there was Dasa Bagja Corp. that
planned to exploit the land for kapok plantation. According to the Head of Village, if they wanted to
continue the rent, they should pay more; otherwise the land should be handed back. But instead, the
land was handed over to other company” – A

“In the early stage, all land belonged to the state. But there was a process. Land perennially exploited
can be registered for ownership right. Before the independence, there was a handover between the
Government of Indonesia and the colonialist. The Tegalwaroe Landen was 5000 Ha; except the
Perhutani land which still belonged to the state. But this one is the land with ownership right we
requested earlier.” – WK

The second one has something to do with the existence of physical documents claimed as legal
supporting documents of land ownership, for instance Letter C8, Land Map, and Notification of Tax
Due (Surat Pemberitahuan Pajak Terhutang)9. These documents previously published by the
government partially indicated the land ownership. The villagers used these document used in order
to strengthen their claim about the ownership of land and fend off the suspicion from other parties.
They were convinced about their legal ownership and showed the physical documents to the
researcher. They wanted to convince the observer that the physical document was genuine not an
illegitimate one as the company alleged. The villagers were also sure that the payment of land tax
strengthened their ownership of the land as tax object, while the SAMP Corp. had not paid anything
at all.

“We have a valid proof of land ownership. This is the Letter C which indicates ownership of land. In
the past, our land was indicated in List of Tax Objected 10(Daftar Himpunan Ketetapan Pajak), now
is Notification of Tax Due. This Letter C comes out together with Girik. And until now, Notification
of Tax Due for tax object is always paid (by us)” – A.

6
After Indonesia had become independent from The Netherlands colonialism on 17th August 1945, there was an asset handover from the Government
of the Netherlands to the Government of Indonesia. The farmland in earlier era was Partikelir Land Eigendom Perponding No 53 NV. Tegalwaroe
Landen and was handover from Mij Tot Exploitatie Vande to Government of Indonesia on 17th May 1949.
7
It corresponds to land administration process by KDL Cirebon in order to distribute the land.
8
It is a book that contains name of landowner, number of landowner, plot number, village class, land area, amount of land tax, sign and stamp from
head of village. Before the land management was well-maintained, land registration was not ideal. There were numerous methods in registering land;
such as Girik, Petuk, Letter C conducted by Tax Office.
9
This letter indicates amount of land tax due to the tax payer.
10
This list contains name of tax payer, location of tax object, tax object number, amount of tax debt per village.
24
“Here you can see the List of Tax Objected indicating the name of the villagers that own the land.
Just check the name. It is already per plot of land” – WK

The last is related to the opposition to the issue of the status of the land as state land. Their argument
attacks the company’s argument which keeps highlighted that the land is not a private land owned by
the villagers but a state land. Meanwhile, if the land was a state land, the villagers would not have
been able to exploit it from 1970s until 2014. In order to strengthen the assumption, physical
document of ownership proof is associated as legal fact that the land is not a state land.

“From the Letter C you can see the block number. If it is a state land, there will be no block number.
You see, this is the block number, this is the landowner name. The explanation is clear” – A

“This is the Letter C pointing out per name. This is land with ownership. Then how come it is
indicated as state land?” – H

“I always pay the tax every year. From 1990. Why do they indicate that it is state land?” - U

“If they (SAMP Corp.) insist that it is a state land, we show the List of Tax Objected and Letter C.”
– WK

“In my opinion, if it is state land, it will not be registered in the List of Tax Objected. If it is absolute
that they own the land, it should be exist in List of Tax Objected.” – W

Because of this discourse, the villagers started to appeal the plan of SAMP Corp. to convert the
farmland to industrial use. This discourse became the underlying concern that triggers them to
perform further actions such as seeking legal assistance including mediation, suing the company in
the District Court until Supreme Court, as well as organizing contentious actions such as blocking
the toll-road in 2014, and demonstrating in front of numerous government institutions and house
representatives of regency, provincial, and national level.

The claims made by the company are false

The ownership claim made by the company is considered full of fraud and certainly wrong. This
argument is parallel with the previous discourse that is the certainty of their land status. Here, the
villagers judged the past fraud by Dasa Bagja Corp. as the first company that rented their land and
not handed back the Girik but handed it over to another company. They also pointed out that SAMP
Corp. got the land ownership not through a formal procedure but by buying the not valid document.
This past fraud becomes the early hindrance to their ownership status, and leads to endless dispute

25
until now. This fraud showed that there had been a violation of the villager’s right as the owner of
land in the 1960s.

“So in 1974 there was Dasa Bagja Corp., and the Girik was borrowed by Dasa Bagja Corp.. They
stipulated the land rent contract. For randu, hibrida, sengon, and kaliki (name of plantation crops).
If after the first 3 years, that was 1977, the business was a success, the contract would be extended.
Otherwise, the land would be returned to the landowner. In fact, it was not a success and not
continued. But at the end they didn’t give back the Girik to the villagers, but they handed over to
another company” – A

“Yes, this land at that time was planted for randu, kapok, cashew, but it was not handed back to the
villagers. They gave it to Makmur Jaya Utama Corp.. And after that Makmur Jaya Utama Corp.did
not wrap up the case. Actually, the villagers do not want to sell it. Then Makmur Jaya Utama Corp.
gave it again to SAMP Corp. in the 1990s if I am not mistaken. There was a conflict because the
villagers never sold the land and the Girik has not been returned. It is still in the hands of SAMP
Corp.” – WK

The early fraud was likely happened because of illegal cooperation between a village official with
the Dasa Bagja Corp.. This argument is stated unclearly because it is purely a conjecture, since the
pointed person has died. Yet, this assumption considered to harm the villagers’ right as the
landowner.

“When I was in Regency Police Command, they have checked the land history. They said that in the
Village Office there was a land ownership right release. It was one sided. It was land ownership right
release between Dasa Bagja Corp. and the head of the village. It was not a land transaction with the
villagers as landowner” – A

“In 1974 the land was rent by Dasa Bagja Corp. in 3 years. After the contract ended, the head of the
village took back again the contract letter and the Girik. But not all of it. Only most of them. At that
time the head of the village was We Abu Bakar, not from this village. Because the head of village
here was Ade Sasmita. Dasa Bagja Corp. cooperated with him (We Abu Bakar), so he had the role”
- WK

Another point related to this case is the manipulation performed by SAMP Corp. in acquiring full
land ownership right from the villagers. People directly stated the fraud practice in the 2010s which
deceived them. Within the fraud story, the company asked all villagers (both landowner and land
worker) to sign blank paper in exchange for some money. Some less-educated villagers signed the

26
paper because of the money offered. At the end, that money was considered by the company as legal
‘compensation’ although the amount was far below the suitable price of the land. Consequently, the
villagers’ land ownership power was loosened and their legal power decreased.

