For 16 years, the discussion of the Indigenous Peoples Bill (RUU MA) has faced a deadlock, triggering an increase in agrarian conflicts, criminalization, and the seizure of indigenous territories due to industrial expansion and development projects. The absence of this legal framework led to 135 cases of land grabbing covering 3.8 million hectares and resulted in 162 indigenous citizens becoming victims of violence in 2025, while also triggering fatal ecological disasters due to deforestation, such as those in Sumatra. Even though Indigenous Peoples play a strategic role in disaster mitigation through local wisdom and sustainable regional management, the constitutional mandate to protect their rights has yet to be realized by the state.

In response to this crisis, the Coalition to Guard the Indigenous Peoples Bill urges the House of Representatives (DPR RI) to immediately form a Working Committee in February 2026 and pass the bill to provide legal certainty for the identity, territory, and roles of vulnerable groups such as indigenous women and youth. This ratification is considered an absolute solution to stop human rights violations and agrarian injustice, considering that the RUU MA has now officially become a 2026 Priority Bill with official support from the Nasdem, PKB, and PDIP factions. Further delays are seen as only exacerbating the loss of life, the disappearance of indigenous knowledge, and wider ecological damage.