We will also use the same principles to develop other industrial zones, including the development of economic super corridor on Java’s North Coast. My livelihood here already secures my daily needs. Batang Industrial Zone, Subang, and Majalengka. In the past 50 years I have been living here, never before I had that kind of huge flood. We are developing them in a short period of time. The industries are designed so that they can invite quality investments. that synergize with our small-medium enterprises. I cannot assemble cars. What I can do, is this: I am a farmer. Which will give a significant added value to our national economy and to create jobs for many workers. I was shot by the authorities. No warning shots, they straight away targeted me. What can I say the village authorities and brokers kept persuading me to sell my land. I received so many summons, I lost count. I had been summoned so many times by the police. All of these are “love letters” from the police. "Love Letter From Pantura" I am a peasant who cultivate the land. The owner of this land, or this swamp, is Mr. Haji Taufik. The way we share revenues: let’s say we get Rp 3 million from selling fish, first we secure the portion to cover the cost of fish seedlings Rp 500,000, after that we have Rp 2,5 million left; we divide that by two. For my daily needs, I rely on catching shrimp. All the earning from there is for me as the cultivator of the land. Sometimes I get Rp 50,000 or Rp 100,000, it depends, because it’s rather uncertain. Today I may get shrimp, but tomorrow who knows. Sir, from today’s trapping, how much would you get? Today the seawater did not really go in, so I only get a little. Around 8 ounces. These can sell for about Rp 30,000 per kilogram. At the minimum, we harvest three times a year. For example, from the time we plant milkfish seedlings to harvest time would be around 3 or 4 months. So, in one year we can harvest 3 times. Jahidi has cultivated the fish farm for 15 years. This is the first time he is worried about his job. He is worried because 2.5 hectares of fish farm that he cultivates fall into the plan for integrated industrial zone in Java’s north coast. In total, there are 400 hectares of fish farms in Kasemen District, Serang that would be converted into industrial area. Almost all fish farms here are cultivated by peasants with revenue sharing or land rent system. Not being the land owner, peasants like Jahidi could only resign amidst the land use conversion plan. Well, I am just an ordinary person, so I cannot do anything If this land is sold by the owner, as the cultivator what can I do? If I have some money, I may start a small business or something. Besides Kasemen District, there are 1,000 hectares of dry farm land in Walantaka District which will be converted into an industrial zone and its supporting functions such as residential area. If people of Kasemen and Walantaka, Serang only began facing off with industrial expansion people of Indramayu have already started going through it earlier the toughness of life-space grabbing. Sawin is a peasant who doesn’t own land. The land he cultivates is not far from a coal-powered electricity power plant or what is known as PLTU 1 Indramayu. The PLTU, which has operated since year 2011, is one of the “National Vital Object” The energy source is coal, which is widely known as dirty energy. This award is an appreciation for businesses that have shown extraordinary effort. In 2019, PLTU Indramayu received a Green PROPER Award. from the Ministry of the Environment and Forestry. PROPER Award represents an evaluation of a company’s performance in environmental management. Our task is to plant the seeds. So that our children’s and grandchildren’s generations can harvest good fruits, not storm. from pursuits of short-term profits that we snatch from future generations’ hands. No need to wait for 1 or 2 generations ahead Sawin has harvested what the Vice President of Indonesia referred to as storm. This is the impact of PLTU 1: the ashes spread to our farms. Since PLTU 1 started operation, farm production has been declining. Rice, long beans, and shallots become very difficult to cultivate. Rice has the most drastic decline; production has reduced about 2 tonnes, from at least 6 tonnes per bahu (1 bahu/ bouw = 0.7 hectares). Usually we had 6 tonnes per bahu, but now we can never reach 6 tonnes. The problem of yellowing beans is clearly the impact of PLTU 1. Why is that? That is because the pollution of ashes that blanket our crops. So this is what we get: yellow ones. PLTU Indramayu’s location is directly on the north coast of Java. People whose livelihoods are dependent on the sea are also impacted by the PLTU operations. My profession is to collect rebon shrimp at the shore, to make shrimp paste (terasi/ belacan), to be sold in the community or to agents (to be sold in bulk elsewhere). Before we have PLTU 1, we could get 50 to 60 kilograms every day. But after PLTU started, we usually only get 15 kg, at most 20 kg Good quality rebon shrimp is usually red colour; we call them rebon jembret jeruk. You can see here now the quality is low, it’s not so red. Indramayu people’s worries increase when the development plan to build PLTU 2 started in year 2015. With a capacity of 2 x 1000 megawatt, PLTU 2 Indramayu plan was part of the National Energy Provision Program to produce 35,000 MW of electricity which was launched by President Jokowi. Along Pantura stretch, at least there are 70 potential industrial areas. "Banten 12 areas" "DKI Jakarta 2 areas" "West Java 39 areas" "Central Java 39 areas" "East Java 39 areas" To lure foreign investors, the Indonesian government makes an effort to improve infrastructures, including increasing electricity supply. But the civil society see it differently. They resist PLTU 2 Indramayu. Realising that they are up against the government, the civil society unite their resistance. In March 2015, the civil society formed an organisation. Coalition for No Coal Air Pollution Indramayu, known as JATAYU. PLTU 2 clearly will take away our life-spaces, our communities’ life-spaces. Those whose livelihoods depend on the land and coast, such as the shrimp harvesters, like all the small fisherfolks here, will be blocked. Clearly, the land will also be taken away from them. Besides conducting resistance protests, in 2017 JATAYU filed a lawsuit against the environmental permit of PLTU 2 Indramayu. On 6 December 2017, citizens won the lawsuit. With our victory at PTUN (State Administration Court), it was clear that with the refusal by the civil society against PLTU 2, our protests against policies for it, that means we are on the right track. Citizens celebrate their victory by raising Indonesia’s red and white flag on the village land 150 metre from PLTU 1. The next day there was an uproar in the village when they found the flag in upside down position. As a result of the incident, the police arrested 3 persons. one of them was Sawin. When they arrested me, my position was here. I was in the centre, my wife here, and on the side my grandchild, and then we heard someone banging the door. “Assalamualaikum, waalaikumsalam.” I opened the door. and saw some men in uniform, from Buser or something, I don’t know. There were five of them, with long shotguns, and then I asked “Any problem, Sir?” They said, it’s the flag problem. Knowing that it was the flag problem, I asked, “Can’t we settle it here, Sir, maybe in the subdistrict office?” They said, “No, we can’t. We have to go to the police station.” I said, “OK sir, I will get ready, I will follow your instructions. I will change my clothes first.” He was told, “No need to change clothes.” Most ordinary citizens do not know legal details, let alone specific chapters in the law, so what can we say if they accuse us as going against the law? The most we could do was to ask for leniency as much as possible. So they got incarcerated for 6 months and 3 days: among them are Sawin, Sukma, and Ranto. Amidst the obsession on industrial development, not only were civil society voices like Sawin’s ignored. Civil society members who resisted the development could get easily criminalised. Amidst this industrial development obsession there are more talks about “economic” potentials rather than disaster potentials "Mural: Do Not Take Our Rice Fields" Ironically, disasters that are caused by industrial operations have too often been considered “normal” in Indonesia. Allahu Akbar. A Pertamina oil refinery, RO 6 Balongan in Indramayu, West Java, exploded and engulfed in flames in the early morning on Monday. At around 12 noon, flames are still seen, with thick smoke escalating in the area where the oil tank is burning. From a close-up level, or very close-up, we see the sufferings: blackened lungs, open and systematic violence, intimidation, criminalisation of those who resist the project, etc. That becomes part of everyday life that is never framed as disaster that needs to be mitigated. So, these sufferings are excluded from the official definition of “disaster” and from the dominant discourse on disaster. In fact, this is a continuing disaster, and it has its masters. This disaster has its masters; it’s not natural. An important keyword to discuss is “disaster industry". Then we can open the scope. This is not just a joke or playing with words. What we see today are very narrow spotlight by dominant discourses, systems, and practices when we look at disasters. What we see in Java’s north coast are continuous disasters; and the disasters are growing. They are not linear nor static, so there