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meeting involving the provincial and regional administrations at the Bali governor'€™s office on Wednesday to discuss the newlyendorsed Village Law resulted in a decision to file a judicial review request of the law.

Law No. 6/2014 on villages has caused confusion in Bali, with provincial officials believing the law could threaten the existence of customary villages '€” the hubs of Balinese traditions.

Governor Made Mangku Pastika said the meeting was held to decide the best formula to implement the law in Bali, as the island had a customary village system besides the acknowledged administrative village system.

Pastika said the meeting was to decide which system would be the one receiving more than Rp 1 billion (US$83,400) in funds from the state budget.

The law stipulates that each village will be given around Rp 1.4 billion in development funds annually.

'€œIf we register the customary village system, I fear it will lose its spirit. It will make them no longer autonomous as officials will have to be inaugurated by and work under a regent,'€ Pastika said on Wednesday.

Bali has strong ties with 1,488 customary villages, which are different than administrative villages. An administrative village is a formal government-defined village, while a customary village is a unit for the purposes of adat, or customary law, and a community whose unity is based on customs and traditions.

Customary villages are regarded as the most powerful traditional institutions on the island, wielding significant influence over their members due to their important role in organizing religious and customary rituals, both at the family and village levels.

The new Village Law stipulates that around 10 percent of the state budget transferred to the regions must be allocated to their villages, which could reach around Rp 1 billion per village, for development purposes.

The law has seen many customary villages struggle to get the budget.

The Bali administration'€™s legal team said there would be many advantages as well as disadvantages should customary villages be given the budget. On a legal basis, for instance, several customary villages must be grouped into one village as there are only 716 administrative villages registered with the government. Meanwhile, there are a total of 1,488 customary village across Bali without any obvious boundaries.

'€œGrouping several customary villages is not a simple thing. It also means grouping cemeteries, Khayangan Tiga temples and other assets. How could we do it? I am not sure this can be done,'€ Pastika said.

On the other hand, Pastika said distributing the budget to administrative villages could cause conflict within society.

Pastika said he deplored the fact that the bill was drafted without considering the condition of Bali as part of Indonesia. '€œEverything was running well before the law was enacted. Administrative villages worked according to administrative affairs, while customary villages worked according to customs and religious activities.'€

'€œEverything became messy after the law was enacted because those who drafted the bill didn'€™t understand Bali,'€ Pastika stressed.

Pastika said his side was preparing everything required to win the battle at the Constitutional Court. He added that Bali required special autonomy on the implementation of the Village Law, considering the different characteristics of Bali.

'€œBali can'€™t be given the same treatment as it has different characteristics to other provinces,'€ he said.

Buleleng Regent Putu Agus Suradnyana also said that a judicial review of the Village Law was necessary, especially on Article 6, which stipulated that provinces should choose either their administrative or customary system as a legal village.

'€œThe judicial review is a must,'€ he said.