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THE GOVERNMENT, ECONOMY AND TAXES
OF A CENTRAL JAVANESE VILLAGE
WIDJOJO NITISASTEO
and
J. E. ISMAEL
(Translated by Norbert Ward}
MONOGRAPH SERIES
Modern Indonesia Project
Southeast Asia Program
Department of Far Eastern Studies
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York
1959
Price—$1.00
File Copy
Do not remove from Room 213,
640 Stewart AvenueTHE GOVERNMENT, ECONOMY AND TAXES
OF A CENTRAL JAVANESE VILLAGE
Widjojo Nitisastro
and
J. E. Ismael
MONOGRAPH SERIES
Modern Indonesia Project
Southeast Asia Program
Department of Far Eastern Studies
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York
1959© 1959 by Cornell Modern Indonesia projectIll
PREFACE
Although probably at least seventy-five per cent of
Indonesia’s eighty-five million people is rural, there
have been very few serious studies of the character of
Indonesian villages, particularly in the post-revolutionary
period. One of the major interests of the Cornell Modern
Indonesia Project being Indonesian village organization,
in particular the changes which have taken place during the
post-colonial period, it has been happy to be associated
with the important research which during recent years has
been carried out by the Village Study Project (Projek
Penjelidikan Desa) of the Institute for Economic and Social
Research of the University of Indonesia’s Djakarta School
of Economics. We particularly welcome the opportunity to
publish this important study by Widjojo Nitisastro and
J. E. Ismael. The present monograph is their revision of
an earlier version published in the Indonesian language
by the Institute for Economic and Social Research. Both
authors hold M. A. degrees in Economics from the University
of Indonesia and are on the staff of its Djakarta School
of Economics. The Modern Indonesia Project is indebted to
Mr. Norbert Ward for having done the major part of the
translation.
Ithaca, New York
October 27, 1958
George McT. Kahin
DirectorV
FOREWORD
The economic development of a rural district is
closely related to aspects of village government as well
as to the development of village autonomy. An important
aspect of the problem of autonomy of the village is the
circumstances connected with its economy and the taxes
which are collected from its populace.
It is the purpose of this report merely to provide a
sketch of the government, economy, and taxes of the village
of Djabres, which is situated in the Kebupaten of Kebumen, in
the Province of Central Java. Among other things, this
report will analyze the changes that have taken place in the
village government as compared with conditions before World
War II; the role of the local government agencies /pamong-
desa/ in the development of the economy; the manner of
obtaining and disposing of village funds; and the signifi-
cance of gotong-rojong /mutual cooperation among members of
a community/ actions in-organizing and carrying out public
works projects in the village. Further, we will discuss the
existence of a "taxable capacity" among the relatively high-
income group in this village, which so far has not been
utilized as it should be. However, it is strongly emphasized
in this report that this "taxable capacity" can be satis-
factorily tapped only by measures taken within the autonomous
framework of the village accompanied by efforts to estab-
lish a fair proportion of finances between the central
government and the local government. Otherwise, there is a
great probability that efforts to utilize this "untapped
taxable capacity" will be disastrous for the economy of
this village, and moreover that they will be a source of
social tensions with all their undesirable consequences.
The contents of this report are not to be taken as
representative of Central Javanese villages in general.
Readers of this report are therefore cautioned not to con-
sider that conditions described in it are true for all rural
areas in Central Java. It may be that similar features
occur, but generalizations on the basis of an investiga-
tion of one village only are to be avoided.
The village of Djabres is one of 23 villages in Java
which are being studied under the Village Study ProjectVI
/Projek Penjelidikan Desa/ of the Institute for Economic and
Social Research, Djakarta School of Economics, University of
Indonesia. This Village Study Project was initially headed
by T. Umar Ali, now coordinator of the Institute, and then
by J. E. Ismael. Three research teams collected the material
on Djabres; the first, in the middle of 1954, consisted of
Sukarno, B. Sumadi, and Guritno Siswanto, all three students
of the Djakarta School of Economics; the second, at the end
of 1954 and the beginning of 1955, consisted of Wahju Sukotjo,
assistant in the Institute, and R. Sucamto and Supadi, both
students of the Djakarta School of Economics; and the third,
in the middle of 1956, consisted of Suwarin Djajengkario, a
student of the Djakarta School of Economics. The analysis of
the raw materials collected was carried out by J. E. Ismael.