are growing instabilities, and this growth are exponential. Logically, the government should not sacrifice the people. But if we see this situation, it is really sad, Sir. In the past, we used to have very fertile land and good harvest, This is because of this coal air pollution, Sir. It’s true, Pak Rasim, the coal air pollution is toxic. Life-space struggles also occur in Cirebon, West Java. No less than 2,000 hectares were allocated for the development of Integrated Industrial Zone of Cirebon. Losari citizens whose livelihoods for generations have depended on the sea, fish farms and farm fields are now threatened by industrial development. My livelihood is fish farming I cultivate milkfish and oysters in my farm. The earnings are not bad, sufficient to feed my family. For oysters, 2 to 5 tonnes can buy 2 motorcycles. The economic value, for oysters they are Rp 10,000 per kilogram. 1 ton means Rp 10 million. That means 3 tonnes are worth Rp 30 million. Our capital for the seed is about Rp 8 million, to eventually get that much harvest. In one year, Mukarom’s fish farm can be harvested 3 to 4 times. During a good year, in one harvest Mukarom can get up to Rp 40 million. My livelihood here already secures my daily needs. If we have industries, how do we know whether or not I can get a job? Adding income to support his daily needs, Mukarom relies on the sea. By planting nets along the fish farm channels he could get shrimp from nature. The shrimps are from the sea. I don’t cultivate them. They are all natural, from the sea. Income from shrimps would depend on the types. The small ones are Rp 10,000-15,000 (per kg); bigger ones would be Rp 50,000-70,000. However, in the last couple of years fish farmers like Mukarom are facing insecurities. Their insecurities are caused by the plan to convert 300 hectares of land in Losari District to be part of Cirebon’s Integrated Industrial Zone. 3 hectares of Mukarom’s fish farm are included in that industrial zone plan. Land acquisition process is underway. Land speculators and brokers start to enter their community. They have repeatedly been trying to persuade Mukarom to sell his land. At the price of Rp 25,000 per square metre, Mukarom would get at least Rp 750 million (approx. USD 53,000) from his 3 hectares of land. To me, even if I get that much money, I may not be able to buy land of the same size in another location. What I’m most worried about is that if this area becomes an industrial zone, what will my family do when I’m gone? My wife, my kids, my young relatives, will they get a job? Meanwhile, another farmer, Markumah, had a different experience. Repeatedly she received threats. She succumbed to the offer of Rp 60 million as down payment for her to sell her 4 hectares of fish farm. What can I say? The village authorities and land broker kept persuading me to sell my land. “When will you accept the down payment?" "If you don’t accept it, you would be evicted, with a backhoe." "You wouldn’t even get the money.” That’s what they said. So I was worried that if I didn’t accept the money, I would lose everything. That’s how they threatened me. The presence of industrial development have caused citizens like Markumah and Mukarom uprooted from their life-spaces. uprooted from their life-spaces. For them, selling land would mean they lose their jobs. Furthermore, selling land would make them lose their future. Why are we opening this Batang industrial zone? Only one answer, we want to create as much jobs as possible. Cipta Lapangan Kerja (Job Creation), that’s what we are aiming for. The second one is land acquisition that is always the problem. Just now I asked several investors, have you acquired the land, for example in Serang, in Bekasi, no problems? OK, continue. But for those who are facing problems of land acquisition, the government will back up, we will help investors to settle land acquisition problem. Batang Integrated Industrial Zone Central Java. This is the industrial zone that President Jokowi had hailed as the Economic Super Corridor on Java’s north coast. Unlike other development projects here in Batang there is no land acquisition problem. because the area of 4,300 hectares that are converted into the industrial zone is already under State-Owned Enterprise control. This was the master plan from the PP that they gave to me. Master plan for this KITB project. It’s so vast and magnificent. And the size… how many hectares? First phase is going to be 450 hectares. Batang Integrated Industrial Zone, Central Java 4,300 Ha. Cluster 1: 3,100 Ha Automotive and Transportation Equipment Industries Chemical Industries Textile and Battery Industries Phase 1: 450 Ha Cluster 2: 800 Ha Information and Communication Technology, and Electronic Industries Food and Beverage Indusries Cluster 3: 400 