The extension of village heads' term of office must be followed by concrete steps by the central government to improve the quality of village apparatus.
Jakarta (ANTARA) - An increase in the office term of village heads from six to nine years must be followed by an improvement in the quality of the village apparatus.

Deputy chairperson of Commission II of the House of Representatives (DPR) Yanuar Prihatin made the remarks in a written statement received here on Saturday.

"The extension of village heads' term of office must be followed by concrete steps by the central government to improve the quality of village apparatus," he said.

He cited the quality of human resources (HR) as the biggest problem in the current village administration.

"We need to be serious about setting up a solid system to build quality human resources in villages. Unfortunately, the government is not serious enough about this," he added.

According to him, the large funds provided through the Ministry of Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Regions, and Transmigration (PDTT) so far have not been balanced with a systematic and focused program from the Ministry of Home Affairs to build the quality of village apparatus.

As a result, village funds, in general, have not expedited village community development and empowerment because the mindset of village heads and village officials is more focused on building physical infrastructure, he observed.

"When the central government is pushing toward empowering the economy, entrepreneurship, and local businesses, village officials are still confused about how to start and move," he explained.

This, he further said, is a problem related to the quality of human resources and not a problem linked to limited economic resources.

He pointed out that there have been several cases of misappropriation of village funds by village heads, which are proof that there is a problem in the mindset of the village heads.

"It does not have anything to do with the term of office," he added.

To this end, the extension of village heads' term of office must be seen from a perspective that is broader, comprehensive, and suitable for village progress acceleration.

"Technocratic-technical training is not enough. It has to go up one level through character-building- and mind empowerment-based training," he said.

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Translator: Melalusa Susthira, Raka Adji
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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