“They gave money to everyone, the land worker and landowner. Everyone got Rp 2.000. They said
that it was a “money for working”, like a donation” – A

“So in 1992, the head of the village asked Mr. Cipto the field coordinator (from SAMP Corp.) to
solve the land ownership. He answered that he would postpone the land ownership problem, just to
pay the “money for working” first. In fact, after I took the donation money, firstly Rp 100.000,
secondly Rp 200.000, and lastly Rp 1.500.000, I read the content of receipt in the Regency Police
Command that I sold the land. In fact I signed a blank receipt. It means there was manipulation
there” - A

“They called the land workers to bring their national identity card, and paid them. They assumed
anyone who brought his/her national identity card as landowner. I kept asking them about the proof
of land right relinquishment; who was the head of the village that signed it. They cannot proof it.
One day it will be figured out. That’s why they don’t want to get involved at the village level” – WK

Poor performance of land management institution

Here, the villagers criticized the land registration and administration performance by the National
Land Agency, in particular the land certification process. The National Land Agency recommended
the villagers to certify their land in 1960s with a certain amount of fee. However, most of them
apparently could not afford the service cost. As land ownership certificate is considered as a crucial
document in providing absolute ownership proof, the villagers perceived the National Land Agency
tend to hamper them get a stronger land ownership status.

“If the National Land Agency is neutral, why does it not give us priority to obtain absolute land
ownership title? For instance with ‘no fee’ certification. If it is possible and they think it is feasible,
we ask them to do it in advance and make it as priority.” – U

“That’s true in 1984 there was a program named Pronag from the National Land Agency. There,
they gave us opportunity to convert Girik to a proper title. Although it should be a free service, they
forced us to pay for the (unofficial) administration cost. We were too poor to pay for that” – H

27
Land dispute is influenced by money power

There is a consensus among respondents that money of the company influences the government.
Unlike the previous discourse, this one cannot be proved by the villagers because they do not have
any evidence. They believe that the company showered government, notably the judiciary with
money to secure their position as the formal owner of the farmland. Although there was awkwardness
in the history of land ownership and incompleteness of ownership document from the company’s
side, the righteousness of law was influenced by money power. To make it worse, the villagers
consider their weak position in terms of money power compared to the company. Consequently, the
villagers kept losing their judiciary claim for land ownership status. Within this context, one villager
used a special metaphor, an angel, that acts based on righteousness and does not look for money.

“Everything is based on money. People don’t have money, even though (only) to pay the lawyer. So
we always lose. In contrast, the company has a lot of money. We depend on our voice only. We talked
to anyone that wants to hear us” – A

“If we could send a letter to an angel, he never looks for money, maybe he could defend us” – U

“We know about our capacity. For instance if they (Government) visit the field, we give them cassava,
banana. While when the company visits them (Government), he gives them plenty of money. Just from
that point, we lose” – M

“There is nothing free in life. If we (villagers) have money, they (Government) will response to us,
otherwise they will not.” - W

Moreover, the villagers also boldly point out the body of Government willing to accept bribery
money. It confirms their strong distrust to government officials in processing the case.

“Maybe the government officials are money-oriented. The cost for land clearing was Rp
220.000.000.000. Instead of paying the Judiciary, they should use the money to buy the land legally
from us.” – U

“Moreover, after the APL Corp. had acquired part of SAMP Corp. stocks. They are the real trouble
maker. They buy the Police” – H

“In the era 2009-2014, the Minister of State Secretariat, Yudi Silalahi and the Head of National Land
Agency Hendarman Hendardji, both of them play the same game in this case” – U

28
Breaking the rule of law

In general, the villagers questioned the law enforcement performed by the government which seems
to be far from ideal. There is also partiality in law enforcement, which treats people differently. The
independence of the courts is questioned when they handle lawsuits involving giant companies or
important figures. People believe that the beneficial results of law only apply to the rich and powerful
people. It is feared that the juridical process is totally connected with practice of corruption, collusion,
and nepotism. It happened because of lack of integrity of the government officials and judiciary in
law enforcement. Poor law enforcement probably occurred after the SAMP Corp. was acquired by
APL Corp. and afterwards the judiciary process conducted and led to poorer law enforcement.

Besides that, one respondent also noted a huge disappointment towards law enforcement and distrust
to the court and the government in general. This disappointment and mistrust led to the intention of
the villagers to take the law into their own hands. This was articulated by all participants, not only
by the generation of landowners but also by the second generation of landowners.

“We suspect the law enforcement. It does not stand for us, small people. It is like a knife, blunt against
high class people, but very sharp against low class people” – WK
“It is confusing. I don’t know what to do with our law officials. It is the time to go back to old laws.
Now, the strong is always the winner?” – U

 Disobedience to principle of legality

For the villagers, the land clearing was the proof of the breaking of the rule of law. The land clearing
did not correspond with the verdict. Although there were some plots of land that remained on court
process or even won the court process, the land clearing was performed in all 350 Ha. Besides, some
plots of land that were not involved in the dispute (have clear certificate and Girik) were claimed to
belong to SAMP Corp.

“In the execution, only 49 plots should be cleared. I can show them one by one (for 49 plots). But the
reality? Everything was cleared. Both the land that could be cleared, and the land that still on
process, everything was cleared.” - A

“48 plots lost the court process, approximately 65 ha. Why did they clear everything? They bulldozed
everything.” – WK

“So there were 48 people who got the warning from the regency court. The area is approximately 65
Ha. But in fact? Everything was bulldozed.” – U

29
“In 2010, I’ve been criminalized by them. They (SAMP Corp.) argued that I grabbed the land. But
in the end, the court decided that I was not guilty. I had the copy of Letter C, I paid the tax every
year, I took care of the land. But still, my land was cleared.” – H

Besides that, the respondents also indicated that the process of land clearing was improper and broke
the regulation of execution stipulated by the government institution. The villagers should be notified
about the land clearing at least a week before execution. But they did not get any notification. Besides,
the land clearing used unclear plot map and unclear border indicator to mark the plots to be cleared.

“If they want to do execution the clearing legally, they should check which area to be executed based
on Karawang Regency Court decision. Me as the local people, including the head of village and
other villagers got no information at all. There should be announcement in the first place” – A

“The executers should have a plot map and clear border markers to see where the plots to be cleared
are. They didn’t have it. They just placed the border and cleared the land. Which plots were won by
them, which ones were still on-going law process, they didn’t care.” – WK

“They wanted to execute the clearing of 48 plots, but didn’t know the position. Land clearing should
at least involve village officials, district officials, regency officials, and a border marker should be
ready. The announcement of the land clearing was in the middle of the street and accompanied by
1200 mobile brigade. This action was just against 350 people.” – U

Aside from land clearing regulation, one respondent complained about the case processing in the
court. He questioned the court result that did not consider the proof of legal land ownership document.

