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Yogyakarta to restore archaic administrative naming convention
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Royal servants in Kraton Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat walk toward the exit of the kraton after finishing their duties for the day. (JP/Anggertimur Lanang Tinarbuko)
T
he Yogyakarta administration has issued a new regulation that would bring back a centuries-old administrative naming convention once used at the regency, city, district and subdistrict levels in the days of the special region’s ancient monarchy.
Yogyakarta Governor Hamengkubuwono, who recently issued Gubernatorial Decree No. 25/2019 on administrative affairs at the regency, city and subdistrict levels, plans to restore the old naming convention at the end of the year or by early 2020.
“At the city level, districts will now be called ‘kemantren’. At the regency level, they will be dubbed ‘kapanewon’,” administration assistant Beny Suharsono told the press on Monday.
He said that, in accordance with the newly issued decree, district heads at the city level would be addressed as “mantri pamong praja” and their secretaries as “mantri anom”. At the regency level, district heads would be referred to as “panewu” and their secretaries as “panewu anom”.
The nomenclature for subdistricts at the city level was left unchanged, but villages at the regency level are to be called “kalurahan”, village heads “lurah” and village secretaries “carik”.
The decree also entails the renaming of the cultural agency and the agrarian and spatial planning agency at the city level as Kundha Kebudayaan and Kundha Niti Mandala Sarta Tata Sasana respectively.
“The change is meant to synchronize the agencies with special administrative affairs,” Beny said, adding that the naming convention intended to help restore the monarchy’s glory.
