Sanyo is well aware of the risk of living in a village surrounded by large agricultural estate companies, which means coexisting with recurring, including land disputes.
By
AHMAD ARIF, DIONISIUS REYNALDO TRIWIBOWO
·5 minutes read
KOMPAS/DIONISIUS REYNALDO TRIWIBOWO
Sanyo
A 1-million-hectare peatland project has become the turning point for environmental change in Kalumpang village of Mantangai district, Kapuas regency, Central Kalimantan. The local environment has change especially since the enforcement of the ban on dryland cultivation in 2015.
Sanyo, 52, a mantir (customary elder) of Kalumpang village, was still a young man when heavy equipment to develop a 1-million-hectare peatland project unexpectedly appeared around the village in 1996. Canals were built to connect Kapuas River and Kahayan River, clearing peatland and draining the water to make rice fields. Kalumpang was part of Block A of the former Peatland Project (PLG).
“This is what remains of the PLG canal. There used to be an iron gate,” Sanyo said as he traced the artificial waterway, only around a 20-minute walk from his house.
That Wednesday afternoon (20/7/2022), Sanyo and his wife Ambun Suteng, 43, were looking at a dry field that had not been cultivated for seven years. Crossing the Kapuas River behind their house, they reached a small tributary. A small motorboat took them upstream, sailing along the former PLG canals built at the end of the New Order government.
The canals are now neglected, leaving hydrologically damaged peatlands that become a source of wildfires in the dry season.
“Before the PLG, indeed there were occasional dry-season wildfires. However, the 1997 fire was the biggest I’ve ever seen,” revealed Sanyo.
From then on, forest products declined. Prey animals and fruit trees disappeared from the forest. Yet Sanyo and the other people of Kalumpang village managed to eke out a living from the dry fields that were their only resource. This was until the dry season of 2015, when a devastating forest fire occurred.
“The village was darkened by smoke as the fire spread extensively, also burning the residents’ rubber plantations. Almost 4,000 of my rubber trees were burned. The trauma it caused has lingered,” related Sanyo.
Today they have changed, with the complaints involving more complex issues ranging from domestic violence, divorce, land squatting to conflict with companies.
Since the fire, the villagers have been banned from cultivating dry fields because slash-and-burn agriculture damages the environment. “Actually, such projects have been the source of environmental destruction,” said Sanyo, who feels injustice, but also feels helpless.
Several villagers who continued to clear their fields by burning have been arrested. Thousands of years of traditional agriculture that has been maintained through the generations has thus ended. The majority of the male population in his village has left to seek other sources of livelihood. Most of them have become workers at oil palm estate or gold mines. Sanyo has also worked such jobs.
As a mantir, Sanyo cannot refuse when the people come to his house to ask for his help. Before the ban on dryland cultivation, the problems that the villagers reported most frequently for settling through a customary hearing generally concerned divorce and crop damage by domesticated animals. Today they have changed, with the complaints involving more complex issues ranging from domestic violence, divorce, land squatting to conflict with companies.
KOMPAS/AHMAD ARIF
Sanyo
Sanyo recalls the case of a villager named Suwanto, who was accused of burning down a company’s land by throwing away a cigarette butt. Suwanto was taken to the police station and declared as a suspect. Sanyo convened a customary hearing and invited the company. But the company ignored the invitation. Sanyo began to feel the limitations of customary laws.
Then he visited the company in search of information. Sanyo was not an attorney and had no legal knowledge, but he gathered information and details from the company where Suwanto had worked, and used the data to secure legal assistance.
In the end, the court found Suwanto guilty, but this was not so in the eyes of Sanyo and the Kalumpang community. Suwanto, who was sent to prison, was forced to leave his children and wife in the village. Sanyo again visited the company to ask that Suwanto’s salary and severance pay be paid to his children and wife.
Learning legal matters
As a result of Suwanto’s case, Sanyo felt it was important to learn about the country’s legal system. But he had not been to university. His highest education level was only junior high school (SMP). Eventually, he joined various paralegal training programs offered by the Palangkaraya Legal Aid Institute as well as other institutions.
He eagerly took part in the paralegal training programs. Although a paralegal can only provide non-litigation legal assistance under Law No. 16/2011 on Legal Aid, Sanyo is now licensed to provide legal counseling and consultation, investigate cases, offer mediation, engage in negotiations and provide out-of-court guidance. All of his services are provided pro bono as social work. Sanyo feels fulfilled in his heart, however.
“My wife sometimes reminds me what I’m doing all this for. But I feel this is my life’s path. Being a mere mantir is not enough because the local customs are no longer heeded,” he said.
The traditional customs, continued Sanyo, more often served political means nowadays. Low-ranking customary elders struggled to preserve their customs, but the regional customary chiefs, who were often also politicians, frequently closed their eyes to various societal problems.
“The ban on dryland cultivation, for instance, threatens the lives of traditional people, but why is it overlooked?” he lamented.
Although he is unable to make major changes yet, Sanyo now feels more useful in helping the villagers deal with day-to-day issues. He feels more confident when confronting security personnel or companies in relation to the villagers’ problems.
He is well aware of the risk of living in a village surrounded by large agricultural estate companies, which means coexisting with recurring, including land disputes. In his work as a paralegal, he has often been asked to provide legal assistance on cases of incursions into residents’ land.
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