MAUNG NGO Central Executive Board Condemns Eviction at AAN Beach in Central Lombok
JAKARTA-JAYA NEWS.COM – The Central Executive Board of the non-governmental organization Monitoring Apparatus for State and Groups (DPP LSM MAUNG) strongly condemns the forced evictions carried out by the Indonesia Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) against coastal communities in the Aan Beach area, Central Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara. This action is not merely an administrative error, but a structured and systematic crime that sacrifices citizens’ constitutional rights to perpetuate the interests of a handful of economic elites.
“We don’t call this a mere procedural violation. This is a form of state violence through capital. The state allows its people to be evicted from their own land for projects that only please investors and silence the people,” asserted Hadysa Prana, Chairperson of MAUNG NGO Central Executive Board, in a press statement on Saturday, July 19, 2025.
INVESTMENT WITHOUT HUMANITY: DEVELOPMENT OR PLEASURES?
The eviction process at Pantai Aan was carried out brutally: without deliberation, without a just legal basis, without any guarantee of continued livelihood. The people were treated as obstacles to progress, not as the rightful owners of their living space. This was an eviction in the name of development, but in reality, it was a seizure with a false legality.
The granting of Land Management Rights (HPL) to ITDC by the government is suspected to be legally flawed and fraught with conflicts of interest, because:
It did not involve the affected community as legal subjects,
It contradicted Law No. 1 of 2014 and Government Regulation No. 51 of 2016, and
It violated the principles of ecological and social justice protected by the constitution.
LEGAL AND POLITICAL RESISTANCE OF THE PEOPLE
The Central Executive Board of the MAUNG NGO has developed three confrontational strategies to expose and stop this covert eviction practice:
1. An official report to the Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights, accompanied by field documentation and a chronology of human rights violations against affected residents.
2. A lawsuit filed with the Central Lombok District Court as a form of civil justice for collective losses to the community.
3. A lawsuit against the cancellation of the Land Use Permit (HPL) with the Mataram State Administrative Court (PTUN), to annul the legal basis for land ownership, which is allegedly forced and violates the principles of state administration.
“We are ready to take this case through all available legal channels, even to the Supreme Court and international forums if the state continues to turn a blind eye. People’s land is not a commodity. Justice cannot be sold,” Hady asserted.
THE STATE IS BEING TESTED: SIDED WITH THE CONSTITUTION OR BECOME A STAFF OF CAPITAL
What happened at Aan Beach reflects a state that is increasingly disregarding the mandate of the constitution. The state stands as a protector of investor interests, not a defender of the people’s well-being. When the law is used to consolidate economic power rather than justice, the state has transformed into a market without conscience.
“If the state fails to protect the people’s rights from the greed of capital, then the people are obliged to fight back. Salus Populi Suprema Lex Esto—The safety of the people is the highest law. That is the principle of our resistance,” the General Chair concluded.
SHARP CONCLUSION
The eviction of Pantai Aan is not simply a violation of the law—it is a clarion call that national projects are becoming machines of modern colonialism. The state must immediately withdraw the ITDC HPL, stop all forms of repression against the people, and return living space to the community, the rightful owners of the area. Silence is a betrayal of the constitution. Resistance is a moral and legal obligation.**
Author: MAUNG NGO TEAM
Source: MAUNG NGO DPP
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