“When we talked about the case in the Regency Police Command, they (SAMP Corp.) could not
prove anything about their ownership document. While we brought everything that we had. Still, we
kept on losing the case, they always won” – W

 Impartiality of government institutions

The villagers also highlighted the practice of local government that aligned to the company and less
sided with them. One clear example was that the government sent a large number of policemen and
armies with excessive power in order to secure the clearing execution. Instead of protecting the
villagers, on the contrary, they attacked the villagers.

“For instance in the execution, there were how many thousands of policemen? There were
approximately 7000 people. Why did they act like that? People should be helped. In fact, it looked
like they were going to war. They didn’t want to calm the execution process. Why did they use
30
bulldozer, water cannon, and barracuda? They only faced 200-300 villagers, but they came out with
7000 people. It was too much. They are state institution!” – WK

“The government helped the company. In the execution, it was not an execution, it was a farmland
pillage. See? There were thousands of policemen helping them, however how many villagers were
there? Only hundreds. How could we win against them? They were policemen for one province, West
Java, and utilized to guard land clearing in 350 Ha only.” – A

Asides from that, the villagers also criticized the services of other government institutions at national
and local level. They resented the absence of support from the government. Formerly, they struggled
for the land ownership through the court, but they kept losing. Having a distrust of the judiciary, the
villagers voiced their opinion to various related institutions such as the Parliament and other National
Government Bodies, but until now this institutions keep turning a blind eye to them.

“We have processed this since 1990, but until now there is no clear feedback from the government”
–H

“All of illegitimate land right relinquishment; illegitimate map in 2005 had been reported. But until
now, I don’t know what happens to my report.” – U

“We have been to the House of Representatives, National Agency Land, Attorney General, National
Commission for Human Right, and the others to protest. But it did not change the situation. Because
we didn’t know what else to do then we closed the access to West Karawang toll-road. So they could
see our opinion. But what next? Nothing happens!” – U

“Three people of the District Court were transferred to other districts when they tried to help the
villagers. Afterwards, there was the District Court Decree to renew the process again. Then we were
called again, we were investigated again.” - U

Intimidation by the company

This is associated with the physical and verbal intimidation by the company both directly or indirectly
to the villagers. The objective is to threaten the villagers who defend their land rights. As informed
by the Consortium for Agrarian Reform (2014), there were around 500 hoodlums who came to the
village to threaten the villagers and one villager named Wasa was beaten. This discourse is shaped
based on prejudices towards the company, because the local community cannot prove whether the
hoodlums were sent by the company or not. Additionally, the villagers are not worried about the
likely danger posed by the intimidations.

31
“Before the land execution, it is so common to see some villagers have physical quarrel with them
(SAMP Corp.)“ - A

“I was one of their victims. Years ago I was beaten by a hoodlum, sent to jail, but now I will continue
defending my land“ –T

“A week ago, there was a small bomb thrown to the SEPETAK11 office” – Kamsir as quoted from
Tribunnews (2014)

Intimidation is not only performed in a physical way, but also by law scheme. Radar-Karawang
(2013), one of the local newspapers published a story that one former head of the village who was
sued by SAMP Corp. The complaint was that she made a copy of Regional Development Dues
Book12 (Iuran Pembangunan Daerah) showing that there was no land relinquishment. Because of
that, she was arrested. After juridical process, the court found her not guilty and she got off the jail.
This intimidation was probably meant to flip public opinion that the villagers performed fraud in
creating the ownership document.

Threat to villagers’ livelihood

The villagers associated this with the loss of source of income and workplace for livelihood.
Previously before the conversion, the farmland was used for livestock grazing and hardwood or other
crops planting area. In addition to that, land grabbing by the company also means confiscation of
personal asset, while its current price is high. In terms of social effect, this discourse seems to be less
important to the villagers.

“I lived there in the low hill. Some areas were for paddy plantation. Some plots were used for peanut,
cucumber, and cassava. Some people also lived there. After the land was cleared, we lost all of those”
–A
“I could get Rp 40.000.000 if I sold my wood (planted there). But everything was cleared. I got
nothing” – W

11
It is an local organization for farmers and fishermen in Karawang Regency.
12
It is an old version of Land and Building Tax.
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Compensation

In relation to the livelihood effect, compensation became the underlying concern related to the loss
land that fetches a high market price. Compensation refers to the amount of money asked to the
company by the villagers for legally relinquishing the land he/she owns. This discourse implicitly
demonstrates the villagers’ eagerness to consent to the farmland conversion, if the land is legally
purchased by the company. This discourse is stated prevalently by the villagers. In addition to that,
the villagers believe that this attempt is the silver bullet to overcome late complicated land problem.

“We are not complicated for this case. We want to be paid, point. Since the beginning, that
(compensation) is what we want” – A

“Why do I always stand by this case? It is not true that we do not want to sell it (the land), we want
to, but with a fair price. Where is the buyer and where is the seller. Not like this, since the company
said they have paid it. To whom? They must pay it to the direct owners” – WK

“We hope that our struggle will have a good ending. At least there should be a certainty that if
company want our land, they show good attitude to us (give compensation)” – W

Although the villagers have insisted their aspiration frequently, they noticed that the company acted
in the opposite direction. Throughout the years, the company does not have any intention to
communicate formally with them and let alone providing compensation.

“In the transaction, the buyer tends to pay with the lower price, while the owner tends to ask the
higher price. Then there will be negotiation. But the company does not want to do that. They
persistently claimed that they have bought the land legally from the previous company. It is clear,
we don’t accept their argument” – U

“How can we solve this conflict? If the company had good attitude, they would have accepted a
mediation. But they did not. If they did, the case would have been cleared” – U

“There should be a mediation, for example an open forum. I have invited them twice to talk about it
in the village, but they never came” – WK

The villagers also stated that they are very open for a negotiation especially about the price of land.
They do not want to hamper the company if they want to buy the land legally. Despite of bad and
long history with the company, the villagers are willing to cooperate with the company. They notice
the current market price of land per square in that area but they do not expect to be paid as high as
that.
33
“Instead of further fighting this case in the court, it is better to organize an open forum. We (villagers)
exclude people that are not related directly to this case. We invite the real landowner, and the buyer.
We know that the land price is 250$ per square. We don’t expect for 50%, 10% only is enough for
us. We are just too tired of this case” - WK

“We are willing to sell it, but for a reasonable price. You know what; the normal price for land in
here is Rp 2.200.000 per square. We won’t ask for the same amount like that. At least they should
tell us their price, and if it makes sense to us, we will just have a negotiation.” – H

5.2.2 Discourse in the Company

Generally, the discourse of the company in farmland conversion was characterized by the following
aspects: farmland is owned by company, the claims made by the villagers are false, involvement of
third party, project continuity, and benefit to livelihood and regency. It is exemplified by citations
and discussed below:

Farmland is owned by the company

Legal ownership of farmland is regarded as the most important determining factor by the company.
This is because of the legal handover of land from the first company to SAMP Corp. and the constant
valid result of judiciary process starting at the regency level until the national level (Supreme Court).
Moreover after the court permitted them to perform land clearing in 2014, the ownership power of
the company increased. It is stated directly and confidently by the company’s representative. This is
a dominant and powerful discourse, because there is a discourse structuration and institutionalization
in the company’s views and attitudes. Hence, further policy of the company is not to respond to the
villagers’ objection.

