T

he law on village development, mainly aimed at narrowing disparities between urban and rural regions, was passed in January 2014 or eight months before the end of the Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono administration. A year later, the administration of Joko “Jokowi” Widodo started to disburse the funds that were allocated in the state budget, in line with the law.

However, rural-urban disparities remain a serious problem as reported by Statistics Indonesia (BPS), with the average poverty rate in rural areas at 13.2 percent, while in cities it stood at 7.02 percent. The BPS’ annual report last December showed only 7.55 percent out of the 75,436 villages nationwide were “affluent”, while barely 75 percent were “developing” and 17.96 percent were “underdeveloped”.

The disparity has perpetuated problems related to urbanization, as today’s Special Report shows. Every year, at the end of the Idul Fitri holiday jobseekers stream into Jakarta and several other big cities to try their luck.

A study published in November by the SMERU Research Institute confirmed that poverty was the root cause of rapid urbanization problems despite development efforts in rural areas. Perhaps as in other countries, it reported that migrants were mostly younger people who saw rural, agrarian life as unattractive.

Other studies have also attributed inequality between rural and urban areas to the centralized development policy largely applied since the archipelago’s independence in 1945. Most obvious indicators include a lack of infrastructure development, poor human resources and poverty.

The government’s most significant policies to address the problems have included the abandonment of centralization, issuance of the 2014 law on villages and direct cash transfers from the central government and other sources.

Between 2015 and 2018, the government disbursed Rp 187 trillion (US$13.2 billion) to villages. The Jokowi administration cites positive data from the BPS: 6,518 underdeveloped villages are now “developing” and 2,665 others have become “affluent”. Meanwhile, the Cabinet Secretary’s Office has credited the village funds policy for the construction of 158,000 kilometers of rural roads, 1,000 km of bridges and 48,600 early childhood education schools.

Ahead of the general election, the challenge is therefore to ensure the continuation and improvement of village development no matter who wins the presidency on April 17. Criticism of the program, including the accusation of the widespread inability of village administrations to effectively use the disbursed funds based on what villagers really need, should help the new president to assess all flaws and step up improvements for the dignity and prosperity of all inhabitants.