Law as a social rule cannot be separated from the values that apply to a society. It can even be said that the law is a reflection of the values prevailing in society.
With the issuance of various laws and regulations ranging from ministerial regulations to regional and governor regulations, will it guarantee the existence of customary lands for the future?
This needs to be answered if it is true that customary land needs to be preserved on this earth in Indonesia, even in West Sumatra. Do not let ulayat land become a commodity for buying and selling and transactions for parties who want to control ulayat land which in the end will be privately owned, especially the head of the ulayat and the head of the heirs who do not understand the rules of ulayat land law, will be easily tempted by persuasion and seduction sell their land.
And indeed in West Sumatra there is no land that is not owned by land, there must be an owner even though it is at the end of a mountain or river, whether it is owned by individuals or legal entities, even the majority is ulayat land owned by the Minangkabau customary law community which consists of tribes, tribes and tribes and the villages.
The consequence of the mandate of the Basic Agrarian Law, which ulayat lands should be guarded in such a way, is not in accordance with the implementing regulations below, which actually sell out ulayat lands so that they quickly disappear from Indonesian soil, and what remains are private property rights that make Indonesian people especially Minangkabau lost their communal identity in order to maintain unity and kinship.
In particular, the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia Article 18B paragraph (2) states that the State recognizes and respects customary law community units and traditional rights as long as they are still alive and in accordance with community development and the principles of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia. Likewise with the Minangkabau community.
For the Minangkabau people, land is an inseparable part of their daily life. As previously explained, the majority of the Minangkabau indigenous people are still related to land, namely farming, gardening and animal husbandry.
So that this dependence is reasoned that it is important for the Minangkabau community to maintain the status of their ulayat land.
If the land is managed by investors without involving the customary law community, then this is an effort to abolish the customary land ownership status for the Minangkabau community slowly and ultimately kill their lives and make one family, one tribe and one people scattered to go to other areas or migrated due to the loss of their ulayat land or switching to someone else.
It is recognized that if the land is managed by customary law communities, it will not produce value for the region.
