Land Administration in Post-Disaster Areas

Abstract

On December 26, 2004, the world has evidenced one of the most horrible tragedies in history of humankind. Land administration sector was also badly influenced by the catastrophe. The cadastral offices in Province of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD) and Nias were severely damaged by the tsunami. Most of cadastral records were lost or destroyed. The ground benchmarks, natural and man-made objects were also destroyed by tsunami and/or clearing out works in the tsunami affected areas. With nothing left on the ground, the land administration processes should be started from the scratch. The Government of Republic of Indonesia (GoI) was quickly responding by publishing five-year master plan of rehabilitation and reconstruction of NAD and Nias, especially on the spatial layout and land affairs. Unfortunately, many have criticised the GoI’s master plan. Besides its macro scale (Kamil, 2005), Fitzpatrick (2005) underlined the relocation camps and coastal buffer zones proposals as promoting disquiet among Acehnese. Many of Acehnese just wanted to go home and resettled their houses in the exactly same location as their previous houses that are swapped by tsunami (Montlake, 2005). NAD is well-know by its uniqueness among other Indonesian provinces since NAD has entirely different cultural background. As most of Indonesian region used to be ruled by Hindu and Buddha kingdom, NAD had only been ruled by several Islamic sultanates in different periods of time. Therefore, NAD has a strong Islamic culture. The implementation of Syariah, Islamic Law, has been strengthening the Islamic background of NAD. Besides its strong Islamic background, Acehneses have also different customary land administration system than other Indonesian provinces. The Acehneses’ customary land administration system is basically originated from the Islamic culture. The Acehneses’ customary land administration system is basically intending to maintain sustainable development and promoting equality for every Acehneses to enjoy the outcome of development. In order to focus on efforts of rehabilitating and reconstructing Banda Aceh, this study only highlights two out of three components of land administration, which are land tenure and land use. Land valuation, which is another component of land administration, is not included within this study due to the collapse of local governmental institution that is in charge in the valuation of land, as well as due to the prohibition of land transfer before the land administration system in Banda Aceh is working properly. In this study of land administration in post-disaster areas in Banda Aceh, the effectiveness of policy of GoI on rehabilitation and reconstruction of land administration in Banda Aceh is being evaluated. The evaluation of policy of GoI on rehabilitation and reconstruction of land administration in Banda Aceh is performed with special references to the Acehneses’ customary land administration system, land administration theories and cases, Indonesian land administration policy and regulation and progress on rehabilitation and reconstruction of land administration in Banda Aceh. During the performance of this research, interviews and literature study were held to gather information on above mentioned special references. Interviews were held in Banda Aceh, Jakarta and Bandung and covered the point of view of the decision maker, professional and intellectual on land administration field, as well as the aspiration of Acehneses and particularly the citizens of Banda Aceh. On the other hand, the literature study was particularly performed for collecting information on land administration theories and cases in post conflict areas. Moreover, information regarding Indonesian general and special land administration laws, regulations and policies for Banda Aceh was gathered during the performance of the literature study. Additionally, the aspiration of Acehneses, particularly the citizens of Banda Aceh was also acquired from the literature study, to complete the information gathered by interviews. Having evaluated the contribution of Acehneses’ customary land administration system, it is concluded that the customary land administration system is still wanted to be applied in Banda Aceh, even though the Indonesian land administration system has been applied in there for almost half of a century. Some immediate actions on rehabilitation and reconstruction of land administration in Banda Aceh that are not in accordance with the customary background of Acehneses, such as titling the land under Indonesian land tenure regime, could still be applied during the phase of rehabilitation and reconstruction. However, the customary land administration system is still wanted by the Acehneses and particularly citizens of Banda Aceh to be applied in Banda Aceh in the future. For evaluating effectiveness of policy of GoI on rehabilitation and reconstruction of land administration in Banda Aceh, a land administration system performance evaluation framework is developed in this study. The evaluation framework in this study is developed based on conventional land administration theories, as well as adopting the cadastral evaluation framework of Soft System Theory (see Barry, 1999; Augustinus and Barry, 2004). The land administration system performance evaluation framework comprises of three evaluation frameworks, which are evaluating the compliance level of land administration system and its components to the needs and wants of Banda Aceh citizens, as well as the fulfilment of objectives of the higher system of land administration. Having compared the Indonesian land administration system and its implementation to the land administration theories, as well as to the state of land administration in Banda Aceh, Indonesian land administration system is lack of compliance with the land administration problems in rehabilitation and reconstruction of Banda Aceh. Several basic problems have been identified, such as dualism of land administration regime and lack of fulfilment of land registration features that are simplicity, security, affordability, currency and sustainability, as well as lack of realism, binding power, participation/consultation and human resource in Indonesian land use system. Due to existence of previously mentioned basic problems, which leads to bad-operated and ineffective land administration system in Indonesia, immediate efforts are needed to address the land administration problem in rehabilitation and reconstruction of Banda Aceh. GoI, its representative and its partners in rehabilitation and reconstruction of land administration in Banda Aceh therefore have formulated regulations and guidelines regarding the rehabilitation and reconstruction of land administration in Banda Aceh. Having evaluated the policy of GoI on rehabilitation and reconstruction of land administration in Banda Aceh, it is concluded that the main problems of land administration in post-disaster areas, which are insecurity of land tenure and needs to address the effect of the catastrophe and disaster mitigation in spatial plan of Banda Aceh, have almost been solved. The policy of GoI on land administration in post-disaster areas in Banda Aceh also provides a means to fill the gap in Indonesian land administration regulatory framework, which could be employed as well in the future for advancing Indonesian land administration system. Nevertheless, adoption of breakthroughs proposed by and performed under the policy of GoI on land administration in post-disaster areas in Banda Aceh might not be able to fully fill the holes left by Indonesian land administration system, such as the recognition of Acehneses’ customary land tenure (known as Hak Ulayat in Indonesian land tenure system) and no binding power mandated to relevant governmental institutions to enforce the implementation of spatial plan. Without efforts to address the basic problems in Indonesian land administration system, the land administration state in post-disaster areas in Banda Aceh might return to its initial state, even after fully accommodating the previously mentioned breakthroughs in the rehabilitation and reconstruction of land administration in Banda Aceh. Therefore, besides adopting breakthroughs in the rehabilitation and reconstruction of land administration in Banda Aceh, this study recommends the government to provide supportive regulations to adapt to the customary background of Acehneses and Indonesia in general, as well as supportive regulations and procedures for accelerating the rehabilitation and reconstruction of land administration system in Banda Aceh. This study also recommends GoI to train and educate land administration professionals for ensuring the good performance of land administration, as well as to address the basic Indonesian land administration problems.