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Village law revision raises 'political transaction' red flag
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Village heads hug each other during a House of Representatives plenary session in the Senayan legislative complex in Jakarta on March 28, 2024, when lawmakers passed revisions to the 2014 Village Law. (Antara/Galih Pradipta)
C
ritics have slammed newly passed legislation that extends the tenure of village heads, saying the law could lead to poorer village governance and that its passage was loaded with political interests.
The House of Representatives unanimously passed the revisions to the 2014 Village Law during a plenary session last week, with the support of the administration of outgoing President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
The law, which was endorsed as a House initiative in July of last year and will come into immediate effect, seeks to bring sweeping changes to how villages are governed.
The changes include an eight-year term of office for village heads, up from the previous six but below the nine years that the House had initially proposed.
However, village heads, who number over 80,000 nationwide, can now only serve a total of two of those eight-year terms, rather than the previous set of three six-year terms, lowering their total possible tenure from 18 years to 16.
The House has said that the eight-year term will give village heads more time to resolve local tensions and implement their policies, as elections for village head could sometimes get quite heated.
Read also: House endorses controversial Village Law revision
