Village Administration in Indonesia: Pseudo Government Unit (original) (raw)

Local government in Indonesia is consisted having two tiers: province and regencyl/city. Under regency/ city there is a “Village Government”. Initially, during the colonial era a Village Government was considered an indigenous people alliance. Dutch colonial-government had recognized it as a law-subject entity and leaved it to execute its governance based on its own each customary law. However, under Law Number 5/1979 the unity of community base on custom law was abolished and then formed a new village government model. Taken a look from the perspective of public administration discipline, the new model of village government status raised questions: whether as local government, local self-government, non-government organization, or community. In answering those questions, it has been conducted a research in a village Jabon Mekar-Bogor-West Java. Researchers used a qualitative approach to do it. The data were collected using observation, in-depth interview, document study, and focus-group-discussion. The collected data then were analyzed using descriptive-qualitative-analysis. The research found that the Village Jabon Mekar is a social institution that was formed and given some amount of tasks by the State. Thus, it can be considered as a “pseudo-government unit”. Key word: village government, indigenous people alliance, pseudo government unit