TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Victims of the devastating floods and landslides in Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra filed a lawsuit against the central government at the Jakarta State Administrative Court (PTUN) on Thursday, May 7, 2026. The case is registered under case number 167/G/LH/2026/PTUN.JKT.
The plaintiffs are represented by the Justice for Sumatra Advocacy Team, a coalition including YLBHI, LBH Banda Aceh, LBH Medan, LBH Padang, Greenpeace Indonesia, Auriga Nusantara, Trend Asia, KontraS Aceh, Masyarakat Transparansi Aceh, and the Indonesian Justice and Peace Foundation.
The lawsuit centers on the expanded scope of state administrative disputes as defined in Law Number 30 of 2014 on Government Administration, which encompasses the actions or omissions of state officials in their official capacities.
Alfi Syukri of the Legal Aid Institute or LBH Padang, acting as legal counsel, stated that the lawsuit demands state accountability from upstream to downstream. This begins with permit evaluations and the restoration of forests and watersheds to comprehensive protection for affected communities.
"The state must not only appear after its people have become victims. The safety of citizens must be the top priority," he asserted.
Kristina Viri of the Indonesian Justice and Peace Foundation (YKPI) highlighted the plight of the most vulnerable—children, women, and people with disabilities—who she argues were overlooked by the government’s disaster response.
Muhammad Qodrat of LBH Banda Aceh concluded firmly, "What is happening today is an accumulation of policies that neglect citizen safety and environmental sustainability. This citizen lawsuit mechanism must be a space for the court to uphold the law against government neglect."
In their petitum, the plaintiffs requested the PTUN judges to instruct the government to promptly declare a national disaster status for the 2025 Sumatra ecological crisis. This declaration would trigger central government-led financing and recovery mechanisms, including permit audits, environmental rehabilitation, disaster-based spatial planning, and the strengthening of mitigation capacities.
More than 600,000 Buildings Damaged; Government Under Fire
The ecological catastrophe that struck Sumatra in late 2025 left a trail of massive destruction. More than 600,000 buildings, including homes, schools, healthcare facilities, bridges, and houses of worship, were damaged and require reconstruction. According to the plaintiffs, the accompanying ecological damage is so severe that recovery could take decades.
However, rather than mobilizing the full weight of state resources, the central government has faced criticism for its handling of the crisis since the beginning. The head of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) was accused of downplaying the severity of the disaster through social media statements, foreign aid was rejected, and, most critically, the government declined to declare a national disaster status.
"The President tends to be slow and unresponsive to the demand for a national disaster emergency declaration," said Edy Kurniawan from YLBHI. He added that the breakdown of communication networks and electricity, as well as cut-off road access, isolated several areas, hindered aid distribution, and obscured field information.
According to Edy, the mandate to declare a state of emergency is clearly regulated in Law Number 24 of 2007, Government Regulation Number 21 of 2008, and Presidential Regulation Number 17 of 2018. "There is no reason for the central government to evade a national disaster emergency declaration under the pretext of budget disruptions, bureaucracy, or political considerations," he stated firmly.
The irony is underscored by the 2026 budget, where the government allocated Rp3.2 trillion for the procurement of 65,067 electric motorcycles, Rp622.3 billion for the Free Nutritious Meals program, and trillions more for the Red and White Cooperative and People's School projects. Meanwhile, the fate of Sumatra’s disaster victims was hardly mentioned in cabinet meetings.
Deforestation: The Root of the Crisis
Sekar Banjaran Aji of Greenpeace Indonesia emphasized that this disaster was no mere weather anomaly. "This is the consequence of extractive development patterns in the forestry and plantation sectors that have gone unchecked for two decades," he said.
The data presented is alarming. Natural forest cover in nearly all of Sumatra's Watershed Areas (DAS) has fallen below 25 percent. The island's total natural forest area has dwindled to just 10–14 million hectares, or less than 30 percent of its landmass. In Aceh Tamiang, the hardest-hit region, 114,000 hectares of forest, or 23 percent of the total watershed area, were lost between 1990 and 2022.
Data from Auriga Nusantara further illustrates the crisis. Prior to the disaster, the three provinces were already among the top 10 regions with the highest deforestation rates for two consecutive years. In 2025, the surge in deforestation was extreme: Aceh saw a 426 percent increase, North Sumatra 281 percent, and West Sumatra a staggering 1,034 percent compared to the previous year, according to the 2025 Deforestation Status report released in April 2026.
Ahmad Ashov Birry of Trend Asia added a climate crisis dimension to the argument. He cited Cyclone Senyar, which triggered the catastrophe, as clear evidence of how industrial activity impacts climate change. "Without serious intervention from the central government, the damage to agriculture and infrastructure will widen regional disparities and trap rural communities in chronic poverty," he warned.
Read: Indonesia Accelerates Disaster Rehabilitation in Sumatra
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