TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Hashim Djojohadikusumo, chair of the board of trustees of the Greater Indonesia Christian Movement (Gekira) and younger brother of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, has denied allegations that the president owns vast oil palm plantations in Sumatra, calling the claims defamatory.
Hashim said accusations circulating online allege that Prabowo controls hundreds of thousands of hectares of oil palm land in Sumatra. He insisted the claims are entirely false.
“Not true. Mr. Prabowo does not own a single hectare of oil palm land anywhere in Indonesia,” Hashim said during Gekira’s 17th anniversary event at NT Tower in East Jakarta on Sunday, December 21, 2025. His remarks were broadcast live by Nusantara TV, which granted Tempo permission to quote the footage.
Hashim argued that the allegations were deliberately fabricated to portray the government as responsible for recent natural disasters in Sumatra. He claimed there was a coordinated effort to discredit the Prabowo administration.
According to Hashim, those spreading the accusations are likely groups that have long benefited from corrupt practices, including what he described as the oil palm and mining “mafias.” He said the government has reclaimed approximately 3.7 million hectares of illegal oil palm plantations.
“These include areas that were illegally cleared and planted with oil palm. About 3.7 million hectares have been taken back by the state,” Hashim said.
He added that the government is preparing to take over an additional 300,000 hectares of illegal oil palm plantations, a move he believes has triggered backlash from affected interests. Hashim alleged that some of these groups are financing online attacks on the government through coordinated bot activity on social media.
“There are indications they are funding bot accounts to attack and criticize the government,” he said.
Hashim also said similar resistance is emerging from what he called the mining mafia, as the government moves to seize illegal mining operations. He urged Gekira and Gerindra Party members to remain vigilant, arguing that increased efforts to enforce the law have been met with growing opposition.
“The more Mr. Prabowo pushes for the truth, the more he is attacked,” Hashim said, using strong language to describe what he called coordinated political attacks against the administration.
The remarks follow criticism from the Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam), which has mapped forest concession permits linked to Prabowo through PT Tusam Hutani Lestari in several districts in Aceh, including Central Aceh, Bener Meriah, Bireuen, and North Aceh.
Jatam said the concession areas are located near multiple mining permits, industrial forest plantations, and other forest utilization licenses.
Jatam has argued that the company’s operations have contributed to environmental degradation and worsened the impact of floods and landslides.
“The operations have reduced the area’s environmental carrying capacity,” Jatam national coordinator Melky Nahar told Tempo on December 7, 2025.
According to Jatam’s mapping, PT Tusam Hutani Lestari controls around 97,000 hectares of forest land. Melky said local communities have long protested the concession, claiming it has reduced living space and converted customary forests into industrial pine plantations.
He also pointed to overlaps between the forest concession held by PT Tusam Hutani Lestari and mining operations by PT Linge Mineral Resources, a company within the Bumi Resources Minerals group, which holds a mining permit covering more than 36,000 hectares.
“There is indeed an overlap between the forest concession of PT Tusam and the mining permit of PT Linge Mineral Resources,” Melky said.
Jatam further alleged that the concessions have contributed to forest loss in mountainous and upstream river areas in Aceh, weakening water catchment zones and increasing vulnerability to flooding, including during extreme rainfall linked to Tropical Cyclone Senyar in November.
Questions over Prabowo’s land ownership are not new. During Indonesia’s 2019 presidential election, then president Joko Widodo publicly referenced large tracts of land owned by Prabowo. Widodo said Prabowo controlled about 340,000 hectares, including land in East Kalimantan and Aceh.
“About 12.7 million hectares should be distributed to the people, not controlled by elites,” Widodo said during a presidential debate in February 2019.
Former vice president Jusuf Kalla later confirmed that Prabowo had legally acquired land in East Kalimantan in 2004, when Kalla served as vice president under Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Kalla said the transactions complied with prevailing regulations.
At the time, public records showed Prabowo controlled approximately 361,983 hectares of land across several regions in Indonesia.
Alif Ilham Fajriadi contributed to the writing of this article.
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