The Seventh Cabinet Reshuffle: Names New Agrarian and Spatial Planning Minister
On the 15th of June 2022, President Joko Widodo announced another cabinet reshuffle, which became the seventh during his two periods in office. This time, four ministerial posts were restructured: The ministry of trade, with Zulkifli Hasan replacing former minister Muhammad Lutfi; The ministry of home affairs, with the appointment of John W. Wetipo as the new vice minister; The ministry of Manpower, with the appointment of Afriansyah Noor as the new vice minister; and the ministry of agrarian affairs and spatial planning/ National Land Institution (NLI), with Hadi Tjahjanto, replaced the former minister Sofjan Djalil, and Raja J. Antoni replaced the former vice minister Surya Tjandra. Here, the new post of the minister of agrarian affairs is noteworthy since Minister Hadi Tjahjanto is the first agrarian affairs with military background after over two decades. Only a handful of agrarian ministers after the period of Refomasi filled with military-background figures, with the last minister Hari Sabarno in 2001.Among speculations stirred up by this reshuffle, unresolved land governance problems: e.g., the lag of the land certification program, and unsettled 'land mafia' cases, are most likely the reasons for replacing the former NLI's heads with the new leaders. This speculation was implied by President Jokowi's statement in attending the Agrarian Reform Task Force Summit (Gugus Tugas Reforma Agraria/ GTRA Summit) on the 9th of June 2022, in which he expressed the two problems remained unresolved to date. Despite the fact that some observers question the capacity of minister Hadi to lead the NLI, the President affirms his appointment because of Hadi's capacity in 'territorial control’ (re: penguasaan territori) and his meticulousness when working as a commander of the armed forces. These two qualities that the President hopes will be useful in governing the land matters in Indonesia and help to resolve agrarian conflicts in Indonesia. However, this reasoning might tickle one's mind as territorial control in his military capacity is entirely different from the capacity he needs to govern the land matters throughout Indonesia (and deal with mostly civilians). This can give us a flashback to the pre-reformasi period when military involvement was ingrained in the various aspects of government, notably land matters. However, it was a completely different era. Since Indonesia committed to upholding the rule of law in terminating the new order's authoritarian regime, the ‘militarystyle’ governance shall be eliminated and replaced with meritocracy and democracy based on the rule of law, human rights and constitution as a gatekeeper. Historically, involving military force in governing the land is not new in Indonesia. There are few instances in the period of the old order and new order in which the government used military forces to resolve land conflicts in some areas in Indonesia. The land conflict in Surabaya in early independence was a case in point. To curtail the massive inflow of immigrants who came to Surabaya and built wild settlements, in 1954, the Mayor of Surabaya involved the military forces, which eventually issued military regulation No. 002/1954 on the prohibition of wild settlements on September 1954. While in the new order era, the 'dwifungsi’ doctrine, which implies that the Indonesian army (including the police at that time) was not only tasked with maintaining national security but also granted legitimation for the army in government matters, the military being involved in various agrarian matters at that moment. In many instances, the army was mobilized to resolve the social unrest raised from the land conflicts (Lund, 2021). After the reformasi, it was challenging to separate the army's 'additional functions' in the new order into their disposition, strictly guarding national security. It needed six years after Reformasi, with the issuance of law no 34/2004 on the Indonesian national army that aimed to separate its function other than safeguarding national security. Nevertheless, it has been noted on various occasions after reforms that the military involves in many agrarian conflicts with some arguments such as helping to 'mediate', 'observing', or 'protecting' state's assets. Therefore, one might take President's decision to appoint an ex-military general as something to be frowned upon. Moreover, seeing minister Hadi’s background, one might wonders whether he could makea breakthrough in Indonesia's land governance. One of his landmark achievements that likely related to land management was acting as a field commander in the Mandalika Moto GP race that was reported to have some land dispute issues. This might be why the President tasks the new agrarian minister to settle any potential problems in the new capital (IKN). Indeed, deciding whether the new agrarian ministry will bring military nuance into the land governance in Indonesia is a premature conclusion. And whether this early hypothesis merits further consideration, we shall see a bit longer
