RT/RW Chairman Election Mechanism Improved

Acting Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama's plan to change the RT/RW election mechanism through major is canceled. It is because the policy is contrary with Home Law No 5/2007 about Citizen Society Management. Otherwise, Jakarta Provincial Government is working to improve the system of RT/RW chairman through Governor Regulation.

The law base is still using SK No 36/2001, while the upper level of the law base  Permendagri No 5/2007 is not relevant

Head of Governance Bureau of Jakarta Government Management, Premi Lasari, said her side is still working to revise Governor Decree in 2001 which rules the RT/RW organization.

"The law base is still using SK No 36/2001, while the upper level of the law base  Permendagri No 5/2007 is not relevant. We work to arrange the governor regulation now," she said, Monday (10/27).

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According to her, SK No 36/2001 must be revised due to contrary with the Permendagri No 5/2007. The weakness of SK No 36/2001 is no government intervention in monitoring or guidance of RT/RW organization. Including the terms and condition in being the RT/RW chairman, and operational money supervision. "We'll add the requirement of being RT/RW chairman, election committee from local citizen and government," she added.

Lasari continued that the RT/RW election mechanism will still be based on Permendagri or no direct election by the major. "Our Governor Regulation is still based on the Permendagri," she continued.

She targeted the Governor Regulation could be done in January 2015 and socialized. "We'll conduct survey with the third party to see the effectiveness of this new Governor Regulation," she said.

She hoped the RT/RW management could be better after the governor regulation is issued since the RT/RW operational budget is listed in city regional budget.

Jakarta Provincial Government allocates operational budget for RT chairman as much as Rp 975/month, and Rp 1.2 million/month for RW chairman. "We prepared Rp 340 billion for 30,246 Rt chairmen and 2,709 RW chairmen," she explained.