Outdated law destroying local cultures: Study
Outdated law destroying local cultures: Study
JAKARTA (JP): A 1979 law on village governance threatens rural
communities' traditional autonomy and cultures because it makes
village chiefs answer to the government instead of to the people
who elect them, a study has found.
The study was conducted by the Jakarta-based Institute for
Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM) on the law's impact on
indigenous cultures in Indonesia.
ELSAM executive director, Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara, said
in his report presented in a recent seminar that Law No. 5/1979
threatens the widely diverse culture of Indonesia.
"Many village officials are ignorant of local customs and they
will hear only what the superiors from the higher administrative
level say," Abdul Hakim said.
ELSAM assigned Rachmad Safa'at, an anthropologist from the
University of Brawijaya in Malang, East Java, to conduct the
study in Irian Jaya, East Nusa Tenggara, West Kalimantan and East
Kalimantan.
The study found it ironic that the law states that the village
chief is democratically elected by the local people, but is
answerable to the district chief who inaugurated him instead of
to the people that elected him.
"As a mouthpiece of the central government, they (village
chiefs) often fail to defend the people's interests and thus stir
up widespread discontent," Hakim said.
Leadership crises in rural areas often happens because local
informal leaders are denied access to politics, decision-making
and control over exploitation of natural resources, he noted.
For example, any business concern or government agency that
wants to exploit natural resources in a particular area would
approach the local government instead of consulting the people,
Abdul Hakim said.
ELSAM considers the law an effective tool created by the
government as a instrument of social engineering which has
inadvertently changed the roles of traditional leaders.
"Traditional leaders only function during traditional
rituals," Hakim said.
A workshop was held in Puncak last month to discuss the
study's findings. It recommended that the government consider
amending the law to be more responsive toward local communities'
cultures.
The study found that the law is of a strong Javanese flavor,
which is not always appropriate for areas with different
cultures.
It recommended that village chiefs should be made accountable
to the people that elect them instead of to government officials
who swear them in.
The study also suggested that traditional leaders retain their
traditional role, such as retaining their rights to have a bigger
say in the decision-making process.
"This suggestion is not meant to resurrect traditional tribal
leadership that may segregate the nation's unity, but to sustain
the diversity of Indonesian cultures, by empowering rural
people," Hakim said. (14)