REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) revealed that the Presidential Regulation (Perpres) on Agrarian Reform had not yet reached his desk. It was targeted to be accomplished next week.

"Pak Kyai (Mr Said Aqil Siradj) had asked the Perpres this morning. I checked (the draft) and found that it had been circulated (to the relevant sections) but had not yet arrived at my desk. I gave Pak Menko (Coordinating Minister for economic affairs) one week time to finish the Perpres," the president stated in Jakarta, Thursday.

He made the statement in his inaugural address at the opening of the National Consultation on the Implementation of Agrarian Reform and Social Forestry for Social Justice and the 2018 Global Land Forum at the State Palace. The Head of State claimed that the Perpres had to be circulated to the relevant sections first before reaching his desk to be signed.

Jokowi remarked that Indonesia was a great nation, because it had 17 thousand islands, but the distribution of its land was still considered unfair. "Many people have protested against the unfair distribution of land," he revealed.

"Therefore, this is something we have to rectify, so that the agrarian reform, namely the distribution of land certificates and social forestry, would run well and the distribution of land ownership in the country would be fair," he explained.

Jokowi admitted that it was okay for the big companies to own a large land, but they had to partner with the smaller ones.

In his report, Chairman PBNU KH Said Aqil Siradj stated that the National Consultation on the Implementation of Agrarian and Social Forestry Reforms was carried out so that the government, social society, communities, and concession-holding companies could be fair.

"Thankfully, we can meet a conglomerate who has the right to cultivate millions of hectares of land," Siradj who lead the country's biggest Islamic organization Nahdlatul Ulama said.

He also hoped that this National Consultation will be an effort to explain agrarian reform and social forestry regulations and policies.

"Through this forum, the PBNU proposed to the president that the Perpres on Agrarian Reform be immediately issued and would be followed by a Presidential Instruction (Inpres) regarding technical matters on the entire process of the Perpres implementation," he emphasized.

Siradj noted that the Perpres was needed so that land disputes would not occur, and many people were arrested because they were accused of trespassing others concession areas.

"We often hear that there are solikin jumadi (residents) arrested by the police because they were charged with illegally entering the concession areas; for example, the area of state-owned forest firm Perhutani," he pointed out.

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