Subdivisions of Indonesia

The République of Indonesia is divided into a succession of 4 levels of territorial units of government which are, while going from largest to the smallest unit:

1st level: the provinsi (province),
2nd level: the Kabupaten (department) and the kota (city),
3rd level: the kecamatan '' (district),

4th level, according to the area or the province: the kelurahan (common), the Desa (village), the gampong (village in Aceh), the nagari (village in country Minangkabau with Western Sumatra), the kampung (village in Papua).

The units of 1st level (provinces) and 2nd level ( kabupaten and kota ) have each one an local assembly, the Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Daerah (" representative council of the people régional") or DPRD.

Under the terms of the law No 32 of 2004, the governors of province, the bupati (chiefs of kabupaten ) and the walikota (mayors, chiefs of kota ) are elected by the direct suffrage for 5 years. Previously, they were elected by the DPRD.

The law bearing No 22 of 1999 regional autonomy, revised by the law No 32 of 2004, grants a certain administrative autonomy and economic to the kabupaten .

The province

Indonesia (2007) is currently divided into 33 provinces. 7 provinces were created since 2000. 4 provinces have a special statute:

Aceh, whose official name is " Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam" , following the peace agreement signed in 2005, a statute of special autonomy enjoys and has its own flag and its anthem. A former law instituted the application of the Sharia H for the Moslems in the province.
the special territory ( Daerah Istimewa ) of Yogyakarta, of which the governor is not elected but is the sultan and the vice-governor, prince Paku Alam.
Papua (old Irian Jaya ), which since 2000 also profits from a special autonomy and also has its own flag and its anthem.
the special territory of the capital ( Daerah Khusus Ibukota ) Jakarta.

Old territorial divisions

A certain number of territorial divisions are a heritage of the colonial administration of the the Indies Dutchwomen, as applied to Java. This administration was based on a traditional structure.

Java

In Java, the basic unit of this structure was the village. During the colonial period, the villages were gathered and placed under the supervision of a camat with the head of a kecamatan . Several kecamatan in their turn was placed under the responsibility of a wedana (station now replaced by that of asisten bupati or assisting of the prefect, without territorial responsibility), which directed a kawedanan . Lastly, several kawedanan was placed under the supervision of a bupati , that one could translate by Count within the meaning of the top European Moyen-âge.

The kabupaten Javanese were often territorial units made up under the kings of Mataram. The colonial administration had taken again the kabupaten . The term Dutch for bupati was regent (which one should not especially translate by " régent" , but rather by " seigneur") and for kabupaten , regentschap .

The bupati was the high position held by a Indigène in the colonial administration. It was traditionally selected among the families of the Javanese nobility. The station was thus not hereditary, but some kabupaten have in an almost continuous way summer held by successive generations of the same family. The most known case is that of Wiranatakusuma, of which the first had created the kabupaten Bandung at the end of the 18th century. Until independence in 1945, the bupati of Bandung was Wiranatakusuma, settings besides some exceptions at the beginning of the 20th century.

At the 19th century, the Dutchmen had gathered the kabupaten in gewesten or provinces managed by a resident or governor. Previously, at the 18th century at the time of the VOC (Company Dutchwoman of the Eastern Indies, the term of resident named a representative of the company near the Javanese princes.

The gewesten had thereafter been renamed residenties . They will be removed by the government indonésien in the years 1950. The function of resident survived in the form of a pembantu gubernur or assisting of the governor.

Other islands

As they took the control of different the princely states in the other islands during the XIXe century, the Dutchmen transformed them into zelfbestuuren (" car-gouvernements") with limited autonomy. These zelfbestuuren was also gathered in gewesten .

Independent Indonesia

The government indonésien takes again the regentschapen and kabupaten renames them, whether they are located at Java or in the other islands.

In Java, the residenties are gathered in propinsi (provinces).

Apart from Java, they are directly transformed into provinces.

This rule is not absolute. For example, the Northern province of Sumatra results from the fusion of two residenties , that of the Oost Kust (" coast orientale") of Sumatra, which corresponded to the territories of the sultanates of Deli and Serdang, and that of Tapanuli, which corresponded to the country Batak. In this last, territories of the six old " tribus" : Angkola, Karo, Mandailing, Pak-Pak, Simalungun and Toba, were transformed into kabupaten .

See too

Internal bonds

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