“So, whoever is involved in this dispute, this land is owned by SAMP Corp.. It is a court verdict. We
do not care, even if there are 50 more people go again to the court.” – H.

“Most importantly, the land clearing land has been executed, it is legitimate. Whatever argument
people have about the land ownership, the land is owned by SAMP Corp.” – H.

“350 Hectares land in Teluk Jambe District is not a traditional land; but land ex TegalWaroe
Landen. It was acquired by Dasa Bagja Corp; from the farmers who exploited it for the kapok
plantation and was later legally handed over to SAMP Corp.” Edi Kasan, Legal Counsel of SAMP
Corp. as quoted from Gatra (2014).

34
In order to strengthen the power of land ownership, SAMP Corp. gave the villagers what is called
“social compensation”. As stated by Hersutanta, legal counsel of SAMP and quoted in Sidaknews
(2015), the money has been distributed evenly to the villagers who used to cultivate the farmland as
a compensation for the crops loss and as a social donation.

As the result of this discourse, the company kept silent for any complaints or distraction both from
villagers and medias. They had no intention to clarify it or willingness to discuss more about the
issue. By ignoring the external voice, the company focuses on the strength and validity of the court
verdict. If the company opened discussion about this sensitive topic, the court may decide
unfavorably for them on the subsequent cases.

“If we respond the villagers’ complaints, the widespread issue will keep evolving. People will ask
about the land clearing. So, as an experienced company, we will not react at all. We are an old
company; I’ve experienced cases like these for more than 35 years.” – H

“There will be no counter argument in mass media or internet from our company. Let the people
speak out. We will not respond to it. The farmland has been cleared.” – H

The claims made by the villagers are false

This discourse can be interpreted as a prejudice towards villagers’ claim to farmland ownership. It is
strengthened by two main ideas, about 1) the legality of land ownership document owned by the
villagers and 2) the farming practice. Firstly, it was judged that the document owned by the villagers
is illegitimate. The perception that a fake document can be produced easily by the village officials in
order to support villagers is widely spread. This discourse is strengthened by the fact there was one
case of document forgery processed by the court.

“There are plenty of fake Girik. If you want to create a fake Girik, it is easy. You just pay per square
meter, it will be signed by the head of village. But it will not be listed under the Letter C” – H

“(Land ownership) case in Karawang Regency is unique. If your land remains idle in one year, 2 to
5 people will come and admit that it is their land with a fake document. Thus, the land must be
guarded” – H

“This is state land, but why were there new problems? The head of The National Land Agency said
that there were complaints (from villagers). We (SAMP Corp.) went to the court. After investigation,
it was proven that Haji Dodo’s Girik was fake. It was reported to the police and as the result of it,
he was jailed for two years” Edi Kasan, Legal Counsel of SAMP Corp. as quoted from Gatra (2014)

35
“If they have legal proof, show us the copy of the certificate. We met earlier, but they (SEPETAK)
did not show the proof. They did bring some kind of paper but we did not know what was that list
about” Tasril Jamal – Public Relation Officer of Podomoro Industrial Park, as quoted from
Sidaknews (2015)

Secondly, the land is presumed not to be well-managed by the villagers. In general, if the land owned
by the farmers, there will be a good land management practice. This practice involved not letting the
land lie fallow for a long period. However, this condition reinforced the company’s assumption that
the villagers did not possess the land. In this discourse, the company did not suspect all villagers, but
only some landowners.

“If it is their land, there should be some sign of life. You can see that the land is like unoccupied
jungle.” - H

Involvement of third party

It corresponds to the existence of local NGOs and land speculators that are intervening in the land
dispute. This discourse is essential for the company, because the third party exerts great pressure to
the company in the name of the villagers. In this state, the villagers are assumed to be easily
influenced by the third party to oppose the farmland conversion by the company. Because of the
existence of third party, the dispute cannot be solved by the company, and the land conversion is
postponed. The respondent argued that the main motivation of the NGO getting involved in this case
is to gather money from the company.

“So, the NGO acts like that. They always fight against big companies if there is land conversion. In
Karawang, there is no company free from their interventions. Every company gets each turn” – H

“Their (NGO) concern is getting more money from SAMP Corp.. But we cannot tolerate it anymore.
Once we facilitate one NGO, there will be more and more NGO coming to ask for money. Well, for
now the land clearing has been performed.” – H

“The case in Karawang Regency is unique. I have a lot of experience in land acquisition in Makassar,
Medan, Batam, Surabaya, Bandung. We fight against NGO in Karawang only. They say if we are
close to the NGO, we will be OK. That’s fraud! NGO wants to guarantee land procurement, but at
the end there will be another lawsuit. Then they will leave us.” – H

“It is common to suspect that the land mafia provokes and intimidates villagers partially to deny the
juridical result” Yuliana, legal counsel of SAMP Corp. as quoted from Karawangnews (2014)

36
To this discourse, Yuliana, the legal counsel of the company recommended the government to
investigate the land mafia that is involved in this land dispute. Their existence hampers private
investments in developing the area. Besides, she also urged people to report if there is intimidation
from one party in the mediation stage (Karawangnews, 2014).

Project continuity

It corresponds to the continuity of company’s project in the disputed farmland. It is valued as

company’s commitment to reach the target of physical development. This discourse arose after the
company got strong legality in obtaining the farmland based on judiciary result.

“This land (conversion) keeps on progressing. Our plan is to build industrial area as soon as
possible. Although villagers do oration everywhere, this plan still continues.” - H

“So, this land will be developed to be Podomoro Industrial Park. The site planning is finished. Well,
land marketing to the industrial company is still ongoing” - R

“We are preparing the physical construction and managing all required permit based on existing
regulation. Development of industrial park in international level will satisfy the investor demand,
specifically in automotive, electronics, food and beverage industry and others” – Johannes Archiadi,
CEO of Podomoro Industrial Park as quoted from Karawangnews (2015)

This discourse is strengthened not only by the language, but also by the practice observed. Related
to the marketing part, two big advertising billboards about Podomoro Industrial Park were found in
the toll-road passing Karawang Regency. In addition to that, the researcher also acquired a marketing
brochure of Podomoro Industrial Park including general information and land master plan from
SAMP Corp. (Picture can be found on Annex 5).