We wish to express our great gratitude to the residents
and the government agencies of Djabres, both for their cordial
reception of the research teams which visited their village
and for their willingness to supply ail information requested.
It was only by means of their sincere and honest assistance
that this report could be prepared. Finally, we wish also
to thank the Civil Service officials of the Kebupaten of
Kebumen, especially the Bupati of Kebumen, the Wedana of
Pedjagoan, and the Tjamat of Sruweng, as well as the
officials of the Province of Central Java and the Ministry
of Home Affairs, all of whom made possible the visits of
our teams to Djabres.
We shall be very happy to receive any commentary, reac-
tions, or opinions from the readers of this report.
Djakarta, Indonesia	Widjojo Nitisastro, Director
July 5, 1957	Institute for Economic and
Social Research, Djakarta
School of Economics, University
of Indonesia.1
INTRODUCTION
In the article "Beberapa Bahan Keterangan jfengenai
Penduduk Djabres: Suatu Desa di Djawa-Tengah" (1) /Some
Data on the Population of Djabres, a Village in CenTral
java/, everything relating to the populace of Djabres was
discussed (number of residents, ethnic groups represented,
ages of residents, marital status, fertility, percentage of
illiteracy, level of education, occupation or profession,
and ownership of property); this report—besides being a mono-
graph on the government of the village of Djabres—also aims
to provide facts which will support or weaken previous
findings regarding the existence of ’’significant margins of
untapped taxable capacity” (2) "among the upper income groups
in the rural sector” (3). As a means of getting at these
facts, this Introduction will first discuss as a background
the features of the tile industry in the village of Djabres.
In the article referred to above, we are told that
Djabres is situated in a lowland plain 86 hectares in area,
of which 59 hectares is wet-fields and 27 hectares is garden
land. It is estimated that 40% of this land is red earth
mixed with sand, an excellent raw material for making tile
and brick. The remainder of the soil is black earth.
As a result of the availability of this raw material,
there are quite a number of tile companies in this village,
and these have an important position in the life of Djabres.
This can be clearly seen if we look at the figures showing
the distribution of residents according to occupation Of the
residents who work (aged 15 to 60), 46.5% perform work which
is mainly agricultural, while 39.5% work in the tile industries
/I) See Ekonomi dan Keuangan Indonesia, December, 1956,
pp. 731-758.
(2)	Douglas S. Paauw, "Tax Burden and Ecohomic Development
in Indonesia," Ekonomi dan Keuangan Indonesia, Sept ,
1954,	p. 564.	-------------------------------
(3)	Douglas S. Paauw, "Rejoinder to J. A Van Veen, 'Some
Notes on the Tax Burden and Economic Development in
Indonesia'," Ekonomi dan Keuangan Indonesia, March,
1955,	p. 189.----------------------------——2
Nearly half of the residents who work (43.5%) have a second
job:	12% of them in agriculture and 30% in the tile industry.
Although more of the working residents are mainly engaged
in agriculture, the total number of residents engaged in the
tile industry as a main occupation or as a secondary occupa-
tion (69.5%) is greater than the total number of residents
engaged in agriculture as a main or as a secondary occupation
(58.5%) The main thing to be observed about the tile
industry from the above figures is that almost two-thirds
of the residents whose main occupation is agricultural are
also secondarily employed in the tile industry; a large part
of the residents whose main occupation is in the tile
industry do not have a second job at all, and only one-fourth
of them are secondarily employed in agriculture.
The greater part of the tile firms in Djabres may be
classified as "gezinsbedrijven met verkeer op arbeidsgondslag."
/Tabor-based open-economy cottage industries /, and the
remainder are in the first stage of "gezinsbedrijven met
verkeer op kapitaalgrondslag" /capital-based open-economy
cottage industries 7 (4). BesTdes this, some of the enter-
prises are complete (integrated), and others are incomplete
(differentiated); respectively, there are those which are
completely independent, and there are those which operate in
a debt relationship with a third party, or are run by a
person who is in a debt relationship	with the owner
of the enterprise.