Ha Research and Development, and Commercial Starting in mid-2020, KITB development accelerated. The government’s target was to complete the project in 2024. With the hope that Indonesia would be flooded with new investments. But before any flooding of investments this is the flood that residents experienced. So it all went down here because that time they just cleared the new land, so the big flood water brought so much mud here. All the mud came here. There in the west side, the water and mud went into residents’ homes. Here, the railway track held it back. To us, this is the first time a big flood like this ever happened. For decades, In the past 50 years I have been living here, never before I had that kind of huge flood. A flood that invaded us that high, 20cm, was already very, very big for us. The opening of industries is always celebrated as job creation for welfare reasons. Ironically, productive communities such as fisherfolks in Batang, are now under threat of job loss because of the industrial development. Yeah, about the impact of development, our worry is that like all the other cities’ have experienced, we are worried about waste pollution. Industrial waste from factory 1, 2, 3 or whatever it is. The dumping of this waste for sure would eventually reach the sea. If this waste goes to the sea, it would ruin the sea habitat. I am not a fisherman, but villages here and there, have many fisherfolks. This is our worry, besides the destruction of habitats, automatically the fisherfolks’ catch would change. That’s really our worry. What we are seeing in Java, including the north coast of Java (Pantura) is an industrialisation process that is getting near, or even already exceeding Java’s environmental capacity. Think about it. Java’s area is only 6.7% of Indonesia, 6.7%. but the economic activities account for 58%. So, we have forced Java too much, if I may use the term, Java has always been “raped” to accelerate economic growth by ignoring environmental capacity, nature, and inter-island balance in Indonesia. The problem is not “industry” but is how to develop industries that abide by the “triple bottom line” principles: business, people, and environment. Those are the three principles to be kept. Narratives of industries as job creation and promises of welfare have spread widely. Reza is one of the people who believed in it. He is from Tegal, Central Java. His family was a small farmer family that always faced difficulties to have enough money to continue farming and to survive. From that situation, he hoped to help his parents. and the option was to migrate to the city to work as a factory worker. Seeing the situation at home, just relying on farming, was only enough to buy our food. For other needs, to buy fertilizer, to pay for my siblings’ education, where would we get the money? That’s why I just tried it, because many of my friends went to Jakarta. Who knows, I might be successful in Jakarta. But the success that Reza aspired to reach was far from reality. His wages as a factory worker is only enough to survive. My daily wage in the factory is Rp 135,000, if I work full day. If I work half day, I get Rp 90,000, that’s it. If I am sick, I don’t get paid, and if I take off day, I don’t get paid, because my work scheme is on daily wages. If we look at promises of job creation, with low wage, I experience it first-hand. The pay is not just low-wage, what is happening to me is modern slavery, in the name of job creation. well, they did fulfil their promise that I could get a job, but the job can only allow me to afford food. Even for myself it is often insufficient, I don’t see a future for myself. Nothing. Is it really true that with all those capital expansion, investments coming into Indonesia, with industrial expansion in many places, that they would bring better welfare, decent work? For us, we don’t see it that way. There is no improvement in welfare, nor job security. What is happening now is... that all those investments seem to be create jobs in industries, but it perpetuates modern slavery and violation of people’s rights. We can see the practices so far, cases in various cities and countrysides, even on the national level, they are clearly violations of the law. But there are no businesses, businessmen nor investors that were given punishments that deter them from doing further violations. What usually happens is the other way around; wage labourers, factory workers who demand their rights would be unilaterally cut off their jobs, even criminalised. The law also does not protect the weak, what has been practiced is only to protect the interests of the wealthy 1% in Indonesia. In many places industrial expansion had transformed people’s lifestyles. In Sumur Geneng Village Tuban, East Java. after encountering