- A violent confrontation between local villagers and officers of a land developer on the island of Rempang resulted in injuries and a police complaint.
- At issue is the 7,000-hectare (17,000-acre) Rempang Eco-City development on a small island that requires the eviction of thousands of local people.
- The project comprises a vast glass factory operated by a Chinese firm that will also build solar panels.
- Indonesia’s human rights commission last year sided with local residents and recommended the government review the project for potential breach of land rights.
BATAM, Indonesia — A major Chinese solar panel manufacturing development on an Indonesian island saw renewed clashes in September between a company allegedly controlled by an Indonesian household name and the island’s Indigenous communities resisting eviction.
Siti Hawa, a 66-year-old grandmother, suffered a broken wrist after she stepped in to prevent a security guard from striking members of her community here on Rempang Island, which is closer to Singapore than to the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
“They hit me with their strength and it broke,” Siti told Mongabay Indonesia.
Sun trap
The Indonesian government in August 2023 announced the Rempang Eco-City project, an initiative covering 7,000 hectares (17,000 acres) of Rempang Island. The project’s centerpiece is a $11.6 billion glass and solar panel factory by Hong Kong–based giant Xinyi International Investment.
The remaining 10,000 hectares (17,300 acres) of Rempang Island would be zoned as protected forest. The government has categorized the project as one of strategic national importance, or PSN, which smooths licensing for investors.
The development requires the eviction of most of Rempang’s approximately 7,500 residents, including many Indigenous seafarers. The developer of the industrial estate is PT Makmur Elok Graha (MEG), a Jakarta-based firm owned by Grideye Resources Limited, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands, a notorious tax haven and secrecy jurisdiction.
Directors listed in MEG’s corporate network are affiliated with the Artha Graha Group, the diversified conglomerate of prominent businessman Tomy Winata, according to research by Trend Asia.
The development on Rempang is also tied to a deal with neighboring Singapore to export 3.4 gigawatts of solar electricity to the city-state by around 2030.
Solar flare
On Sept. 6, 2023, public tension over the imminent eviction boiled over into a demonstration that police countered with teargas. Hundreds joined the demonstration and more than 40 people were arrested.
A subsequent review by Indonesia’s human rights commission, known as Komnas HAM, recommended that the government review the project.
Following the latest flashpoint last month, a video of Siti lying prostrate on the terrace of Nur Asiah Mosque near the scene of the incident was shared widely on social media.
The fracas erupted when a woman named Asmah, along with three other women and one man, questioned the purpose of three MEG security officers in Goba village in Rempang.
“We asked nicely at first: ‘Sir, what is that you want here?’” Asmah later told reporters.
She said the men ignored her, then forced a companion to stop filming the confrontation on their phone. The disagreement became increasingly ill-tempered as both parties objected loudly to the other filming.
“I said, ‘You can video, why can’t I video?’” Asmah recounted.
Interviews with local residents indicate that at that point the confrontation boiled over as the security guards became more aggressive, claiming the land in Goba village belonged to MEG.
“I said that this was our territory,” Asmah said.
It was around this point that Siti suffered the broken wrist.
“It should have been operated on but I didn’t want to,” Siti told Mongabay Indonesia on Aug. 19.
Two other Rempang residents suffered light injuries, interviews showed. Bakir, 51, suffered a head injury, while Samsuda received cuts and bruises on his face.
Calls and text messages to MEG’s spokesperson, Fernandi, were not returned.
Ariastuty Sirait, spokesperson for BP Batam, the government agency that administers developments in the region, declined to comment.
“It’s not the purview of BP Batam to answer this, please contact MEG directly or the police station,” Ariastuty wrote in a text message on Sept. 19.
Ariastuty added that three security officers with MEG had reported injuries they had allegedly received to the police. She didn’t respond to further questions about the land ownership.
Andika Samudera, head of the criminal investigation unit at the police headquarters in Rempang, said the clash occurred because both parties claimed land in Goba village.
Human rights concerns
Prabianto Mukti Wibowo, a Komnas HAM commissioner, said MEG officers should have under no circumstances resorted to violence.
“Intimidation must be avoided: dialogue and an inclusive approach must be prioritized,” he said.
He added that MEG held only a memorandum of understanding but had yet to secure a land management license from Indonesia’s land agency, the BPN.
Law enforcement personnel should prioritize protection of members of the public, “not that of the companies,” he said.
Johanes Widijantoro at Indonesia’s national ombudsman office said that at the time of writing no company had obtained a management license for the land around Goba village.
“I’m sure that it wasn’t the residents who started this, it must have been another party,” Johanes said.
Amnesty International on Sept. 18 called for construction of the Rempang Eco-City to be halted.
“The rights of Indigenous people must be respected and protected from all forms of threats and violence,” Amnesty International’s Indonesia office said in a statement. “They must also be meaningfully involved in developments carried out on their land or territory.”
Solar energy accounted for less than 200 megawatts across Indonesia, the world’s fourth-most-populous country, in 2021. That’s a fraction of 1% of its total energy mix, and the lowest installed capacity among G20 countries.
Indonesia’s energy minister, Bahlil Lahadalia, has claimed that the quartz and solar panel factory will be one of the largest in the world outside China. Residents on Rempang say they know they’re going up against a multinational development that has approval at the highest levels.
President Joko Widodo signed a memorandum of understanding last year with Xinyi International Investment and MEG to develop the Rempang factory.
“I welcome the start of the Xinyi project,’ the president said in July 2023. “If there are problems in the field, we will fully assist.”
This story was reported by Mongabay’s Indonesia team and first published on our Indonesian site on Sep. 21, 2024.
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