With actions promoted by over 40 organizations, thousands of demonstrators demanded the Indonesian government to implement the reform promised by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in 2007.

Indonesia, a country where 25.6 million family farmers only have an average of 0.4 hectares of land, has implemented market-based reforms as advised by the World Bank, without aiming to achieve food sovereignty, justice or land rights demanded by the peasant movement.

This is why the demonstrators went to the Presidential Building in Jakarta to discuss nine demands on how the agrarian reform program should be implemented. One of the demands is how to implement a genuine agrarian reform by redistributing 9.6 million hectares.

They also demanded the creation of a committee on agrarian conflict where 14 regulations that go against peasant rights will be reviewed.

After meeting with government representatives, the Indonesian peasant leader, Henry Saragih, said that the reform will only be valid if it involves peasants.

“Okay, we appreciate the government’s commitment for agrarian reform”,said Saragih . “But we have to make sure that we are the beneficiaries and we get the right to land in order to produce food,” he concluded.

Photo: http://viacampesina.org/en/