Benefit to villagers’ livelihood and regency’s economy

This discourse is related to the potential impact of farmland utilization as Podomoro Industrial Park
after the land has been converted. This view is seen from the regency economic perspective which
affects the villagers’ livelihood as well. This argument was not stated earnestly compared to other
discourses.

“If they cooperate with us, we will help them to work as a security guard or factory labor in the
industrial area. This mutualism between the company and the villagers will increase their income.”
-H

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“With increasing investment in manufacture sector, it will create multiplier effects in supporting
industry and supporting service as well. This activity will generate job opportunities, increase export
and people’s income, and raise local and national tax revenue” – Johannes Archiadi, Chief of
Executive of Podomoro Industrial Park as quoted from Karawangnews (2015).

“The development of Podomoro Industrial Park will bring positive benefit to local people in
Karawang. For instance employment of thousand man powers in constructing the area and later
after international level factory is already operating” – Johannes Archiadi as quoted from
Karawangnews (2015).

5.2.3 Discourse in the Local Governments

In general there are several discourses that form the basis of the argument of local government, which
are: industrialization as government policy, land is owned partly by villagers and the company,
weakness of villagers’ land ownership, poor land management system, involvement of third party,
compensation, and benefit to citizen’s livelihood.

Industrialization as government policy

This discourse is the core background of farmland conversion that taking place in Karawang
Regency. This policy held at the Regency, Province, and National level promotes industrial
development that subsequently increases the farmland conversion. This in turn causes the agricultural
contribution to the economic sector to be diminishing. The following discourse was stated by the
government at the district level only.

“There is a special policy of the local government to facilitate the conversion of farmland to become
an industrial area. It was started from the hilly land and then the farmland” – U from District Level

“The industrialization was started some years ago when there were three big companies exploiting
huge area in Karawang. Later, more companies came and converted the farmland.” - K from District
Level

38
Land is owned partly by villagers and company

This discourse corresponds to the legal ownership of farmland. However, there was a contradiction
between language of the National Land Agency and Police and the Police practice. Indeed SAMP
Corp. won most of the appeals by the villagers about the claims of land ownership, but some lawsuits
were also won by the villagers and acknowledged by the National Land Agency. In contrast, however,
the Police permitted the company to clear all 350 Ha indicating that the Police confirmed that the
company owned all that land.

“So, not all of 350 Ha was won by SAMP Corp., some plots were won by the villagers. But, the fact
that the clearing was executed in all plots is not our responsibility, ask the judiciary or the police” –
W from Regency Level BPN.

“SAMP Corp. won all the lawsuits in the District Court and the appealed ones in the Cassation. The
land clearing had a stable law power, so the judiciary allowed its execution and obliged the company
to warn the villagers 8 days before the execution” M – Head of Karawang District Court as quoted
from Karawangnews (2014).

Although some plots were already decided by the Judiciary to be owned by SAMP Corp., the National
Land Agency could not immediately give full ownership to the company (land certificate) because
the villagers kept appealing the lawsuits with new evidence submitted.

Weakness of villagers’ land ownership

This theme concerns the incertitude of the government in terms of the ownership that claimed by the
villagers. It strengthens the previous discourse mentioned above, i.e. the land is mostly owned by the
company. This discourse was not stated strongly by the government, but in a subtler way, and was
spoken at the district and regency level only.

Some points were noted by government officials to point out the weakness of the villagers. First is
that the villagers’ land ownership documents were issued by the village office years ago and were
not converted yet to the more legally binding version of the National Land Agency. The fact that
village office in the earlier era was not monitored well by the National Land Agency makes them
question the legality of the documents.

39
“The company that first owned the land let it lie fallow for a score of years. Thereafter the villagers
started to cultivate the land. Then the current company came and they said that they got the land by
a hand over from the previous company, while the villagers claimed the land is theirs. Besides that,
there were some in the village office who forged a fake document to support the villagers’ claim”. –
K from District Level

“When SAMP Corp. got the land from the previous company in the past, they didn’t bulldoze the
land. After ten years or more, when the seller of a certain plot of land has passed away, the children
were already mature, they continued the work there. Incidentally, the head of the village supported
them to use the land and created supporting information. And so, the villagers thought that the land
is owned by them” – W from Regency Level

Aside from his suspicion about legal document proof, this respondent also noted the absence of good
land exploitation practice in the study area. He pointed out that the farmland was planted with crops
which need small investment and care. In his opinion, a clear indication that someone owns a
farmland is that he/she practices a good planting system.

“If we focus on agriculture management aspect, we cannot see the good practice at all” – W from
Regency Level

“If I state that I work on the land, I must show the physical proof. What is the commodity? Is it a rice
farm or a hardwood plantation? They must show the proof. Then it is relevant between statement and
reality” – W from Regency Level

Poor land management system

Poor land management system was considered as the root problem of land dispute in the study area.
This includes land administration practice and the corresponding regulation. This discourse was
revealed by Land Administrator Agency as the core leader of land management duty.

The first point is related to the land administration practice by the government. It considers that in
the early era of independence of Indonesia, land administration system was still new. The National
Land Agency performance in organizing and registering land ownership was considerably poor
because of lack of manpower and registration system, especially at village level. As the result of it,
there might be cases of double claims to a specific land because the inventory of land ownership data
was not maintained well.

40
“In 1980s we were not good yet in land mapping, we didn’t have a real map. But now we already
have computer and GPS. How about the past era? After we created the certificate, we put it in archive
room. If it was missing, who will look for it? Now, we can check by using the GPS, we can find out
who owns the plot of land. But at that moment, we could not” – T from Regency Level

The second point is related to the weak government regulations. There is a clash between customary
land regulations and legal regulation. According to the customary land regulation, if someone has
exploited a piece of land for many years, he may apply for the ownership title. When a company that
have bought the land (either legally or not) let the land lie fallow, it may give the opportunity to the
villagers to manage the land and claim the land in the longer term. Furthermore, tricky judiciary
regulation hampers the government in solving land dispute. For instance, when the judiciary has
judged one party possessing one particular land, another party may appeal continuously if new
evidence is founded. As the result of that, land dispute cannot be solved. Some actors can take
advantage from this weakness of regulation for their own benefit.

“When the land has been exploited for some years, people can apply for ownership of that land. Even
if it is already owned by somebody else. I could say that this weak regulation can potentially create
more (land) dispute” – K from District Level

“Let’s see. Now, the judge decision is inkrah13 and land clearing has been performed. But what
happened? There is more opposition from the villagers. New lawsuits were started in District Court.
We cannot avoid it because our law allows it. Judge cannot refuse any new lawsuits from anyone” –
W from Regency Level

Involvement of third party

Respondent from the government also noted about the existence of third party that defends the
villagers and may take advantage from this dispute. The third party, an NGO or land broker, plays a
role in influencing the villagers to voice their opinion as well as in speaking on behalf of them to the
mass media. This discourse was only implied and stated secretively by the district and regency level
only. The government is supposed to be neutral and not presume negative view of their citizens.

