December 29, 2025 | 10:00 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The disappearance of a traditional barrier, called sasi, installed by Vincen Kwipalo to protect the Agodai customary forest, was nothing new. The traditional barrier—usually in the form of wooden stakes painted red or orange—was placed to fence off his Kwipalo clan’s land, located in Blandin Kakayo Village, Jagebob District, Merauke Regency, South Papua. An excavator belonging to Murni Nusantara Mandiri (MNM), the concession holder and executor of a sugar cane plantation project—a national strategic project (PSN)—continued to encroach on Kwipalo's indigenous land over the past year.
Each time the indigenous barrier disappeared, Vincen’s family put up a new one. However, something surprising happened when Vincen’s wife and children were about to install another sasi on June 11, 2025. On their traditional land, there was a signboard, reading “Land of the Indonesian Army.” In smaller letters, it said: “Kodam XVII/Cendrawasih" and warned that the 100-hectare area was "under the supervision of Koramil 1707-02/Merauke.”
Without hesitation, the Kwipalo family erected another traditional barrier on their land that day. The family, which belongs to the Yei tribe, strongly opposed the announcement, which they said appeared out of the blue without seeking permission or notifying the landowners. Vincen, 67, an elder of the Kwipalo clan, told Tempo on Monday, December 15, 2025: “The TNI [Indonesian military] is openly acting as a security guard for the PSN sugar cane plantation.”
The signboard appeared in the middle of the year, coinciding with the start of military infrastructure construction in Muckai Hamlet, part of Blandin Kakayo Village. However, military personnel had already begun surveying the land with company representatives in December 2024. At that time, the deployed Indonesian military unit came from the Territorial Development Infantry Battalion, which was sent to Merauke to support the food estate program.
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