The Paradox of Agrarian Reform on Ex-HGU/PTPN Land: Between Land Rights and Criminalization
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Abstract
This study highlights tenure conflicts occurring in the Pangalengan coffee plantation area, Bandung Regency, focusing on the ambiguous status of land formerly under HGU (Land Use Rights) or currently managed by PTPN VIII, which has become a source of competing claims and potential socio-agrarian conflicts. Through a socio-legal approach and an analysis of legal pluralism, this study reveals the gap between the top-down normative discourse on agrarian reform and the repressive criminal law practices on the ground. Local farming communities, with limited access to capital, have established informal legal claims based on the history of land cultivation, the productive use of coffee plants, the principle of the social function of land as stipulated in the 1960 Land Law (UUPA), and the hope for land redistribution through the Presidential Regulation on Agrarian Reform. On the other hand, state-owned corporations and law enforcement agencies enforce a formal, positivist-legalistic legal framework to protect assets through legal notices and criminalization under Article 385 of the Criminal Code (KUHP) or sector-specific criminal regulations for plantations. Field data and in-depth interviews reveal an agrarian paradox: the land redistribution program through TORA is hampered by convoluted and sluggish bureaucracy, while the enforcement of criminal law by corporations proceeds swiftly, undermining the solidarity of grassroots movements. The arrests of farmers’ union activists not only cause psychological trauma, poverty, and damage to sustainable communal agricultural systems, but also reinforce the large-scale land monopoly held by a small elite across generations. The state must shift away from a normative security approach and redefine agrarian reform as a model for a more equitable distribution of the benefits of natural resources in order to prevent the escalation of ecological and social crises in the future.
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References
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Tsioumani, E. (2020). Fair and Equitable Benefit-Sharing in Agriculture. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429198304
Weaver-Hightower, M. B. (2018). How to Write Qualitative Research. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315159263
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Yan, W. (2024). Disposal rights of rural collective ownership: an analysis from Three Rights Division on contracted land. Peking University Law Journal, 12(2), 221–240. https://doi.org/10.1080/20517483.2024.2445381
Zakaria, Y. (2018). Paradoks Perlawanan Petani: Land Reform dari Bawah dan Partisipasi Petani di Kecamatan Pangalengan, Kabupaten Bandung. Pustaka Pelajar.
Alabrese, M., Bessa, A., Brunori, M., & Giuggioli, P. F. (Eds.). (2022). The United Nations’ Declaration on Peasants’ Rights. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003139874
Amalianti, F. P. (2022). Pemberdayaan Masyarakat Melalui Organisasi Tani. Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung.
Amiruddin, & Asikin, Z. (2021). Pengantar Metode Penelitian Hukum. Rajawali Pers.
Arango, L., Arias Vanegas, J., Borras, S. M., Coronado, S., Díaz, I., Fajardo, D., Ojeda, D., Peña-Huertas, R. del P., Rojas Herrera, I., & Serrano, A. (2025). Land grabbing, land dispossession, land rush: what can we learn from Colombia? The Journal of Peasant Studies, 52(7), 1632–1665. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2025.2554822
Berry, A. (2024). The Great Curse: Land Concentration in History and in Development. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197782675.001.0001
Bhat, P. I. (2020). Idea and Methods of Legal Research. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199493098.001.0001
Busatta, L., & Casonato, C. (Eds.). (2021). Axiological Pluralism (Vol. 92). Springer Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78475-1
Chipenda, C., & Adesina, J. (2025). Land reform as asset-based social protection: livelihood outcomes and policy integration in Zimbabwe’s resettlement areas. SN Social Sciences, 5(12), 233. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-025-01275-7
Cotterrell, R. (2024). Jurisprudence and Socio-Legal Studies. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003340324
Creswell, J. W., & Poth, C. N. (2018). Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches (Fourth). SAGE Publications, Inc.
de Souza, S. P. (2022). Designing Indicators for a Plural Legal World. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009091275
Echenique, S. G., & Graziano da Silva, J. (2026). Beyond land in Latin America: rethinking agrarian reform in the twenty-first century. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2025.2602864
Harris, J. M., & Roach, B. (2025). Environmental and Natural Resource Economics. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003563211
Kay, S., Monjane, B., Robbins, M. J., & Sekine, Y. (2025). Grassroots voices special forum: resisting land grabs and building alternatives. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 52(7), 1682–1691. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2025.2555603
Konforti, L. (2025). Land struggles, livelihoods, and trajectories of agrarian change in the Polochic valley, Guatemala. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 52(4), 810–834. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2024.2407177
Lyall, A., & Colloredo-Mansfeld, R. (2024). The evolving force of community: peasant uprisings and post-agrarian aspirations in Ecuador. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 51(7), 1606–1625. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2024.2304799
Marzuki, P. M. (2019). Penelitian Hukum. Kencana.
Mewburn, I., Thomson, P., Kara, H., & Grant, A. (2026). Managing Your Research Project. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003466017
Miles, M. B., Huberman, A. M., & Saldaña, J. (2014). Qualitative Data Analysis: a Methods Sourcebook (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc.
Mol, A. P. J., Sonnenfeld, D. A., & Spaargaren, G. (Eds.). (2020). The Ecological Modernisation Reader. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003061069
Murthy, R. V. R. (Ed.). (2021). The Agrarian Question. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003191704
Pengurus Serikat Tani. (2026). Hasil Wawancara Informan B.
Perry-Kessaris, A. (2021). Doing Sociolegal Research in Design Mode. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780367177683
Petani Penggarap. (2026). Hasil Wawancara Informan A.
Savin-Baden, M., & Major, C. H. (2023). Qualitative Research The Essential Guide to Theory and Practice. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003377986
Stępień, M., & Klakla, J. B. (Eds.). (2021). Law and Culture (Vol. 5). Springer Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81193-8
Sunggono, B. (2003). Metodologi penelitian hukum. RajaGrafindo Persada.
Tilzey, M., Sugden, F., & Seddon, D. (2023). Peasants, Capitalism, and the Work of Eric R. Wolf. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429487651
Tsioumani, E. (2020). Fair and Equitable Benefit-Sharing in Agriculture. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429198304
Weaver-Hightower, M. B. (2018). How to Write Qualitative Research. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315159263
Xu, X., Png, I., Chu, J., & Chen, Y. (2024). The misruling elites: the state, local elites, and the social geography of the Chinese Revolution. Theory and Society, 53(2), 465–508. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-023-09536-1
Yan, W. (2024). Disposal rights of rural collective ownership: an analysis from Three Rights Division on contracted land. Peking University Law Journal, 12(2), 221–240. https://doi.org/10.1080/20517483.2024.2445381
Zakaria, Y. (2018). Paradoks Perlawanan Petani: Land Reform dari Bawah dan Partisipasi Petani di Kecamatan Pangalengan, Kabupaten Bandung. Pustaka Pelajar.