A Scrapatrap in the Rubber Trees: State Agency Chief Slams Plantation Over Jailing of 74-Year-Old

JAKARTA, Investortrust.id — A provincial dispute over ten sacks of scrap rubber has escalated into a high-stakes corporate governance crisis for Indonesia's state-owned enterprises, drawing a sharp rebuke from the highest levels of government asset management.

Dony Oskaria, the Head of the State-Owned Enterprises Management Agency (BP BUMN) and Chief Operating Officer of Danantara—the nation's sovereign wealth vehicle modeled after Singapore’s Temasek—issued a severe reprimand to the directors of state agricultural holding company PT Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN). The top official's intervention follows a wave of public outrage over the arrest and imprisonment of Mujiran, a 74-year-old plantation laborer accused of pilfering leftover rubber sap in the southern province of Lampung.

The clash highlights a fundamental tension in Southeast Asia's largest economy, where massive state-owned enterprises control vast swathes of natural resources but frequently collide with impoverished local communities. As Indonesia seeks to institutionalize its corporate state assets under Danantara to attract international capital, regulators are realizing that aggressive legal enforcement against low-level theft can inflict heavy reputational damage. The government's swift reversal signals that state-backed entities must balance rigid asset protection with social safeguards to maintain their domestic license to operate.

A Midnight Arrest in the Afdeling

The legal battle began in February 2026 at the Bergen plantation, an estate managed by PTPN I Regional VII in South Lampung. According to court indictments, the elderly plantation worker hid processed rubber sap in the dense undergrowth of the estate's Afdeling I (the Dutch-inherited term for a plantation administrative zone), intending to sell it to an independent buyer.

Security guards intercepted an accomplice, Nur Wahid, during a pre-dawn raid as he attempted to load two sacks of the commodity onto a motorcycle. A subsequent sweep of the immediate perimeter uncovered eight additional hidden sacks.

In total, security officials seized 1,212 pounds (550 kilograms) of rubber sap. PTPN corporate attorneys launched a formal criminal prosecution, citing institutional financial damages of roughly Rp 8.8 million ($550). While the elderly laborer maintained that he was only responsible for two of the uncovered sacks, prosecutors pushed forward, and the 74-year-old was subsequently sent to a regional prison ahead of his trial.

Regulators Clamp Down on Corporate Arrogance

The response from Jakarta was immediate and highly critical of the state company’s legal strategy. Speaking in an official capacity on Sunday, May 24, 2026, asset chief Dony Oskaria openly condemned the plantation's executives for prioritizing penal codes over human dignity, reminding directors that state corporations carry explicit mandates to alleviate rural poverty rather than exacerbate it.

"I strongly condemn the reporting and criminalization of ordinary citizens, particularly an elderly person like grandfather Mujiran," Oskaria stated during a media briefing in Jakarta on Sunday, May 24, 2026. "These state enterprises belong to the public, built with public capital, and are mandated to provide the greatest possible benefit to the people. There is absolutely no room for state enterprises to act with arrogance or treat citizens in this manner."

Oskaria warned that deploying criminal statutes against impoverished workers trying to survive severely damages the institutional integrity of the state corporate apparatus.

Mandating Restorative Justice

To resolve the public relations crisis, the asset management agency issued a binding three-point directive to the PTPN executive board. The order commands the state agricultural company to immediately halt all active trial proceedings, rescind its police report, and eliminate any ongoing security intimidation against the worker's family.

Furthermore, regional plantation directors must travel directly to the village to deliver a formal institutional apology. Oskaria also directed PTPN to transition the family into an economic rehabilitation program by providing direct social aid and guaranteeing a stable, paid position within the plantation's processing facilities for the worker’s productive family members.

"We must break the cycle of welfare shortfalls with economic stewardship, not criminalization," Oskaria added during his Sunday, May 24, 2026 announcement. "I have ordered that employment be provided within PTPN. State corporations must exist as an protective solution, not as instruments to imprison citizens experiencing severe economic hardship."

The regulatory body confirmed it will now treat the Lampung incident as a major policy warning for all state boards across the archipelago. Moving forward, the government is initiating a systemic overhaul of standard operating procedures for asset protection across all state-controlled mining, agricultural, and infrastructure sectors, making humanistic evaluation and restorative justice the mandatory baseline for community dispute resolutions.