THE FIVE LEVELS OF

GOVERNMENT IN INDONESIA

AN AIC BRIEFING NOTE

Kevin Evans
Editorial by Marlene Millott

The Australia-Indonesia Centre partners with various levels of government in both

countries. This week, for example, we bring together the Province of West Java and
the City of Melbourne for a webinar discussion on COVID-19. Since day one we have
partnered with the national governments of both countries, and many AIC research
projects have been and are currently being run in conjunction with various Indonesian
cities, regencies, sub-districts and villages. This article outlines those various
administrative levels in Indonesia and the roles they play.

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‘Gedung Sate’, the nickname given to the Office of the West Java Governor. Ridwan Kamil is the current Governor of
this, Indonesia’s largest, province. (Credit: tribunenewswiki.com)

The Republic of Indonesia is FIVE LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT IN

INDONESIA
a unitary state, not a federal
state. However, power has been The hierarchy of administration in
significantly decentralised since Indonesia is headed by an elected president
early in the democratic era. Under at the national level together with a fully
this system, much responsibility elected two chamber parliament. Following
for managing issues of public decentralisation, the national government
importance was transferred to retains exclusive carriage in four areas:
foreign policy, defence, monetary and
city and regency administrations,
fiscal policy, and religious affairs. In other
leapfrogging the provincial areas authority is shared. For example,
administrations. in education, the national government is
responsible for the tertiary level, provinces
The most recent amendment to the Law for secondary schools, and city and regency
on Regional Administration (Law 23/2014), administrations for primary schooling. On
however, has empowered the provinces, roads, there are national roads, provincial
and no longer the cities and regencies, roads, local roads and village roads.
with regard to managing natural resources Each level of government from cities and
(mining, water, forests, etc.)1 regencies up manage their respective
hospitals.

Indonesia’s 34 provinces form the second

level of administration. Each province
is led by an elected governor. The 2014
amendments to the Law on Regional
Administration saw provinces retain key

1 Law No. 32/2004 concerning Regional Administration

2 Indonesian Bureau of Statistics, ‘Statistical Yearbook of Indonesia: 2020’, 29 April 2020, p. 47-8

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The administration office of kecamatan (or ‘urban hamlet’) Bojongloa Kidul in Bandung, West Java.
(Credit: City of Bandung)

powers to coordinate authority on matters

Figure 1. The five levels of government within their boundaries that cut across
cities and regencies.
National
Led by the President The third level of administration consists
of both cities (kota) and regencies
(kabupaten) that are led by an elected
walikota (mayor) or an elected bupati
Provincial
Led by a governor (regency chief), respectively. Across
Indonesia, there are 98 cities and 416
regencies.

Cities (kota) Regencies (kabupaten) The fourth level of administration are

Led by a mayor Led by a regency chief (bupati) the sub-districts known as kecamatan.
Kecamatan administrations, unlike
provinces and cities and regencies, are not
autonomous organisations – they form part
Sub-districts (kecamatan) of the city and regency administrations. The
Led by a sub-district head (camat)
head of the kecamatan is a camat. These
are career civil servants appointed by,
and accountable to, their mayor or bupati.
Across Indonesia there are 7,246 sub-
Urban suburbs (kelurahan) Rural villages (desa)
Led by a suburb head (lurah) Led by a village head (kepala desa)
districts.3

The fifth level of administration is the

village level. There are two kinds of village
administration. In rural areas villages,
known as desa, are partially autonomous
3 Ibid., p. 49.
4 Ibid., p. 50.

