Thousands of village leaders staged a rally in front of the House of Representatives in Jakarta on Monday. (Antara Photo/Rosa Panggabean)
Thousands of village heads flocked to the House of Representatives building in Jakarta on Monday for a rally to demand a better deal for people from rural areas.
Grouped as the Nusantara Rural People’s Association (Parade Nusantara), the village heads from across the country demanded that 10 percent of the State Budget (APBN) be allocated for rural people.
“Some 78 percent of the Indonesian people live in rural areas, and therefore it is only reasonable for us to demand that 10 percent of the APBN be allocated for rural areas,” Parade Nusantara spokesman Sudin Santoso said in his oration.
The group also urged the House to pass a bill on rural development into law immediately.
“The funds we demand are not for us as village heads but for rural development,” Sudin said.
He added that the rural development funds were needed to provide the rural communities with job opportunities to improve the welfare of residents.
“If job opportunities are available in rural areas, our children do not need to move to the cities and towns to find jobs,” Sudin said.
Besides demanding 10 percent of the APBN for rural development, the Parade Nusantara also demanded that village heads’ terms in office be extended from six years to eight or ten years.
The peaceful rally at the parliament building was expected to continue until late in the afternoon.
“We will wait until our demands are met,” said Jono, a village head from the Karanganyar region in Central Java.
The demonstrating village heads left their respective villages on Sunday and arrived in Jakarta on Monday morning to stage their protest rally.
Miftah, a village head from Tegal, Central Java, said he left Tegal on Sunday evening and arrived in Jakarta on Monday morning.
“We left on Sunday evening and arrived here on Monday morning. After the rally this evening we will return to Tegal by night train,” Miftah said.
Antara
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