issues, citizens accepted compensation money for their land that was affected by the oil refinery project by PT Pertamina Rosneft, Tuban. This citizen video was once viral in social media. After receiving compensation money, many villagers bought new cars at the same time. Why did you buy this car, Sir? For what? Well, it’s for… my neighbours have new cars, so I also want to have one, Sir. Besides cars there were some citizens who bought new land, but in smaller sizes. Some kept their money as bank deposits. Quite a few started new non-agricultural businesses. Something far from their previous livelihoods. Banyuwangi, the city at the far east end of Java is well-known for the ease in obtaining investment permits. From north to south of Banyuwangi stories of life-space struggles are abundant. In Wongsorejo District, Banyuwangi Regency. The conflict started when the government issued Business Land Use Right (HGU) to PT Wongsorejo in 1980. The company obtained the permit to manage 603 hectares of land. To obtain agreement from citizens who have cultivated the land for generations their strategy was to lure the villagers with the offer to process land certificates. At the time, many villagers came forward to give their signatures or thumb print as signs of agreement. The people here were naive, too naive. Since we were promised land certificates, many gave their thumb prints, signatures, although not all. That’s the thing: Not everyone came to sign or give thumb prints. However, automatically the data today claimed that everyone gave their thumb print. My late father-in-law said he never gave his thumb print, but in the data they claim to have his thumb print. So, I believe they forged his thumb print. After the thumb print collection, the company planted the land with kapok trees. With all those kapok randu trees, many people felt they could not do anything and left. After Reformasi 1998, villagers were reclaiming the land and managed to cultivate 230 hectares. But the problem was not settled, because citizens did not have land ownership certificates. In 2012, the company’s right to manage the land was supposed to be over. but the government gave the company a Building Use Certificate (HGB) to PT Wongsorejo. The government’s reason was that the area was going to be converted into an integrated industrial zone. And the problem continues. The planned integrated industrial zone includes warehouses, mall, and golf course, elite housing, and even some gold mining, there would be an industry related to it. If the company insists, automatically farmers are threatened with loss of livelihoods. So, the land that has been our livelihood support would continue to be threatened. Therefore, we hope that the government would protect us, that the government would be wise. Presidential Decree 86 was supposed to be pushing for quicker settlement. But until now the problem is not yet settled The plan to develop Wongsorejo Integrated Industrial Zone and its infrastructures is increasingly materialising. Farmers’ life-spaces are more sidelined. This is it. This is one of the posts for the east of the toll road. All the way there, every 20 metre there is one post. Citizens’ responses are usually dependent on the government’s policy later on. If there is sufficient compensation, many people would agree to let go of the land for the toll road. That is because most of them have not realised how much the impact of the toll road would be. All the small roads that are cut by the toll roads would be blocked. Being fearful is human. Of course there is fear. But where can we go to? This is our place. Where can we run to? This is our place. My question is, in Banyuwangi city, where else can I stay if I lose this land. If that happens, can I live at the Regent’s house? Will the Regent give us jobs according to our profession? Don’t tell me to assemble cars, I cannot. What I can do, is this: I am a farmer. I am proud to be a farmer. By being a farmer, I can earn to support myself, to support others, to support this nation. In many locations, land conflicts often become long-winded and never-ending conflicts. In Pakel Village, Licin District, Banyuwangi, East Java. People have cultivated the land for generations. The problem emerged when a plantation company, PT. Bumi Sari claimed Pakel villagers’ land. Because this is Pakel people’s land. That’s correct! And all of you, Pakel Villagers, have the rights to the land. Warning: To anyone who plants or build on the land of PT. Perkebunan Bumi Sari Maju Sukses, to dismantle all at once and/or leave the land that belongs to PT. Perkebunan Bumi Sari Maju Sukses. The problem became more complicated when the government issued Business Land Use Right (HGU) to PT Bumi Sari in 1985. The land right covered an areas of 1,190 hectares in Bayu