Gotong Royong: Indonesian community cooperation

Indonesias ability to govern itself and deal with local problems in not helped by the logistics of living in the worlds largests archipelago. Even with the resources of the US, organizing things on a local level would be a challenge.

When a ship sinks over here its not the coast guard who rescues the people, it is local fishing boats. When a bus crashes it is local people helping the injured and during Indonesias economic crisis in 1999 it was the local micro economies that kept people in house and home, not the government.

Indonesia has an expression, gotong royong, which means, joint responsibility and mutual cooperation. There are 62,900 villages in this country and the root of gotong royong goes back a long way into traditional custom. When a natural disaster or accident happens in the locality people are expected to lend a hand, men using their own tools and working for free. Neighboring villages are sometimes called to help their neighbour.

This organisation of villages is overseen by the village chief (kapala desa) who has power over those in his area. When Ika I was in Semarang, Central Java for our wedding, we had the village chief and the area village chief sits as witnesses. Ika told me the village chief will settle disputes, write letters and sign legal forms (for ID cards etc.)

The government encourages this local self government as it allows the country to fly on auto pilot. During the Suharto regime the intelligence service also has people in each village reporting on activities in each village, to alert Suharto to any possible resistance.