A complete enterprise consists of a paseran (a sort of
shed where the uncooked tiles are prepared) and a tobong
(place where the tiles are baked); an incomplete enterprise
consists of the paseran only. There is no incomplete enter-
prises consisting solely of a tobong which would offer its
services for baking the tiles produced by paserans (incomplete
enterprises); this function is carried out by complete enter-
prises which rent their tobongs to paserans. At the present
time there are 20 complete enterprises, with a total of 58
paserans and 21 tobongs; besides this there are 82 paserans
operating as incomplete enterprises which are generally com-
pletely independent.
(4)' D. IT Burger, "Boeke's dualisme," Indonesie, July, 1953,
7th year, no. 1, pp. 1-24, divides industries in Indonesia
into four types:
I. zelfgenoegzame gezinsbedrijven (self-sufficient
cottage industries),
IIA.	Gezinsbedrijven met verkeer op arbeidsgrondslag
(labor-based open-economy cottage industries),
IIB.	Gezinsbedrijven met verkeer op kapitaalgrondslag
(capital-based open-economy cottage industries),
III. Naamloze vennootschappen (limited liability
corporations).3
For the most partj complete enterprises are managed by
the owners themselves, but there are also managers who are
not the owners of their enterprises. This latter situation
arose out of the condition where there was a person indebted
to the owner of a complete enterprise and this person
possessed skills which were necessary in the tile industry;
in order to discharge the debt, his creditor compelled him
to run the tile enterprise for a fixed length of time. Thus
it is clear that this is merely a form of debt whereby
money loans must be repaid with labor (5). Besides this,
there are also paserans and tobongs of complete enterprises
which are managed by persons who are debtors as explained
above.
The situation described is also met within enterprises
which are incomplete. There are independent paserans which
produce unbaked tiles and then rent a tobong from a complete
enterprise, and finally sell the baked tiles; but there are
also paserans which are independent and which sell their
unbaked tiles to a complete enterprise. Besides this there
are paserans which stand in the relation of debtor to a
creditor who owns a complete enterprise, and their baked
or unbaked tiles must be turned over to the creditor-owner
of the complete enterprise. Here we find the credit rela-
tionship in which money loans must be repaid in kind (6)
The greater part of the paserans, moreover, are under contract
to turn their produce over to the owners of complete enter-
prises, for which they receive an advance payment; and besides
this they take orders for work, for which they receive
buyer's credit (afnemerscrediet). The cause of this is that
usually the owners of paserans have only enough capital to
set up a paseran and rent the land which produces the raw
material for the tiles; they do not have sufficient working
capital to pay laborers' wages, rent tobongs, etc. Under
this system, the complete enterprises concerned are not
obliged to undergo any risk during the time when the tiles
are being made—that is, the risk of the tiles being broken
while being rubbed, or cracked while being dried in the sun
(5) This form of debt-repayment in the tile industry is
analogous to the last three types of credit described
by Sumitro Djojohadikusumo in Het Volkscredietwezen in
de Depressie, page 13:
1.	rice repaid with rice
2.	money repaid with rice
3.	money repaid with labor
4.	money repaid with money.
(6) Ibid.4
or put into the tobong (in the case where the order was for
unbaked tiles), and the foregoing plus the risk of the tiles
being damaged while baking (in the case where the order was
for baked'tiles); and in fact these risks are not inconsider-
able, being about 10% for each type.
The production of tiles in this village is figured at
about 14,000,000 unbaked tiles per year, and of this number
about 70%, or 10,290,000, become baked tiles which are sold
to the areas of Tasikmalaja, Djakarta, Wonosobo, Semarang,
etc.
The production of tiles in this village has been going
on for several years now. There are some wet-fields which
have been dug up twice for their clay, so that the sandy layer
of soil has been reached and the land can thus no longer be
used as a source of raw material for tiles. At this time,
the extent of wet-fields which are still usable as a source
of clay for tiles is about 14 ha. Excavations may be made to
an average depth of 1^ meters (not counting the upper layer
of soil, which is about 30 cm. in thickness, and which must
always be replaced because it contains the lemen necessary
for growing crops).
