Request for HGU information to the Ministry of ATR/BPN
The Application for Information submitted by FWI on September 16, 2015, with detailed information requested is the Business Rights Document (HGU) for plantations in Central Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, and North Kalimantan. Because there was no response from the Ministry of ATR / BPN, on October 5, 2015, FWI submitted a letter of objection to the ATR / BPN Ministry. However, up to the deadline that has been determined by the KIP Law that is 10 + 7 working days with written notice, the PPID Ministry of ATR / BPN has still not yet responded.
HGU Information Dispute (KIP, PTUN and Supreme Court)
The process towards resolving public information disputes took about 11 months to produce the Central Information Committee Decision No. 057/XII/KIP-PSM-A/2015 Between FWI and the Ministry of ATR/BPN dated July 22, 2016. In the settlement of this information dispute, FWI conducted nine hearings until the reading of the verdict in a period from December 2015 – July 22, 2016. Ministry of ATR / BPN absents three times during the trial process at KIP. After getting the final verdict FWI also conducted a public campaign to convey this good news to the public. HGU information is finally accessible to the public. But a week later, the verdict was appealed by the Ministry of ATR /BPN through the Jakarta Administrative Court (PTUN).
Not long after the decision reading of the information dispute at the Central Information Commission, the Ministry of ATR / BPN challenged the KIP decision again through the Application for Objection Number: 2 / G / KI / 2016 / PTUN-JKT dated 9 August 2016 to the Jakarta State Administrative Court. The trial of evidence until the reading of the decision lasted for five months, from 9 August 2016 to 23 December 2016. On 23 December 2016, PTUN submitted a copy of decision no 2 / G / KI / 2016 / PTUN-JKT to FWI. Before the submission of the decision, the Ministry of ATR / BPN submitted a request for cassation.
The information dispute settlement process at the Supreme Court (MA) lasted for approximately four months (23 December 2016-6 March 2017). The information dispute resolution process in the Supreme Court is different from the previous settlement processes. The Cassation process at the Supreme Court goes through nine stages. It begins by sending a Counter Memorandum of Cassation on January 13, 2017, to the PTUN-Jakarta. During the handling of the cassation, the Defendant and the Petitioner did not directly involve them. The status for the settlement of cassation cases can be monitored directly through the website of the Supreme Court; https://kepaniteraan.mahkamahagung.go.id/perkara/. Based on this, FWI monitors the cassation cases registered with No. 121 K / TUN / 2017. Based on FWI’s observations on February 20, 2017, the material of the FWI case is still in the distribution process and is still being examined by the Judicial Team.
On March 9, 2017, the Supreme Court rejected Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning / National Land Agency cassation. This decision reinforces the fact that the Palm oil Plantation HGU document is a public document that can be accessed by the community. After FWI already won a series of court proceedings at the Central Information Commission (KIP) level and the State Administrative Court (PTUN) for the same case. The ATR / BPN Ministry is now obliged to open the right to cultivate (HGU) documents for palm oil plantations in Kalimantan to the public.
After the decision, the HGU information is opened to the public
Besides the litigation efforts from FWI to encourages the disclosure of HGU information, FWI also conducts non-litigation efforts in the form of open campaigns to gain broad public attention to demand disclosure of HGU information at the Ministry of ATR /BPN. On June 19th, 2017, or three months after the MA decision, FWI held a peaceful action in the Ministry of ATR/BPN office, demanding the Minister to comply with the law and execute the MA decision to disclose palm oil plantation HGU documents. After this action, FWI was invited to a dialogue with the Ministry of ATR /BPN to convey aspirations related to the HGU document disclosure.
FWI held a peaceful action in front of the Ministry of ATR/BPN office on May 28th, 2018. This action was supported by more than 50 thousand netizen’s signatures on the online petition page change.org15 urging Minister Sofyan Djalil to immediately disclose HGU data to the public. After FWI conducted an hour-long oration, the Ministry of ATR /BPN finally invited FWI to have a dialogue in the press room of the Ministry of ATR / BPN. In the meeting, FWI was received by the Head of Public Relations of the Ministry of ATR /BPN, Mr. Horison Mocodompis, who delivered two essential points. First, the Ministry of ATR /BPN has issued Permen 7/2017 on Regulation and Procedures for Determination of Business Rights. This Ministerial Regulation ensures that HGU documents are open information. Second, the Ministry of ATR /BPN concerning the implementation of the MA ruling will still await the execution of the mediation process result by the Ombudsman RI. In the meeting, the Ministry of ATR / BPN did not open a dialogue about the mechanism of providing data but still discussed what information would be given and what’s the relevance (https://fwi.or.id/buka-informasi-fwi-serahkan-dukungan-publik/).
On September 27th, 2017, FWI also submitted the MA’s decision file that was not obeyed by the Ministry of ATR/BPN to the Presidential Staff Office, Mr. Hageng Nugroho. It was to get the President’s attention and with great hope that the President would immediately act on the defiance of the Minister of ATR / BPN against the decision of the MA. But hope remains hope there is no positive response from this reporting. And to date, this process has not resulted in any development.
Five months after the verdict of MA’s permanent legal force, on August 22th, 2017, FWI finally called the Ministry of ATR / BPN to ORI for the armpit compliance of the Ministry of ATR / BPN in the implementation of public information services. On May 27, 2019, ORI finally explained through letter Number B/495/LM. 09. K6/0750. 2017/VI/2019 dated June 21, 2019, informing that the progress of the current report settlement, ORI has issued LAHP (Final Report of Examination Results) on April 2, 2019, which essentially concluded the maladministration carried out by the Ministry of ATR / BPN and requested that the Minister of ATR / BPN implement corrective measures, namely:
1) Develop mechanisms for providing HGU information to be used as guidelines for whistleblowers in particular, and the public in general;
2) Provide HGU information to the reporter following the mechanism described in number (1) above. ORI provides 30 (thirty) days to the Ministry of ATR / BPN to submit a report on the implementation of LAHP since LAHP was received. ORI has also been monitoring the implementation of LAHP by letter to the Ministry of ATR/BPN on May 8, 2019. But to date, the letter has not been responded to by the Ministry of ATR/BPN.