Villages often become a contested arena in Indonesia’s development. Prior to enactment of the Village Law No 6/2014, the village was put at the very bottom of Indonesia’s government hierarchy and treated as a silent object of Central and Regional Governments’ development programs and projects
– due to the regional government’s regime and its low-level administrative structure.
However, with the newly enacted Village Law, a new paradigm in village development was brought forth with its motto: “Desa Membangun dan Membangun Desa”. The new Village Law has introduced two major principles in this new paradigm of village development: i) recognition and ii) subsidiarity. Although under the new Law, a village has been given a greater space for self-determination and public participation, it does not automatically change and transform village development from elite capture and poor participation to socially inclusive and broad-based citizen’s engagement. Efforts have to be made in order to work toward fulfilling the ideal goals of democratically and socially inclusive village development as stipulated in the Village Law No 6/2014.
