| local
government can now capture elements that are useful' for their purposes and eliminate
aspects that are troublesome to them.
villages still have little to say about development planning policies. villages do not have a
formally defined mechanism to participate in district decision making. at district-level planning
meetings, village representatives are not present. at best they are still represented by the subdistrict head
(camat), although he has now formally become a member of the bupati 's staff and is not selected from
below. lli reports showed that some central java villages received rp 30 million, while surveys in
north sumatra, east nusa tenggara (ntt), and lampung districts found many districts where villages
received no funds at all. |
|
by way of summary, then, this review of local governance under decentralization illustrates the complex
nature of indonesia's transition even at the level of village development. the administrative changes
brought in by decentralization open the door to reform, but at the same time they increase the
opportunities for districts to install a more direct control over village institutions than was ever possible
in the past. comparative experience with decentralization elsewhere suggests that an additional variable
-- the extension of political parties into local politics -- is likely to exacerbate this already complex
equation. |
administrative actions to promote village empowerment. kdp's overall strategy for village
empowerment rests on three legs, which are reflected to varying degrees in each of the three projects.
kdp-i concentrated primarily on developing participatory processes for development planning,
management, and monitoring. kdp-2 concentrates on giving villagers the technical tools to manage
public funds: infrastructure assessments and technical training, higher quality book-keeping and
procurement, linkages to technical and private sector service providers, etc. the proposed kdp-3 project
highlights the institutional dimensions of village empowerment.
 bappenas, home affairs, and the wb
task team have identified three sets of actions that are needed to strengthen village governance within the
decentralized public administration. |
| most of the 13 regulations assigned to local
government ("perdas") can have a direct impact on the quality of village government. the central
government should therefore provide a binding outline for such regulations, with clauses that are fixed
and unalterable by local government and (mainly technical) clauses that may be adjusted to local
conditions. this will ensure proper interpretation of law 22 concerning village autonomy. the national
regulation outline should therefore be based on the district-level regulations that are already been made
operational by local governments during the past two or three years. the good and reasonable ones
should be taken as models and then molded into 13 standard national model laws. in this manner, the
proposed national law would be a reflection of what is best among local regulations. the makers of the
model regulations could explain to their colleagues in other districts why they drafted the regulations the
way they did and their experience has been with implementation. |
| in order to give village autonomy meaning, village leaders
and villagers should know about their rights and the ways to protect them. this 'instruction' should not
be limited to village group discussions and one-way presentation of texts and diagrams. programs should
also cover schools, religious institutions and should make use of books, magazines and radio programs.
training in administrative and monitoring skills to reinforce village administration. local government
criticism of village-level administration, monitoring capabilities and reporting skills is often
well-founded. |
| villages are not strong in these areas because they were never allowed to practice them in
the past. with enhanced autonomy, they will need to master these skills. broad civic education may also
stimulate interest in taking up formal posts in village government, the bpd and other village institutions. |
|
the current shortage of candidates is partly due to the fact that people do not know what they can do with
their powers and see their tasks largely as pro forma .
continuing studies of village governments and their relationship to village capacity and social capital.
the impact of new legislation and empowerment programs should be regularly evaluated to assess their
impact on the quality of local leaders, institutions, governance practices. government and society at
village level is complex and diverse. programs and projects do not always work the way they were
expected to.
strengthening capacity for village representation and local accountability
law 22 of 1999 explicitly enshrines the principles of and autonomy as the basis for village
government under decentralization, stating that the basis for the new regulations for village government
is 'diversity, participation, genuine autonomy, democratization and people's empowerment'. |
| however, it
is local implementing regulations-in particular, perdas passed by parliaments-that will determine
whether this new basis for government is in . such regulations are the
pre-conditions for development assistance to through non ad hoc procedures.
kdp 3's local governance strategy builds on village-level work of 1 and kdp 2.. .. |
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