Institutional Activism: Seeking Customary Forest Rights Recognition from Within the Indonesian State

Abstract

This article aims to explain why the adat movement activists in Indonesia could expand their campaigns for state recognition of adat community rights to activities from within the state apparatus. We argue that three combined processes have contributed to the conjuncture that made institutional activism possible: the preparation of the 2014 national election offered activists opportunities to influence the government agenda; the emergence of a conscious strategy for conducting institutional activism; and the coalitions between some key state officials and the movement’s actors. This article also analyses the problems that institutional activists faced, in particular resistance from influential actors at various government units who were not sympathetic to the adat movement’s agenda. Therefore, the impact of this activism on policy changes so far remains limited. The authors’ personal involvement in this case of institutional activism to promote customary forest provided access to the information for this article.

Keywords:

• Customary Forest
• Masyarakat Adat
• Institutional Activists
• State–Movements Interaction
• Indigenous Land Rights

Acknowledgements

The authors want to thank Jacqueline Vel, Kathy Robinson, Micah Fisher and Ben White for their excellent help and input on our early and revised drafts. The authors are also grateful to the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions on how to improve the article. Of course, all the mistakes are the authors’ responsibility. Substantial time for writing this article was provided when Suraya Afiff travelled abroad as a visiting scholar at the Asia Institute, University of Melbourne, Australia. She would like to thank them for their generous support.

The authors acknowledge with thanks the funding assistance provided by Leiden University's Asian Modernities and Traditions (ATM) towards the production of this special double issue.

Notes

1 This is the term used in the National Forest Law (No 41/1999).

2 The number of individuals is based on information provided by the representatives of the local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) who work with these indigenous communities.

3 For the debates about the customary law communities, please refer to Keebet von Benda-Beckmann’s article in this special issue.

4 The English version of the Indonesian Constitutional Court's decision No 35/PUU-X/2012 is available from: https://landportal.org/library/resources/constitutional-court-no-35puu-x2012 (accessed September 6 2019).

5 Kusumaatmadja held various positions in the previous government. He was Minister of Environment (1993–8), Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (1999–2001) and a Member of the Regional Representative Council (2004–9).

6 See also Willem van der Muur (2019) and Micah R. Fisher and van der Muur (this issue), to learn the other side of the story of Kajang.