13
Inkrah comes from the word Inkracht van gewijsde, means that judge has given final decision and there should be no
more appeals.

41
“I have dealt with villagers for quite a long time, and they are not complicated. But there were some
actors that want to get involved in the name of villagers. They want to look for something that benefit
them. For instance, the local NGOs. So, there are some non-technical factors that cause the dispute
cases not to be resolved until now” – W from Regency Level

“There are some third parties that get involved in this case, for instance a land broker.” – K from
District Level

Threat to villagers’ livelihood

This discourse is associated with the loss of a workplace for land owner and land worker because of
farmland conversion. As farmland is used by the farmers and shepherds to do their the main activities,
they will lose their job. Besides that, some villagers also lose source of extra income after land is
cleared. The other impact is that the villagers, especially the old ones without good knowledge will
not be able to replace their former job in farmland with a better job. This discourse occurred at the
village and district level. It probably appears because of the close connection of government officials
with the villagers.

“In Margamulya Village, some houses were concentrated in in one area, while in Wanakerta the
houses were scattered. After the clearing execution, they lost their house. Besides, they planted
vegetable like peanut, corn, string bean that give them an extra income or hardwood tree which is
more profitable. So, after the land was bulldozed, they have no more extra income.” – A from Village
Level

“The farmers work with a hoe, they cannot used machine. The result is that they become unemployed.
While the shepherds after the land is cleared have no land anymore” – K from District Level

Compensation

Compensation corresponds to the amount of money given by the company to the villagers as a sign
of buying the land. This discourse opposed the previous discourse i.e. the land is owned by the
company. However, this discourse was remarkably stated by the government at the village level only.
It was probably because of a close relationship between the villagers and the village level
government. They tended to interact often with each other and the government officials could hear
the villagers’ honest aspiration. They could be considered as the insiders as well.

42
“I am optimist that the end of this dispute will be okay. I am so sorry for the landowners. The Village
Office hopes that there will be compensation. Years ago, they (company) said that they have given
money, but it was unclear to whom. We (Village Office) will facilitate the villagers’ expectation for
this case” – A from Village Level

5.3. Discussion

In the previous section, we presented several discourses that occurred among different actors. Our
analysis has focused both on how farmland conversion were defined and problematized by actor
groups and on the practice concerning farmland conversion. Given the different position of the actors,
formerly we assumed that the discourses would be totally different. The findings revealed, however,
some of the discourses were similar. Besides that, the actors tend to attack the opponent’s discourse
in order to strengthen their view. It can be seen that they tend to possess discourse that profits their
condition and strengthens their further argument. Aside from that, we also found some discourses
that are more dominant compared to the other discourses of the same actors.

Within one actor, it was also observed that there is an inconsistency toward a particular discourse.
For instance, a discourse occurred among local government tends to be different between an official
at the regency level and the one at the village level. Things such as work coverage responsibility,
commitment to the group, and intervention from outsiders may influence the similarities and
differences between members of an actor. In addition to that, detailed information of the same
discourse may vary widely within a particular actor. For instance, the number of policemen of guiding
land clearing and the amount of social donation acquired by the villagers.

In this part we will compare the emerged discourses between actors by using a constant comparative
approach. We will analyze the similarities and differences of the discourses of different actors
towards farmland conversion. In Table 2, we juxtaposed the discourses of the three actors.

43
 Table 2. Emerged Discourse between Actors
Villagers Discourse Company Discourse Government Discourse
Industrialization as
government policy
Farmland is owned by Farmland is owned by company Farmland is owned partly by
villagers villagers and company

The claims made by the The claims made by the villagers Weakness of villagers land
company are false are false ownership

Poor performance of land Poor land management

management institution system
Land dispute influenced by
money power
Breaking the rule of law
Involvement of third party Involvement of third party
Intimidation by the company
Threat to villagers’ livelihood Benefit to villagers’ livelihood Threat to villagers’
and regency’ economy livelihood
Compensation Project continuity Compensation

When it comes to the villagers, the execution of farmland conversion is viewed as a major threat to
them as long as they are not acknowledged as the landowner. Surprisingly, they agree with farmland
conversion only if they acquire reasonable compensation for their land from the company. In order
to reinforce the land ownership, the villagers presented some legal supporting documents which
indicate only partial ownership (not a current land certificate), and a clear historical context. Having
seen the past fraud by Dasa Bagja Corp. and experienced manipulation by SAMP Corp., they also
believe that land ownership claimed by SAMP Corp. is purely illegal. This is worsened by the poor
government performance that in their view probably happened because of money intervention from
the company. In addition to the poor performance of land management institution and this breaking
of the rule of law by the government, the villagers were also intimidated by the company. This led to
their actions against the company and the government in the recent years.

44
On the other hand, the company considered farmland conversion as the core idea that must take place
in the near future. The farmland dispute caused Building Right Title cannot be published by the
National Agency Land and hampered the physical construction. Their confidence of owning the
farmland due to valid and consistent verdicts becomes the main motivation for them to continue the
farmland conversion process. Nevertheless, refusal to provide a detail explanation about the legal
land handover from previous company creates intense suspicion about the legality of that process.
The company acknowledged the involvement of a third party that provokes worse situation in the
farmland conversion process. Also, the company emphasized the potential benefit of the farmland
conversion for the economy of Karawang’s citizen and regency.

Farmland conversion is considered by the government as a part of its industrialization strategy. It is

not a case that should be avoided, but should be managed. Specifically for the disputed land,
unresolved land ownership becomes an underlying issue because it hampers the process of
development in the regency as well as creates a not conducive condition. The government institutions
complied with the court decision that the area of 350 Ha is partly owned by the company and partly
by the villagers, although in practice there was a tendency that they sided more with the company.
Poor land management system is considered as one of the reasons why land dispute commonly
occurred, though there is no clear willingness and commitment from the government institutions to
address this matter.

Among all the discourses, the ownership of farmland emerges as the most prominent and powerful
discourse towards farmland conversion. This discourse was prevalently spoken by all actors. Both
company and the villagers articulated this discourse in the first place, before the other discourse,
followed by their justification and explanation. This discourse is also embedded in their practice and
triggered them either to support farmland conversion or not. As predicted, the involved actors, the
villagers and company had opposing perceptions. Both of them persistently claimed the ownership
of some same plots of land backed up by their belief using their own supporting evidences, either
legal supporting documents or court verdicts. Also, in order to reinforce the land ownership claim,
each party puts the blame on the opposing party.

