The Legal Politics of Agrarian Reform in Jakarta and the Marginalization of Land Cultivators
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Abstract
Agrarian reform in Indonesia has long been dominated by a rural-centric approach, despite the fact that state land cultivation by communities also occurs extensively in urban areas such as Jakarta. Urban cultivators rely on state land as both a place to live and a source of livelihood, yet they receive little to no legal recognition. This study aims to examine the legal politics behind Jakarta’s agrarian reform policies and their implications for the legal status of urban land cultivators. Using a normative legal method combined with a legal-political approach, this research critically analyzes existing regulations, including the Job Creation Law, Presidential Regulation No. 86 of 2018, and Jakarta Governor Regulation No. 153 of 2019. Data were collected through document studies and examined using the theoretical frameworks of agrarian justice and legal exclusion. The findings indicate that agrarian reform policies in Jakarta tend to favor capital interests and property developers, while sidelining the de facto claims of urban land cultivators. Existing legal frameworks do not grant them priority rights and instead open pathways for land privatization through selective legal instruments. These results reveal a pattern of structural marginalization against urban cultivators. Rather than serving as a means of distributive justice, agrarian reform in this context functions as a tool to restructure urban space according to market logic. This highlights the urgent need for a more equitable, participatory legal framework
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