Another territorial construct that has been fraught with recent conflict on Buru is the Government’s concept of desa, or administrative village. Concern for stronger mobilisation of forces for development at the desa level began to appear in the mid-1970s with the Government’s five-year plan in 1978 stating:
It is important to ensure the success of development in all areas throughout Indonesia in order to achieve the desired national characteristics based on the Pancasila, that is, a just and prosperous society, both materially and spiritually for all people of Indonesia. So it is necessary to strengthen Desa government to be better able to mobilise the people in their participation in development and to carry out a broader and more effective village administration. (Yang penting adalah mensuksekan pembangunan di segala bidang di seluruh Indonesia, guna mencapai cita-cita Nasional berdasarkan Pancasila, yaitu masyarakat adil dan makmur, baik material maupun spiritual bagi seluruh rakyat Indonesia, maka perlu memperkuat pemerintah Desa agar makin mampu menggerakkan masyarakat dalam partisipasinya dalam pembangunan dan menyselenggarakan administrasi Desa yang makin meluas dan efektif.) (GBHN 1978)
On December 1of the next following year, the law known as UUPD (Udang-Udang Pemerintahan Desa—Laws of Village Governance) 1979 was passed by the Parliament. A major concern expressed in the preamble was that the old laws were no longer adequate because
in accord with the goals of national unity of the Republic of Indonesia, as far as possible the arrangement of Desa government needs to be made uniform as much as possible, by paying attention to the diversity that exists among Desa and the established local customs that still exist, in order to strengthen Desa government so that it is increasingly able to motivate the people to participate in development and to carry out Desa administration which is increasingly broad and effective. (bahwa sesuai dengan sifat Negara Kesatuan Repulik Indonesia maka kedudukan pemerintahan Desa sejauh mungkin diseragamkan, dengan mengindahkan keragaman keadaan Desa dan ketentuan adat istiadat yang masih berlaku untuk memperkuat pemerintahan Desa agar makin mampu menggerakan masyarakat dalam partisipasinya dalam pembangunan dan menyelenggarakan administrasi Desa yang makin meluas dan efektif.) (UUPD 1979)
The UUPD sought a uniform structure of village government throughout the nation whereby the lowest level of government in urban areas was to be the lurah and in rural areas the desa. The latter was defined as follows:
A Desa is an area in which is located a number of inhabitants as a social unit/unit of society including among it a legal unit of society which has the lowest governmental organization immediately below the Camat and has the right to organise its own households within the network of the national unity of the Republic of Indonesia. (Desa adalah suatu wilayah yang ditempati oleh sejumlah penduduk sebagai kesatuan masyarakat termasuk di dalamnya kesatuan masyarakat hukum yang mempunyai organisasi pemerintahan terendah langsung di bawah Camat dan berhak menyelenggarakan ruma tangganya sendiri dalam ikatan Negara Kesatuan Republik Indonesia.) (UUPD)
Among other things, the UUPD clearly laid out the requirements for each office-holder. For example, a village head had to be between 25 and 60 years old and a graduate of middle school (nine years of schooling) or have equivalent experience. It also detailed the oath the kepala desa and lurahs were to take on entering office, and how the election process was to be carried out. But many details and variables were still left to the discretion of various government officials.
To clarify some issues, in 1981, the Minister of Domestic Affairs (Mentri Dalam Negri) put out several letters of decision with more details about the structure of village government, the decisions that could be made by village governments (including how to type the letter of decisions), and how desa were to be formed, divided, joined and deleted. Of particular importance for Buru and Central Maluku were the requirements laid out for desa: a desaneeded to have a population of at least 2,500 people or 500 families. In creating desa, religious and socio-cultural factors needed to be considered, as well as the way of life of the inhabitants. And desa were to be created by decision of the Governor based on suggestions from district heads, after getting the agreement of the minister.
Given the size of the country, there is some common sense in the desire of the Indonesian State to have a uniform system of governance to facilitate development down to the village level (in 1983, there were 63,058 desa in Indonesia). However, the way desa were mapped onto Buru and elsewhere in Central Maluku created numerous problems. First, the large population size stipulated by the minister meant that in a place such as Buru, with a relatively low population density, a desa had to incorporate a huge area if it was to include 2,500 people or 500 families. [7] Second, even though the minister stipulated that religious and ethnic factors should be considered, most desa boundaries were mapped onto Buru in total disregard of religion and ethnicity. Desa in Buru were drawn as parallel strips running inland from a small coastal area where an immigrant settlement was located. This meant that each desa encompassed coastal Muslim immigrants and interior Christian natives. Since it was far more convenient to reach settlements on the coast by boat (there are very few roads on Buru), candidates for village head were almost always selected by the camat from the coastal Muslim settlement rather than the interior. Buru people in the interior had learned to share their land with immigrants for many centuries, having only minimal interaction. But with the creation of these desa, more interaction was demanded. The Government policy of distributing cash to poor desa became particularly contentious, with people in the mountains repeatedly complaining that the money always stopped at the village head and none of it went upstream to them. [8]