Village, Songgon District, Banyuwangi. But the company claimed that their HGU included the area of Pakel Village. In 1999, after President Soeharto’s resignation Pakel villagers conducted “reclaiming” of their land. The villagers’ action received repressive responses from the authorities, violence, even shooting. So I was shot by the authorities. No warning shots, they straight away targeted me. It was like war, that time. No warning. Where did you get shot? On my thigh, here, one bullet. They shoved us to get on the truck, “Don’t worry Sir, only for a short while, later in the afternoon you can go back,” they said. But when we got off the truck, we were all hit here, using the back of their shotguns. After we all got off, we were all made to sit cross-legged on a concrete surface under the hot sun, and they kicked our thighs. They knew I got shot on the thigh and they still kicked my thigh. “This one with the sarong, this is the leader of the demonstration, he got shot,” one of them said to me. And then he kicked me. After that, after being exposed under the sun, it was like we were wasted; we were told to stand, we were told to stand against the wall, our hands behind our backs. After that, police took turns to punch our stomach, punch our bodies, and they punched our ears, and we were punched all over. They kept doing this, one after another. Some peed in their pants, and some even defecated. T-Shirt: Take Back Pakel After that incident almost all adult men left the village. The men had to leave to avoid extrajudicial arrests. That time, every time they saw someone, anyone, they shoved them on their truck, and brought to the police station. That night, they banged the door of my house, they kicked the door until it broke, they hauled all men like the time of the communist purge. Citizens slept in plantations, on hills. After that, some ran away to take refuge elsewhere, looked for jobs in other places, in Bali, some went to Madura, like that. These are all summons from the police. I received so many summons, I lost count. I had been summoned so many times by the police. All of these are “love letters” from the police. In general, the content of the letters accused us of land grabbing. The women’s group try to survive using various means. Children had to stop going to school because their parents could not afford to pay their education. I feel sad because I could not support my own child’s education. Actually, I don’t mind working any job. Someone asked me to farm, but I couldn’t because my child is still small, who would take care of my child? Every day, I depend on my parents, eat cassava. In years that follow, villagers have continued to reclaim the land and have utilised the land for agriculturally productive use. This is in Perhutani’s area, that incident in 1998-1999, it took place in this area. The incident that had many victims that time. In response to villagers’ actions the company had never stopped conducting intimidation. Look around. Only ruins left. Why were this ruined? Who ruined this? I shouldn’t jump into conclusion. But maybe the plantation company? Why would the plantation company ruin the hut that you built? Maybe because they were worried I would occupy the land, maybe. I did plan that after building the hut, I would stay there and cultivate the land. Does this land belong to the plantation company? If we look at the data, this land does not belong to the plantation company. Their HGU, according to the National Land Agency is not in Pakel Village. What plants do you cultivate, Sir? Bananas. Do you plant a lot of them? Yeah, quite a lot. And now they ruined your plants? They only ruined one of my banana plants. The worst damage is on this hut. We take turns to guard this place every night, we also go around for surveillance because the company often ruin villagers’ plants both the plants and the hut, they often ruin them. So the villagers now increase surveillance to increase security of their plants. Tumpang Pitu Mountain at Sumber Agung, Pessanggaran District, Banyuwangi was originally designated as a protected forest. In 2013, the national government changed the status of the area to become productive forest. Since then PT BSI started their gold mining operations. Similar to other locations villagers who resisted mining were criminalised through various cases. Actually, it is no longer surprising for people here, that the company did something like that, because since 2014 the company had reported me 5 times. Using irrelevant law chapters, they just made it up, for example, they accused me accessing the land without permit. On accessing land without permit, the company has accessed many villagers’ places without permit. Long before mining started villagers have been relying on agriculture for their livelihoods