Judicial review of Act 19/2013 on the Protection and Empowerment of Farmers - Case No. 87/PUU-XI/2013 - resumed on Thursday (30/1) afternoon. Agenda of the session is to listen to the expert testimony of Petitioner’s Dianto Bachriadi researchers at the Agricultural Resources Center and TejoPramono of international network of farmer’sactivist. Applicant them from the Indonesian Human Rights Committee For Social Justice ( IHCS ) , the Indonesian Farmers Union , Farmer Initiatives for Ecological Livelihoods and Democracy ( FIELD ) who conduct judicial review of Article 59 , Article 70 paragraph ( 1 ) , and Article 71 paragraph ( 1 ) of the Act protection and Empowerment of Agriculture.

Petitioner’s expert,DiantoBachriadiexplained, since 1983 to 2013 the last agricultural census, the number of small farmers in Indonesia unusually large, covering nearly 55 % in 2013. While in 1983 there were only 45 %. Moreover landless farmers in Indonesia are also unusually large amount, reaching 21 % in 1983.

 “I did not count for the 2013 census of agriculture. But if we look at the trend, I believe that number is also at least the same or increase," said Dianto.

It is said Dianto, landless peasants and small farmers is the source of poverty in Indonesia. The task of the state for the welfare of its people, eradicate poverty. In the concept of Indonesian agrarian law, one principle is land reform or land division.

 “Land states that given to poor farmers, especially tenant farmers and landless farm laborers, it is set to clear in the legislation," said Dianto.

Even the state land under cultivation could become the property of the farmers, although there are a number of specific prerequisites. “Given the property after 15 years productively tilled by the concerned. Once filled, the compensation payment in installments, if the ground state comes from individual land taken by the state to be shared," explained Dianto.

While Article 59 of the Act Protection and Empowerment of Farmers only mention that the ground state can be given to farmers in the form of the types of rights , leases , business licenses , and so on , are not referred to the provision as stipulated in the provisions of the agrarian law of the land or the land redistribution reform it.

 “In my view, Article 59 of this inappropriate and not in accordance with the mandate of the 1945 Constitution, particularly Article 33. In addition, Article 59 of the law is also contrary to the principle of functioning of the state. The principle of functioning of the state is right at the heart of Article 33 of the Constitution. The state is not the owner of the land, but the state only controls. This means that the state is only set given the authority to manage and administer the allocation of land rights,"said Dianto to a panel of judges headed by Hamdan Zoelva.

Meanwhile Experts Petitioner,Tejo Pramono revealed the presence of farmer groups and farmer groups born out of the spirit of the green revolution. That is, the groups are groups that will implement a program that has been provided by the government, in this case a lot of cases that they were going to get pesticides,seeds, and other. On the other hand there are indigenous farming practices that create local seed, do compost, they do land rotation, and so on.

On the other hand, Tejo observed Indonesian farmers could have never beensovereign. “That sovereign that is agro- business corporations and put farmers as buyers of agricultural production means that they make. If they do not have the land, how we can stare at the family farm Indonesian sovereign,"said Tejo to the judges. ( NanoTresnaArfana / mh )