- Motorcycle racing’s biggest show, the MotoGP championship, is on the Indonesian island of Lombok this weekend, where top racers will battle it out on a track built on land taken by force from Indigenous Sasak communities.
- Experts from the United Nations have called on the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the single biggest lender to the Mandalika development where the race will be held, to suspend its funding for an assessment of the impact to the local communities.
- Since the track was completed in late 2021, the Sasak communities have been subjected to repressive security measures by Indonesian security forces, including threats of criminal charges for staging any kind of protest.
- Legal advocates for the Sasak say the communities continue to be denied fair compensation for their land, which developers appropriated through the use of eminent domain — essentially a land grab under the pretext of development.
JAKARTA — As the Indonesian island of Lombok prepares to host the latest leg of the marquee MotoGP racing series this weekend, former residents of what’s now the Mandalika International Circuit are bracing for yet another round of repression by the authorities.
More than 2,700 police personnel have been deployed to Mandalika, ostensibly to provide security for the event — but also to ensure local community members don’t hold any protests that might be picked up by the international media descending on the island.
Any disruptions, such as displays of banners, will be dealt with according to the law, said Umar Faruq, the police chief of West Nusa Tenggara province, where Mandalika is located.
This constitutes a form of intimidation, according to Habibi, a researcher with the Institute of Legal Studies and Aid (LSBH).
“People are afraid to erect [protest] banners. They are doing it discreetly,” he told Mongabay. “People are still traumatized by what happened in previous races.”
‘Unnecessary and excessive’ show of force
Since it opened in late 2021, the Mandalika circuit has been the scene of heavy security measures and intimidation tactics during international racing events. At the MotoGP and World Superbike races in 2022 and 2023, local Sasak Indigenous communities were subjected to measures including restricted movement through checkpoints. Authorities distributed a limited number of wristbands and stickers for access, causing disruptions to daily life.
Some Sasak residents were also arrested for criticizing the government and intimidated into not protesting. An ostentatious show of security, including the presence of snipers and the practicing of riot drills, created an atmosphere of fear, residents said. There were even reports of forced labor and coercion during the events.
This increasing militarization of Mandalika has been flagged numerous times before by United Nations experts, who say the large-scale deployment of security forces is “unnecessary and excessive.”
The MotoGP race taking place this weekend comes at the same time as the Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is in the process of approving the final tranche of a $248 million loan for the development of the Mandalika tourism site. That has prompted the group of 10 U.N. experts, including several special rapporteurs, to call for a pause on the payment until the impacts to the Indigenous and local communities have been assessed.
“We call on AIIB to suspend its final loan disbursement until it is certain that this project will not contribute to further irreparable harm to the project-affected Indigenous Peoples that have already been arbitrarily displaced and cut off from their livelihoods,” the experts said in a press statement.
A $3 billion ‘strategically important’ resort
The Indonesian government has designated the Mandalika area, on the south coast of Lombok Island, a project of “strategic national importance,” which gives the state eminent domain rights to take over the land, including Indigenous lands.
The racing circuit is just one part of the development plan; the wider vision is to turn Mandalika into a tourism resort to rival the nearby island of Bali. In fact, it’s one of several areas around the country the government wants to transform into a “New Bali.”
The single biggest source of funding for the $3 billion Mandalika project is the AIIB, which in December 2018 agreed to give a $248 million loan to the project developer, the state-owned Indonesia Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC). The AIIB project document indicates September 30 as the last date for the disbursement of the final portion of that sum, $134 million, but the bank has yet to approve it.
The U.N. experts have responded that funding for the project must be halted because it “poses the risk of irreparable harm to Indigenous Peoples’ rights.” They said a suspension would allow time to ensure the sustainable return of all community members who have been arbitrarily displaced to their Indigenous lands.
“Where return is no longer possible, people should be provided with adequate compensation and resettlement, to be determined and organised with the participation of the affected Indigenous Peoples,” they said in their statement.
Affected communities have also called on the AIIB to suspend the disbursement of funding for the project, citing unresolved land compensation and displacement issues.
“The AIIB, the [Indonesian] government and the ITDC have to take responsibility in each violation during the development of the Mandalika Special Economic Zone,” said Sahnan, the head of an alliance of affected communities. “We ask for land grabbing to stop and for all lingering land conflicts to be resolved.”
By continuing to fund the project, the AIIB has violated its own environmental and social sustainability standards, which require its clients to engage in free, prior and informed consultation (FPICon) with and obtain the broad support of affected Indigenous communities, said Wawa Wang, director of the NGO Just Finance International.
“AIIB waxed eloquent on resilient infrastructure development and having all the right standards,” she told Mongabay. “But the reality for the Mandalika-project affected Indigenous fisher and agrarian communities have had their lives and families broken by this project due to extreme poverty, while the children have no future.”
Its financial support also means the AIIB is complicit in the displacement and disenfranchisement of the Sasak Indigenous communities, Wang said.
“Is the Beijing-led bank putting more resources into keeping up the Potemkin village PR show or at all interested in resolving the impacts of involuntary and arbitrary resettlement, land acquisition and eviction that its financing has caused for seven years and counting?” she said.
Conflicting claims
Despite the repeated calls and recommendations for the ITDC to resolve the land disputes, the developer says it fully compensated all affected community members for their lands when construction of the racetrack began in early 2020.
“It’s been done a few years ago. There’s no way for the ITDC to pay [the communities] again,” ITDC commercial director Troy Reza Waroka said as quoted by local media.
And if there are unresolved land disputes, he added, those are no longer the ITDC’s responsibility.
“Regarding land, we at the company don’t handle that,” Troy said. “It’s the authority of the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs.”
This is a blatant lie, said Habibi, the legal aid researcher, whose institute is providing legal assistance to displaced community members. He cited at least 194 cases of land disputes that haven’t been settled, with community members receiving no or only partial compensation.
“We expect the number to be greater than that because there are many locals who haven’t received legal assistance” and thus haven’t been identified, Habibi told Mongabay. “There are many who can’t afford lawyers, or are afraid to reach out to one, or are confused [about what to do].”
If there truly are no outstanding land disputes in the Mandalika project area, then the ITDC should provide evidence to back its claim, he said. But it hasn’t been able to do so, Habibi said.
“Where’s the proof? Show it,” he said.
He called for a comprehensive audit of the project to identify all the disputes and determine which ones remain unresolved.
Until that happens, however, the Sasak communities will have to brace for the biannual crackdowns that accompany the arrival of motorcycle racing’s two biggest series, MotoGP and the World Superbike Championship.
“As the annual Moto GP race approaches,” the U.N. experts wrote, “we urge Indonesia to ensure that the Sasak Indigenous Peoples currently living around Mandalika are not further intimidated and repressed by members of the army and the police.”
CORRECTION 27/09/2024: A previous version of the article states that the AIIB has approved the last tranche of the loan. However, the bank has not yet approved it, although the AIIB project document indicates Sep 30 as the last disbursement date. The article has been revised to reflect this.
Banner image: Affected local communities in Mandalika, Lombok, Indonesia, protest against AIIB and ITDC’s involvements in the Mandalika project.
FEEDBACK: Use this form to send a message to the author of this post. If you want to post a public comment, you can do that at the bottom of the page.
Credits
