Direct elections help restore leadership

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Tue, 04/15/2008 11:39 AM  |  National

A multi-donor research project says congenial and harmonious direct elections for keuchik (village heads) accelerated recovery efforts in Aceh, the area most devastated by the Dec. 2004 tsunami.

Local leadership was a key to helping communities in Aceh recover and rebuild their lives, senior research advisor Craig Thorburn said. The keuchik direct elections contributed to the regeneration of local leadership in Aceh, he added.

"While in some cases the results of these direct elections were still possibly manipulated, in general the elections have had a significant effect on the recovery of the local leadership," he said Monday.

The research studied 18 villages which were selected in matched pairs from three of the most devastated districts. In each pair, one of the villages appears to have made a more successful recovery than its counterpart.

Direct elections for keuchik were conducted in 10 of the 18 villages surveyed. The research report suggests the congenial and harmonious elections were held in six of the 10 villages.

In these cases, the elections served as an effective community and consensus building experience which led to a general strengthening of village government institutions and an acceleration of recovery in the village.

The other four elections were either divisive or overshadowed by alleged money politics practices.

Thorburn said to rebuild leadership in Aceh was not an easy task, as the 30-year conflict had curbed potential local leaders in this province.

"Figures who have leadership skills avoided being keuchik because, during the conflict, this position was trapped between the Army and the Aceh Independence Movement (GAM)," he said, adding that Acehnese need more time to rebuild local leadership. (alf)

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