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from the kecamatan in which they are Within the provincial and local
located. Each village head (the kepala desa) administrations are regional planning
is elected by residents. The second type agencies (Bappeda). These Bappeda play a
of village is in urban areas and is known central player in drafting the annual budget
as a ‘kelurahan’. Each kelurahan is led by in conjunction with the Regional Budget
a lurah, a career civil servant. They are Financial Management Agency. Once
managed through the kecamatan and are crafted the budget must be deliberated and
accountable ultimately to the mayor or passed by their respective provincial or
bupati. There are 83,813 urban and rural representative councils (Dewan Perwakilan
villages across Indonesia.4 Rakyat Daerah – DPRD). These DPRD also
have the responsibility for overseeing the
Below these five official levels of operation of the local Executive led by the
administration are two further levels, Governor, mayors or bupatis as well as
both of which are subsidiaries of villages. have the responsibility for deliberating and
The first is a hamlet (rukun wilayah - RW) passing local authority regulations that
and contained with each rukun wilayah fall within the authority of their respective
are to be found several neighbourhoods territory.
(rukun tetangga - RT). These systems
were established during the Japanese Many local authorities also own and
Occupation and represent information and manage regional-owned enterprises (badan
support services systems of the village usaha milik daerah – BUMD). BUMDs are
administration including on matters as essentially miniature versions of state-
varied as social and welfare mapping owned enterprises (badan usaha milik
to staffing polling booths at elections. negara - BUMN) at the national level. For
The heads of each RT also act as civil example, most local authorities manage
registrants verifying the identity of their their water delivery services as a form
residents needing permits from higher of BUMD. Of note too is the growing
levels of administration. propensity in recent years for villages
to establish their own village-owned
While the specific organisational structure enterprises, known as BUMDes (badan
of each local administration may vary, there usaha milik desa). These have become
are some quite common structures. Sitting a more popular form of collective local
directly in the provincial government offices enterprise, in some ways displacing village
are several bureaus, covering staffing, level cooperatives (KUD – Koperasi Unit
finance, planning, protocol, legal affairs, Desa) that seem to be losing popularity in
public affairs, communications and more. recent years.
Similar structures exist, albeit on a smaller
scale, at the city and district levels.

4 Ibid., p. 50.

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PROFESSIONALISING THE CIVIL Considering that the number of people
SERVICE employed in Indonesia, according to 2019
data from BPS, is approximately 130
The creation of a Civil Service Commission million, the total number of civil servants
(KASN) in late 2014 represented an is relatively modest, and generally a lower
important first step towards guaranteeing percentage that most people would
the neutrality and professionalism of the assume. Even taking into account the
civil service. The establishment of the various kinds of “honorary” civil servants
KASN has also promoted a new level of who are very low paid people yet who
transparency in the appointment and may be undertaking important tasks like
placement of senior officials. These new teaching, the figures are still not that high.
approaches have been put in place in the
hope of reducing the practice of nepotism, In addition to the career civil service, a
partisanship and other obstructions to number of elected leaders (governors,
appointment by merit. mayors and bupatis) have begun to
establish special teams to provide policy
As in most countries, Indonesia promotes and political support in their work as
the principle that its civil service should democratically elected and accountable
be politically neutral. As elsewhere too, figures. At the national level this has
sometimes this principle falls short been seen through the establishment by
in practice. The creation of the KASN Indonesian Presidents of agencies such
was in part driven by a desire to uphold as the UKP4 (Presidential Delivery Unit for
the principle of merit and to provide an Development Monitoring and Oversight)
institutional tool to support these efforts. by President Yudhoyono and the KSP
(Office of Presidential Staff) established by
There are roughly 4.5 million civil servants President Joko Widodo.8 People who are
across Indonesia5, around half of whom recruited to these agencies may include
are women. Those women, however, are career civil servants, but also include
concentrated at the much lower levels of people from academia, the private sector,
service.6 In general terms the largest block civil society, political society and the media.
of civil servants is made up of teachers
and lecturers, and health care workers. In
addition to these civil servants there are
estimated to be 470,000 police and 400,000
armed forces personnel.7

5 The World Bank, Mapping Indonesia’s Civil Service, November 2018

6 Indonesian Bureau of Statistics, Op. cit.
7 katakata.co.id
8 Tempo, ‘Yudhoyono: Unit Kerja Presiden adalah Mata, Telinga dan Tangan Saya’, 23 October 2009. See also: Kantor Staf Presiden.

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These ad hoc institutions are dedicated to The operation of all five levels in
supporting the work of an elected leader, equilibrium provides the best conditions
including on evaluating the performance of for development at all levels, and in this
the civil service. However, they can often regard Indonesia is well placed, having
rub up against pre-existing permanent come a long way in terms of finding
institutions. If managed well, this kind a balance between national unity and
of creative tension can aid progress and regional autonomy since the start of
stimulate reforms that raise productivity decentralisation.
and performance and which may not have
happened in their absence.

COVID-19

The sharing of power and responsibility

between these five levels of government
is always evolving, and management of
COVID-19 has brought some of these
boundaries under the spotlight in many
countries, Indonesia and Australia being
no exception. Governors in particular, in
many key provinces, have stepped forward
to play high profile roles in policy making
and advocating on addressing the many
COVID-19 challenges.

The Australia-Indonesia Centre is a consortium of 11 leading research universities in both countries.

Its mission is to advance people-to-people links in science, technology, education and innovation.

Contact: +61 3 9903 1296 | [email protected] | www.ausindcentre.org

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