The government also considers farmland ownership as the most important discourse among others.
However, it was found that there are different arguments inside the government itself about who
possess the farmland, particularly between the district and regency level versus the village level. But
in general, they refer to the decision of the court as the highest authority for land dispute lawsuit, and
they have to respect and comply with it.

45
The following discourse about land management system either in practices or regulations is raised
by the villagers and the government. They believed that poor land management leads to uncertainty
of land ownership and creates the land dispute. This phenomenon aligns with Wehrmann’s (2008)
view that a poor regulatory institution drives land disputes, especially in developing countries. In this
study, the company did not seem to criticize the government work at all. Although this issue is very
crucial to be addressed in order to solve the root problem of farmland conflict, there seemed to be
less attention from the government side as a regulator. Profound changes in institutional policy and
regulations take time and require hard work and long commitment, indeed.

One specific discourse namely breaking the rule of law was stated by the villagers directly and in
consensus. This study found that the disobedience of principle of legality and the impartiality of
government institutions harm the villagers’ position. It corresponds with Rifai (2004) that specifically
linked Indonesian land dispute with the failure in implementation of the rule of law by government
institutions.

The villagers in this study were also suspicious of money issue in the farmland dispute. This probably
due to the case of former Karawang Regent who extorted Tatar Kertabumi Corp., also acquired by
APL Corp. and was sentenced to six years in July 2014 (Jakartapost, 2015). Their assumption is that
the government and the company presumably play on the same game. And together with the discourse
of breaking the rule of law, it constitutes the reason for their weakened position in terms of land
ownership and their vanishing trust in the government as well. The government which should be
perceived as neutral by all disputants in order to be a good mediator (Dhiaulhaq, 2015), in fact was
suspected of impartiality by the villagers. This is worsened by the fact that the villagers considered
themselves as poor and powerless compared to the company.

Involvement of a third party, in this case local NGO or land broker, was revealed by the company
and local government, with the same context, but of different strength. This finding partly
corresponds with Kohne’s (2014) argument that in the context of land dispute, the powerless tend to
team up with other actors in an attempt to increase the power. From the viewpoint of the company
and the local government, however, this is not only the case. They perceived the help of the NGO, as
the third party, in reinforcing the villagers’ collective action against farmland conversion only as a
means used by the NGO to take advantage of a precarious situation. Furthermore, the NGO did not
seem to have the intention to facilitate a negotiation as a third party is supposed to do (Engel & Korf,
2005). These may be the reasons that the villagers did not speak about it during interviews, although
some rumours inside from the villagers confirmed the existence of third party (Kabar24, 2014). On
the other hand, the company stated this discourse clearly and strongly, because the third party slowed

46
down their plan to resolve the case while the company wanted to start the development of industrial
area immediately. In addition, they believed that the third party is a combination between government
officials, a certain group of villagers, and the NGO that provoke villagers easily. The government, at
regency and district level mentioned it implicitly.

Intimidation by the company was raised by the villagers as the victim. In this case, they noted about
both physical intimidation and false accusation in order to threaten them not to process the dispute
case in the judiciary. Specifically for physical intimidation, Fisher et al. (2000) in Wehrmann (2008)
viewed that this land conflict is already in level of confrontation when low level of violence occurs.
Understandably, the company did not speak at all about this discourse, and neither did the
government.

The impact of farmland conversion on the livelihood, either in a positive or negative way, was a
concern of all the actors, though the description was not focused and strong. From the villagers’
perspective, farmland conversion will lead directly to their job loss and will lessen the extra income.
This finding supports Azadi & Barati’s argument (2013) that farmland conversion will unfavorably
affect the poor farmers especially in terms of economic aspect. On the other side, the company tends
to see the impact of farmland conversion as positive, because it can create multiplier effects, new job
creation and economic improvement to the regency in general. At the government side, concern about
the negative impact of farmland conversion on villagers was only articulated at the village and district
level. Their doubt about the ability of the villagers with low education level to easily benefit from
the new development of converted farmland corresponds with McCarthy’s (2010) finding.

The right to a compensation becomes the main driver for the villagers to keep enforcing their effort
in possessing the land ownership. Once the ownership is legally granted, compensation becomes an
absolute and important matter if the company plans to take over the landownership and convert the
farmland to industrial area. The idea of compensation originated from the certainty of land ownership,
was voiced strongly and in consensus by the villagers. They also saw compensation as a fast solution
to the dispute. And by compensation they meant an amount of money that fairly corresponds to the
market price, not the compensation that they called a social donation. In contrast, the company was
totally opposed to this and had no intention at all to fulfill the villagers request for a compensation.
Being open for paying compensation would mean that they acknowledge that the villagers own the
land, while they had the court decision which indicates that they are the owner. Therefore, in order
to continue the project development, they are only able to wait until the villagers give up their further
appeals. The government, in this case of the village level, also supported the idea of compensation to
the villagers, while the regency level and district level had no opinion about it.

47
6. Conclusions

This research has analyzed and compared the discourses of farmland conversion in Karawang,
Indonesia between the villagers, company, and government. As there was a huge dispute between the
villagers and the company due to the progress of farmland conversion, initially it was assumed that
there would be major opposing discourses between them. However, it was found that not only major
differences occurred, but also some similarities. The discourse analysis also found that the actors
voice arguments and carry out actions that fit best their interest in farmland conversion and further
emphasize different aspects of them.

Through discourse analysis, it was found that farmland conversion in the study area is not a fixed
terminology among the involved actors. However, a similar articulated language and attitude of all
actors confirms that the ownership of farmland is the most dominant discourse. Other discourses
identified including allegation to opposing actors, performance of land management institution,
breaking the rule of law, involvement of third party, intimidation by company, impact on the villagers
and regency, and compensation or project continuity.

It is realized that this case contains a lot of intrigues and questions about the truth and righteousness
of language. It was found that the arguments from the villagers and the company tend to be different
and opposing each other. However, the researchers’ objective is not to investigate whether each
argument is right or not, but to unfold the discourse that emerged in this farmland conversion.

For further research, there are some aspects still to be investigated. First, another actor that got
involved in the land dispute in this study, namely a local NGO, should be investigated further. It is
realized that it might be difficult to gain more data but it will result in more comprehensive ideas.
Further, it is worthy to investigate the discourses in farmland conversion published by the media, as
the media has power in influencing public opinions. Lastly, it is also important to gain deeper
information from judiciary institutions such as the court and the police. In this study, legal aspects
are not sufficiently discussed and they should be placed in the context to complete the government
discourse.

Using discourse analysis to land conversion especially in disputed land is a new approach. Legal
issues or economic impact on livelihood is commonly targeted by other scholars. Still, socio-
analytical method becomes important in order to unfold social phenomena by providing deep and
better understanding. Thus, hopefully this research would contribute to enrich knowledge about
farmland conversion notably in disputed land.

