Our village leaders : ‘Adat’ encounters democracy

Our village leaders : ‘Adat’ encounters democracy Ratih Hardjono ;   The writer, A Former Journalist, is Secretary-General of the Indonesian Community for Democracy (KID). She was a recipient of the Nieman Fellowship for Journalism at Harvard University — class of 1994

JAKARTA POST, 28 Desember 2012

On Dec. 14, 2012 an estimated 7,000 Indonesian village heads visited the House of Representatives and delivered a strong message, demanding that the government take better care of them. This was the culmination of a series of similar demonstrations that had been taking place in Central and East Java, Kalimantan and Sumatra throughout the year. Jakarta forgets that the 76,000 village heads across Indonesia are the crucial and final link in the hierarchy of the official government administration. They can be likened to the base of a pyramid in which the Jakarta government is at the pinnacle; without them, there is neither pyramid nor pinnacle. The large demonstration that took place on Dec. 14 masked serious challenges that, since Reformasi in 1998, have not been given attention by successive governments. Today’s democratic election of village heads is regulated in Law No. 32/2004. This is in line with Article 21 (3) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that democratic elections are a basic human right.  The social and political transformations taking place at the village level as a consequence of the democratic election of village heads have concealed the serious changes and challenges that our villages are  experiencing. It is at this level that adat law and Indonesian state law collide. Their meeting often results in direct and indirect tensions among villagers. This applies to all aspects of village life, not just to village head elections. This kind of encounter is no longer an issue in cities but still is in rural areas where villagers, who were not allowed to participate in Indonesian political life during the New Order period, were suddenly handed their democratic rights through Law No. 32/2004. During the New Order period, village heads were appointed by the government. Today villagers elect their own leaders. But how are villagers managing this change, considering that adat has been the basis of village life for centuries? Make no mistake about it: Democracy is the only way forward for Indonesia and there are no other choices. There is something about democracy which is instinctive and to which Indonesians have responded, as seen with Reformasi. However, the process of democratization cannot take place overnight, especially when it involves pushing aside the old established elites. The presence of democratically elected village heads is one of the crucial foundations of democracy in Indonesia. In many villages adat leaders are pitted directly against younger village leaders. The adat leaders are usually much older and, having lived through the New Order period, are not strongly critical of that period. Many even say that village life was much better because villages received more attention from the government. At the moment the demographic structure of Indonesia is such that there is a “tsunami” of young people, known as the youth bulge, coming through. It is not unusual to find that people aged 19 to 40 years account for around 45 percent to 50 percent of the village population. This leaves the old adat leaders in the minority and yet ironically, despite their old-fashioned ways of thinking, their experience has taught them wisdom, awareness and knowledge, a combination which, more often than not, produces the decisions that are best for the village. The older adat leaders have stayed in the village during good and bad times. Villagers still come to them to seek their advice about daily matters ranging from marriages to deaths. These traditional leaders have special “in-built” radars that can detect possible conflicts within the village, way ahead of the majority of villagers. They also see village leaders as the keepers of tradition and the managers of equilibrium in village life. Most importantly they are the keepers of history in the village and in the case of land ownership they know accurately who owns which piece of land in the village area. They do not see the role of village head as a source of employment or a paid job. In the past some village heads were in this position for more than twenty years; the problem was that there were no democratic elections for village heads. The village head was sometimes designated by his birthright as the adat leader and in some cases he was appointed by the government. Those natural adat leaders not appointed by the government still retain the status of village leader, but in many cases it is in these villages that conflict takes place and strong anti-government sentiments are found. The young village leaders who have been elected with the implementation of Law No. 32/2004 are a new breed. Many of them left their village but have deliberately returned just to take part in village elections in the hope of becoming village head.  This kind of village head is problematic. Many of them were unemployed while some were cultivating someone else’s land as paid laborers. They see the position of village head as a form of employment and a path to upward social mobility.  Today village heads of this kind tend to be found in villages where there are large-scale commercial undertakings like mining, oil and gas projects as well as factories and similar concerns. Very rarely do young men return home and seek to become village leaders if the village offers no economic opportunities. These village heads also become active politically and are unable to act neutrally. Furthermore, they have a tendency to be easily bought by political parties. The villages led by these village heads experience turbulent change and are often polarized because of this kind of leadership. Our main challenge today is to retain and manage the elements of adat that contain wisdom and providence while also ensuring that democracy takes root and grows stronger in our villages. Perhaps the official appointment of the adat leader known as damang acknowledging their role in the province of Central Kalimantan alongside democratically elected village heads is one option. Much more thought needs to be put into this. We can not afford to lose the elements of wisdom in our adat way of life. ●