It started in earnest in March, with a swathe of palm-oil estates seized from a tycoon caught up in corruption allegations. Nine months later, a drive overseen by Indonesia’s defense minister has brought an area the size of Switzerland under state control.
The campaign, outwardly a push to improve governance, is a show of force by President Prabowo Subianto, an ex-general who has regularly railed against both Indonesian elites and foreigners for profiting off the country’s resource riches at the expense of the nation. Already, the central government has taken more than 4 million hectares (roughly 10 million acres) of plantations, mine concessions and processing facilities — and much of that land has been handed to a state-owned firm newly tasked with managing seized estates.
“This is just the beginning,” Prabowo said at an event late last month. “We are on the right and noble path of defending the interests of millions of Indonesians.”
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