The land which mav be used as a source of clay for tiles
is thus 140,000 x l| m _ 210,000 m3. About 1 cubic meter of
land is required for the raw material for every 1000 unbaked
tiles. Thus, the 210,000 cu. m. of land mentioned above
will suffice to produce the raw material for 210,000,000
uncooked tiles. At the present rate of production—that is,
14,000,000 unbaked tiles per—the land available will produce
the raw material for tiles for about 15 more years.5
GOVERNMENT
The village of Djabres is part of an administrative
unit known as a kelurahan, and its administrative officials
of the village (pamong desa or prabot desa) are: a lurah,
as the head of the villageand chief of the local govern-
mental administration; a tjongkok, as vice-lurah; a tjarik,
or village clerk; three kebajans, whose job is to call the
inhabitants of the village to work, regulate the work of the
village, transmit the orders of the lurah and the regulations
of the village, and act as kampung-heads (kepala dukuh);
two kaums, whose job is to take care of matters concerned
with marriages, births, deaths, health, education and reli-
gion; and four kepetengans (village police), who are charged
with preserving the peace in the village. At the last
election of the lurah (1946) a new position was created
called andjir; in contrast to the other administrative posi-
tions of the village given above, the andjir may be regarded
as an administrative office of the kelurahan, not of the
village. It is the responsibility of the andjir to supervise
maintenance of the irrigation ditches of the village, and he
carries out minor tasks of maintenance himself. Major jobs
of maintenance are done gotong-rojong fashion under the super-
vision of the kepetengans (7).
The kaums, besides taking care of everything that has
to do with religion (seeing to the upkeep of mosques, small
prayer houses, and burial sites, and the places where
religious recitations are conducted; arranging divorces;
disposing of the bodies of the deceased; regulating the
compulsory alms at the end of the fast period; etc.), also
carry out the registration of births and deaths and act in
general as social workers; for example, they take care of
keeping the village clean, vaccinating babies against small-
pox, giving injections to the population of the village and
their livestock, supervising schoolchildren, and so forth.
At Lebaran time the kaums collect obligatory alms of Rp. 2
from each family, and at harvest time they collect rice from
residents of the village who own wet-fields. The other village
(7) In the other villages which have been investigated, the
village official who has charge of regulating the water
for the village generally is called ulu-ulu; he is a
village official and not an official-of the kelurahan.
For the structure of local government see Appendix I.6
officials also collect rice at harvest time: this is given
as a customary donation (there is no formal regulation in
this village to compel the giving of this rice). Each family
gives approximately 10 kg. of unthreshed rice.
The powers of the village officials in matters of taxa-
tion are as follows: a) they sit in a tax committee which
consists of the wedana, the tjamat, the lurah, and an official
of the Tax Department as advisor; b) they make lists of
taxable persons; c) they estimate the earnings of the taxable
individuals (see further the analysis in the section on tax
below). Besides this, the village officials are also
empowered to determine the division of labor in carrying out
gotong-rojong projects for the village.
In this village, three kinds of gotong-rojong may be
distinguished:	sambat-sinambat, kerigan, and gugur-gunung.
Sambat-sinambat refers to mutual assistance which is restrict-
ed to a few households which are neighbors or to a kampung in
the areas of deaths and the building of houses. Sambat-sinambat
is characterized by voluntary assistance rendered without
the help of the village officials, and each participant offers
his own physical help or this help along with equipment.
Kerigan is gotong-rojong in the interest of the whole popula-
tion of the village (repairing of roads and maintenance of
irrigation ditches), and this type of mutual aid is especial-
ly imposed on residents of the kuli category (8) as a compen-
sation for their owning village land. Since the Japanese
occupation it may be said that diffusions and modifications
of these categories have occurred, as will be seen from the
following facts. Since it is clear that the village roads
(8) According as they own wet-fields, garden lands, and houses,
and as they are descended from the founders of the village,
the residents of this village fall into the following
groups:
1.	kuli (residents who own rice fields, yards, and
houses), divided into the following classes;
a.	kuli kentjeng ("strong" kulis, those who own
rice fields larger than 0.56 ha.)
b.	kuli sedeng ("moderate" kulis, those who own
rice fields of 0.28-0.56 ha.)