48
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Appendix

Appendix 1a Questionnaire to Villagers

Respondent Background
1. Name :
2. Income from farming : %
3. Location : Village
4. Other off-farm job : (if any)

Historical Chronology
1. Please tell me the chronology of farmland ownership started from the early 1960. Please note the
important moments during that period.
2. There are different versions of historical chronology of farmland ownership occurred. Why does
it happen? What is your opinion about it?
3. What were the main causes of land dispute to occur?

Argument
1. What is your opinion regarding farmland conversion case in Karawang Regency? Why?
Probe:
a. Background
- Legal Basis: Land ownership right and regulation; land business license and regulation
b. Process
- Practice: Negotiation (interaction, agreement); participation (all related stakeholders
engagement, ability to voice the concerns); compensation (direct/ indirect compensation,
appropriateness); manipulation; social movement (strike, physical conflict)
- Actors: Characteristics; interests; power; connection; knowledge
- Value: Transparency; fairness; satisfaction; morality (physiological torture, physical
conflict)
c. Outcome
- Community level: Farmers’ livelihood (income, employment, source of food, social
arena); meaningless existing farming infrastructure
- District level: Environmental degradation (water catchment destruction, land
degradation); chance of developing small business (trickle-down effect from industry
business); additional physical infrastructures and facilities constructed by company;
potential job opportunities
- Regency level: Regency Own-source Revenue; food security; spatial planning
2. What do you think must be taken into account about the farmland conversion? Why?
3. How important/ significant is this farmland conversion to your matter?
4. What are your expectations regarding farmland conversion? Why?

Practice
1. What has been done in response towards farmland conversion case? Why?
2. How will this farmland conversion case happened in near future according to you?
3. What are the possible impact/ implication of farmland conversion to you? Why?
4. What will you do in the future in response towards farmland conversion case? How?

56
Conclusion
1. Is there something else you would like to discuss but we have not addressed yet?
2. What is the most important we have discussed in this interview?
3. Can you please summarize your view again about farmland conversion?

57
Appendix 1b Questionnaire to Local Government
Respondent Background
1. Name :
2. Title in Institution :
3. Role in Institution :

Historical Chronology
1. Please tell me the chronology of farmland ownership start from the early 1960. Please note the
important moments during that period.
2. There are different versions of historical chronology of farmland ownership occurred. Why does
it happen? What is your opinion about it?
3. What were the main causes of land dispute to occur?

Argument
1. What is your opinion regarding farmland conversion case in Karawang Regency? Why?
Probe:
a. Background
- Legal Basis: Land ownership right and regulation; land business license and regulation
b. Process
- Practice: Negotiation (interaction, agreement); participation (all related stakeholders
engagement, ability to voice the concerns); compensation (direct/ indirect compensation,
appropriateness); manipulation; social movement (strike, physical conflict)
- Actors: Characteristics; interests; power; connection; knowledge
- Value: Transparency; fairness; satisfaction; morality (physiological torture, physical
conflict)
c. Outcome
- Community level: Farmers’ livelihood (income, employment, source of food, social
arena);meaningless existing farming infrastructure
- District level: Environmental degradation (water catchment destruction, land
degradation); small business development chance (trickle-down effect from industry
business); additional physical infrastructures and facilities constructed by company;
potential job opportunities
- Regency level: Regency Own-source Revenue; food security; spatial planning
2. What do you think must be taken into account about the farmland conversion? Why?
3. How important/ significant is this farmland conversion to your matter?
4. What are your expectations regarding farmland conversion? Why?

Practice
1. What has been done in response towards farmland conversion case? Why?
2. How will this farmland conversion happened in near future according to you?
3. What are the possible impact/ implication of farmland conversion case to you? Why?
4. What will you do in the future in response towards farmland conversion case? How?

Conclusion
1. Is there something else you would like to discuss but we have not addressed yet?
2. What is the most important we have discussed in this interview?
3. Can you please summarize your view again about farmland conversion?

58
Appendix 1c Questionnaire to Company
Respondent Background
1. Name :
2. Title in Company :
3. Role in Company :

Historical Chronology
1. Please tell me the chronology of farmland ownership start from the early 1960. Please note the
important moments during that period.
2. There are different versions of historical chronology of farmland ownership occurred. Why does
it happen? What is your opinion about it?
3. What were the main causes of land dispute to occur?

Argument
1. What is your opinion regarding farmland conversion case in Karawang Regency? Why?
Probe:
a. Background
- Legal Basis: Land ownership right and regulation; land business license and regulation
b. Process
- Practice: Negotiation (interaction, agreement); participation (all related stakeholders
engagement, ability to voice the concerns); compensation (direct/ indirect compensation,
appropriateness); manipulation; social movement (strike, physical conflict)
- Actors: Characteristics; interests; power; connection; knowledge
- Value: Transparency; fairness; satisfaction; morality (physiological torture, physical
conflict)
c. Outcome
- Community level: Farmers’ livelihood (income, employment, source of food, social
arena); meaningless existing farming infrastructure
- District level: Environmental degradation (water catchment destruction, land
degradation); small business development chance (trickle-down effect from industry
business); additional physical infrastructures and facilities constructed by company;
potential job opportunities
- Regency level: Regency Own-source Revenue; food security; spatial planning
2. What do you think must be taken into account about the farmland conversion? Why?
3. How important/ significant is this farmland conversion to your matter?
4. What are your expectations regarding farmland conversion? Why?

Practice
1. What has been done in response towards farmland conversion case? Why?
2. How will this farmland conversion happened in near future according to you?
3. What are the possible impact/ implication of farmland conversion case to you? Why?
4. What will you do in the future in response towards farmland conversion case? How?

Conclusion
1. Is there something else you would like to discuss but we have not addressed yet?
2. What is the most important we have discussed in this interview?
3. Can you please summarize your view again about farmland conversion

59
Appendix 2 Map of Karawang Regency in West Java Province

BANTEN
PROVINCE

CENTRAL
JAVA
PROVINCE

LEGENDS:
TOLL-ROAD

TOLL-ROAD PLAN

PRIMARY ROAD

ALTERNATIVE ROAD
WEST JAVA PROVINCE
PROVINCE BORDER MAP
REGENCY BORDER

Karawang Regency (red circle) is located in strategic position, between DKI Jakarta as the capital
city of Indonesia and Bandung as the capital city of West Java (yellow circle)

Source: West Java Province Official Website http://www.jabarprov.go.id/index.php/pages/id/99

60
Appendix 3 Farmland area is indicated by blue broken square sign

Source: Local National Land Agency, 2015

61
Appendix 4 Picture of Land Clearing

Some villagers that blocked one entry road to the farmland in order to hamper land clearing was shot
with water by policemen. This incident became the peak moment of the villagers’ rejection to the
farmland conversion.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSYIv5nfgN

62
Appendix 5 Flyer of Podomoro Industrial Park

63