Illusion Never Changes

Local Government Implementation: Payaman Village Democracy Practice, Lamongan, East Java-Indonesia  The process of strengthening local democracy in the context of implementing Law no. 26 of 2014 concerning the Village Law, in which the main goal is building villages in order to develop it as an independent, democratic, empowered, and participatory region, so that the village becomes the lowest and smallest unit of democracy and local government administration supported by strengthening at the hamlet level. Villages entered a very important momentum along with the issuance of Law Number 6 of 2014 concerning Villages. The formed legal politics points to strengthening the village’s existence which aims to prosper the village community. However, it turns out complicated to realize those goals because of several obstacles that happened to appear. One of them is to organize democracy which has been damaged during the village head elections (Pilkades). The implementation of money politics...

This paper describes the practice of carok which is still continuously practiced by ethnic Madurese in East Java, Indonesia. Carok and masculinity are double-edged swords because they are constructed by Madurese ethnic culture. How culture produces values that must be upheld, maintained, and become sacred and even practiced in everyday life. The construction of masculinity inherent in the male gender influences the practice of carok. So that carok is legal and even legitimized by culture. The visibility of male-dominated cultural and criminal violence on ethnic Madurese is very important to study, explore, and explain using the lens of political sociology gender.  Courtesy of Freepick.com  The values of masculinity, self-respect, shame and honor are values that are championed by men and are justified by the prevailing culture as social norms. This study uses a qualitative method. Relying on individual in-depth interview data on the perpetrator's family, the man, and the victim...

The city of Surabaya is approaching as an ideal city that is livable. The ideal condition of a city is not only a matter of public health and environmental cleanliness, but also how to create an ideal environment to live in. City development must refer to the green city concept. In this case, there is a green concept which means referring to the interconnectedness of natural features in the city through urban planning and design, and the possibility of using green measures as an engine of economic growth. Combining environment and economic development is not easy. There are challenges and socio-cultural problems in it. However, what has been done by the Surabaya City Government really needs to be appreciated. All stakeholders play significant role in the development of this city. Courtesy of Freepick.com Surabaya has 570 parks spread throughout the city. Surabaya is comfortable as a place to live and this is inseparable from the strategy in structuring development that is oriented towa...

The Covid-19 Pandemic Dictatorship has proven successful in minimizing the spread of Covid-19 in Indonesia. Although there is a risk of losing the freedom of residents/inhabitants to interact with other people due to the prohibition on community gatherings. This is all for the health and survival of the population. The Covid-19 pandemic has spawned a surge in the number of public policies with various designs and contents (Weible, et.al., 2020), including the Indonesian government. to apply. There are many policies that have been implemented in Indonesia in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, namely: Large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB), Transitional PSBB, Enforcement of Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM), Micro PPKM, and emergency PPKM that apply to the Java-Bali area. until September 2021. The Indonesian government does not issue a lockdown regulation, as this has more negative impacts than positives. People are frustrated, commit suicide, and so on. The Indonesian government...

It's not easy to implement the green city concept in a big city in Surabaya. With the passage of time and the development of green open spaces, the temperature gradually drops to 28-29 degrees Celsius. This green open space continues to be added, until one day, the temperature in Surabaya can reach 22 degrees Celsius. That is the policy target set by the mayor of Surabaya in 2019. The different parks are also the main attraction in Surabaya. The Surabaya City Cleanliness and Green Open Space Service (Dinas Kebersihan dan Ruang Terbuka Hijau/DKRTH) stated that the area of green open space (Ruang Terbuka Hijau) in the capital city of East Java province has now reached 7,356.24 hectares or 21.99 percent of the city area. Courtesy of Freepick.com In Surabaya there are as many as 573 city parks spread over various points which of course can reduce air pollution and lower the temperature in the city of Surabaya. The total area of parks throughout Surabaya until 2020 has reached 1,651.24 ...

The KPK puts forward the concept of three approaches in guarding clean elections. First, a repressive approach that aims to create a deterrent effect. Second, a prevention approach by improving government systems and governance so that people cannot be corrupt. Third, the approach to education and public campaigns. This method targets changes in public awareness, so that people do not want to commit corruption. Courtesy of Freepick.com In Indonesia, on September 23th, 2020, there will be 270 simultaneous regional head elections, which include: 9 provinces, 224 regencies, and 37 cities. In total, there are 32 provinces that will carry out the Pilkada. This simultaneous regional election is considered the right time to elect regional heads with integrity and accountability. Rows of corruption cases have ensnared regional heads to former regional heads in Indonesia. Since the Corruption Eradication Commission (Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi/KPK) was formed, 21 governors have been caught in ...

The amount of costs that must be paid by candidates for regional heads and candidates for deputy regional heads during regional head elections is suspected to be the cause of many of them being involved in corruption cases. This condition is compounded by the government's neglect of building a transparent and accountable system. There is a relationship between high election costs and corruption involving regional heads and deputy regional heads. So, when elected and in power, they tend to try to return the capital that has been used to win the Pilkada, either by buying voters' votes, providing basic necessities, and paying money to their success team. This caused the regional head to be arrested by the Corruption Eradication Commission (Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi). Courtesy of Freepick.com Acts of corruption with the form and type of not less than seven (7) forms and 30 types of corruption. This is a rule that election organizers and participants should not do. One of these r...