Village Head Requests Term Of Office To Be 9 Years, Vice President: Will be Discussed Later Whether It's Rational Or Not

Photo via Antara

JAKARTA - Vice President Ma'ruf Amin said the term of office for village heads (kades) must consider the benefits for village development.

"For the village head, the right thing is, do you want to be equated with the president, governor, and regent, or what? Later, the government and the DPR will discuss what is right and beneficial, what is good so that the village can be developed into a developed village later," said Vice President Ma'ruf Amin in Jakarta, Wednesday 25 January.

Tuesday (17/1) and Wednesday (25/1), hundreds of Village Heads staged an action in front of the DPR RI Building to demand that the DPR revise Law Number 6 of 2014 article 39 concerning Villages.

Article 39 reads that the Village Head holds office for 6 years from the date of inauguration. The village head can also serve a maximum of three times in a row or not consecutively.

However, the village heads consolidated and asked for their term of office to be extended to 9 years, and could serve a maximum of three terms.

"What we are thinking about is how to make the village prosperous, how does the village have a function that can develop the village. Therefore, we want to increase the number of independent villages, developed villages, that is, how village heads are able to control their villages, this is what we are thinking about," added the Vice President as reported by Antara.

Regarding the proposed increase in the tenure of the village head, the Vice President said the proposal must be considered whether it will bring benefits (maslahat) or not.

"Later, we will think about whether it is rational or not, whether it is beneficial or not, what is clear is that the president, governor, and mayor have 5 years, so the two terms are 10 years, so there is a limit," said the Vice President.

In their demands, the village heads stated that the 6-year term of office was insufficient and made the political competition between candidate heads tight. Whereas with a term of office of 9 years, political competition can be reduced so that these village head candidate figures can work together to build the village.

The chairman of the DPR RI, Puan Maharani, has said that she will follow up on the demands of the village heads according to the mechanism for drafting laws and regulations in the DPR RI.