for many generations. Alhamdulillah farming is sufficient to support our lives, to send our kids to school. For daily needs, it’s sufficient. We give thanks to God. That’s the thing: we do not live on mining, we live on farming. Rather than improving welfare the presence of mining messed up the people’s productive life. For the past two years, all villagers have been experiencing water shortage. Especially during the dry season. Now we are in the rainy season but there is not as much water as usual. In the past, in normal times, before the mining exploration, we only need to dig one metre deep and we can already get water. We can even scoop the water using our hands. But now, even during rainy season, the water is not that high. This is another impact that villagers experienced. Severe flooding like this occurred in 2016. Before the mining company started operation Sumber Agung Village had never experienced flooding at all. 300 hectares of villagers’ corn plants that were near harvest time were devastated by the flood. Villagers were also worried that the floods would bring hazardous and toxic materials related to mining. This fence fell because it got swept by water and got hit by rocks. That, even when fence was that high. So, it fell down because of the rocks. There were rocks this big in the flood waters. Nah, look at these, all rocks. Materials from piles of mining materials over there. All rocks, until there. No Trespassing of National Vital Object Area Criminal Sanctions Will Be Imposed to Trespassers of National Vital Object Area Not only farmers, traditional fisherfolks also feel negative impacts of the gold mine’s presence. If we compare with our fishing operations in the past, before the presence of mining in Sumber Agung, we only needed to be at sea for a shorter period of time, and less fuel, less than 20 litres of fuel, around 10-15 litres we could already obtain maximum fish catch. But now, it’s not even close, we have to spend even more. That means, if in the past with 15 litres we could already obtain maximum fish catch, now we need up to 2-3 times the amount of fuel. This Tumpang Pitu, it is already ruined. It is no longer Tumpang Pitu (Seven Hills), it is now only one. So, there are no longer seven hills. Even the one in the north, it used to be very high… including the one behind, it is also under PT BSI’s concession area. We got information that the area that has the most gold is this largest one. Actually, people here do not wish to work in mining. You know why? Compared to income at sea, we can get more at sea compared to on land in the mine. PT BSI’s current mining business permit lasts until year 2030. Struggles and conflicts are bound to continue. It is clear that the foundation of many Indonesians’ social metabolism is the ability to survive through small-scale production, family, so the basic subsistence units, those were the ones being ruined. In that scenario, the first collateral damage is the ability; not the ability to produce rice, corn, etc, but the collective ability to cultivate and care for an area that can support lives; those life-spaces that were robbed by activities that ruin and erase, grabbed everything that could have supported their life. And remember Sukarno (Indonesia’s first president) message, never should we use fertile land for industrial and new city development. That was Bung Karno’s message, because for industries we only need barren land. So those that we cannot use for farming, industries can use. So, use those barren land, not fertile land. The North Coast (Pantura) is fertile land, and it is the source of livelihoods of most people there. This greed makes industries to be like this taking away people’s livelihoods. If you ask me whether we are tired, of course we are tired. But if we just resign to them, it’s like surrendering our parang (weapon) to a killer. So, no matter how long it takes, I will keep on resisting. In any way possible, I will continue this resistance, I will not stop fighting. In my heart, actually, well, I want to fight until they go away. It’s not just me, it’s from everyone here, we want them to go. But now there is that new law, that Omnibus Law, the Job Creation Law (Law 11/2020), it makes things worse. We cannot say anything. They say if we protest against mining we would be considered obstacles to mining activities, and would be criminalised. The choice of economic activities and other civilisations aside from industrialisation needs to be seen as a valuable diversity. Because diversity is not only about ethnic identity, religion, or race. Diversity also covers economic choices. Forced evictions of fisherfolk kampung settlements or farmers using investments as an excuse and development to justify evictions, are clearly destroying Indonesia’s diversity.