Press Release HuMa – [Jakarta, March 25, 2014] “The buzz of the campaign leading up to the 2014 General Election is far from the public’s expectations. The campaign messages conveyed by political parties and/or presidential candidates have not shown substantial solutions for the nation, especially for the residents in 33,000 villages around forest areas.

The voices of village people are rarely heard, let alone well considered by election participants and aspiring leaders. Yet, the issues they face are truly significant and complex. One of the main problems faced by village people is agrarian disputes involving the state and mining companies, plantations, forest ownership rights, and industrial forest plantations permitted by the state.

“The lack of village voices in responding to change may be due to their limited access to mainstream mass media. Therefore, HuMa, as an organization that has been interacting intensively with village people, sees it important to create alternative media so that their voices can be heard by political parties and presidential candidates. This alternative media uses simple technology in the form of videos taken with cell phones, which are widely owned by rural communities,” said Andiko Sutan Mancayo, Executive Director of HuMa during the Discussion and Launching of the Video “Village People’s Voices for Change”.

This Discussion and Launching of the Community Movement Video was held on Tuesday, March 25, 2014 at the Merdeka Institute/ Newseum Building, Jl. Veteran 1 No. 23, Central Jakarta. The speakers at this discussion included Andik Hardiyanto (Director of Merdesa Institute), Andiko (Executive Director of HuMa), Benny Susetyo (Social Observer), and Chalid Muhammad (Indonesian People’s Decree Movement).

Chalid Muhammad stated that it is time for political parties and presidential candidates to stop meaningless campaigns that tend to breed apathy among the people in democracy. Political parties and presidential candidates should prioritize offering substantive solutions to the nation’s issues, such as providing solutions to long-standing agrarian conflicts that tend to oppress village people.

“This Community Movement Video is a community movement present in all corners of Indonesia, documented through simple technology in the form of videos taken with cell phones to convey messages and hopes to the elected President in resolving Agrarian Conflicts and Natural Resources,” said Andik Hardiyanto, Director of the Merdesa Institute.

In 2013 alone, HuMa noted that there were 278 natural resource and agrarian conflicts occurring in 98 cities/districts in 23 provinces, covering a conflict area of 2,416,035 hectares. The conflicts were located in Central Kalimantan with 72 cases, Central Java with 39 cases, North Sumatra with 19 cases, West Sumatra with 15 cases, Banten with 24 cases, Central Sulawesi with 11 cases, West Java with 16 cases, West Kalimantan with 15 cases, Aceh with 10 cases, and South Sulawesi with 10 cases.

Through the HuMawin documentation system developed by HuMa, 6 dominant actors were identified in Agrarian and Natural Resource Conflicts, namely National Parks/Ministry of Forestry; Perhutani (state-owned forest enterprise); PT Perkebunan Nusantara (state-owned plantation company); Private Companies or Corporations; Regional Companies; and other institutions (military). The conflict parties are communal in nature, and the smallest unit is the community or group, not individuals. There are 9 parties involved in natural resource and agrarian conflicts, namely Companies 35%, state-owned plantation company 2%, Perhutani 7%, Regional Government 2%, National Parks/Ministry of Forestry 4%, Farmers 9%, Local Communities 34%, Indigenous People 7%, and other institutions. Plantation and forestry conflicts are the most common conflicts in Indonesia. Plantation conflicts occurred in 119 cases, covering a conflict area of 413,972 hectares.

The frequent acts of violence place the state entity as the biggest human rights violator with a participation frequency of 54%, followed by business institutions at 36% and influential individuals at 10%. The types of human rights violations committed are Violation of the right to life 6%; Violation of the right to a healthy and clean environment 7%; Attacks on personal integrity 7%; Violation of the right to freedom 18%; and Access rights to Natural Resources 25%.

This is what indigenous people, local communities, farmers, laborers, and fishermen hope for from the elected President in resolving the natural resource and agrarian conflicts they