c.	kuli kendo ("small" kulis, those who own rice
fields smaller than 0.28 ha „ )
2.	lindung (residents who own garden lands and houses)
3.	pondok (residents who own houses without garden
lands)
4.	pondok glongsor (residents who are boarders in
ihe houses of those who own garden lands).7
are damaged mainly by the heavy carts (gerobags) which haul
tiles and fuel for the fires of the tile enterprises of the
village, the owners of the carts are charged with picking up
and transporting material for repairing the roads in the
form of broken pieces of tile, which must be saved up for
this purpose by the onwers of the tile enterprises. The
other kerigan workers then utilize this material to repair the
roads in the village concerned. Work of this type is
carried out once every three months under the supervision
of a village official who has been particularly designated
to oversee a definite area. From this it is clear that
kerigan ogligations are not borne equally by all parties
concerned, but are distributed on the basis of the direct
benefits which will occur to those involved in this type
of mutual assistance. In spite of this, the principle is
not rigidly adhered to; for it is possible for one person
to "farm out" his kerigan obligation to another person by
paying him to do the job at the rate of Rp. 3 plus two meals
per day. This is especially common where maintenance of
the irrigation system is concerned. Village residents who
own rather extensive wet-fields and who therefore require
more water than other residents are not obliged to put in
more time caring for the irrigation ditches; and since
the beginning of the Revolution this duty has even been dis-
continued entirely. The job of maintaining the irrigation
ditches in good order has been taken over by a person
specially appointed for the purpose,that is, the andjir; his
pay is in the form 0.286 ha. of rice fields owned by the
village (see the analysis of the salary of village officials
given below in this section). This change in the customary
village practices is probably to be explained by the fact
that at that time only members of the kuli category had the
right to vote in the village meetings. And indeed this
change was to their benefit. Gugur-gunung is gotong-rojong
activity of general benefit to the whole population of the
village; among other things it includes construction of
new roads and new irrigation ditches, restoration of irri-
gation ditches (not mere maintenance—for example, after a
flood), and maintenance of cemeteries and mosques. This is
a general obligation in that every adult male resident must
offer his help. Those who for some reason are unable to
fulfill their obligation help out instead by providing food,
drink, cigarettes, and so forth. Except for the cleaning
of cemeteries and the maintenance of mosques—which are per-
formed every 35 days and once every three months respectively-
gugur-gunung activities have no fixed time intervals, but
are performed whenever they are deemed necessary at the
village meetings.8
The village officials listed above are not paid in money
but in land—that is, they are allowed to use part of the
village lands (9) which are called tanah bengkok. The total
area of these lands is 9c758 ha. of wet-fields. The lurah
gets 3.938 ha.; the tjongkok 1.061 ha.; the tjarik 1.63ha.;
the first kebajan 0.505 ha. ; the second kebajan 0.475. ha. ;
the third kebajan 0.450 ha.; the kaum 0.428 ha.; the first
kepetengan 0.515 ha.;the second kepetengan 0.475 ha.; the
third Kepetengan 0.515 haTj and the fourth kepetengan 0.480
ha. Besides the yield from the bengkok lands indicated
above, these officials are also allowed, as compensation for
their official position, a share of the pologoro—that is,
that part of the crops which is appropriated for the village
officials and the village treasury to defray various village
expenses; these amounts are determined in a village meeting
at the time of the election of the lurah (see the analysis
below in the section on the economics of the village). The
andjir alone, as he is not a village official, does not receive
any of the bengkok lands and a share of the pologoro. Neither
does he receive wages in the form of money: he is given a
portion of the bondo wet-fields of the village 0.286 ha. in
area. Thus, properly speaking there is no difference in the
kind of "salary" between the andjir and the village officials.
Before the War, within the framework of the pologoro the
lurah was entitled to a number of additional benefits. Among
these were the right of djonggol, by which each resident of
the village was obliged to work for the lurah 12 times a
year but might buy off this obligation by paying the lurah
f.l (one Dutch guilder); the right to receive a gift of food
from any resident of the village who was celebrating a
slametan (ceremonial meal) and the right to receive the
choicest cut of meat (± 1 kg.) if a resident" of the village
slaughtered cattle. At the present time these rights have
practically gone out of use.
Beginning before the War, of the village officials
listed above only the lurah was chosen directly by the people
for an unlimited length of“time. The other officials were
named by the lurah after obtaining the approval of those
present at a village meeting. Actually there is no formal
requirement that the lurah obtain the consent of the village
council first, but up to the present time no lurah in this
village has tried to appoint officials without consulting
council in advance, for it is feared that officials appointed
T9) The extent of these village lands in Djabres is 10.472 ha.,
of which 9.758 ha. are bengkok wet-fields, 0.714 ha. is
village bondo wet-fields, 0.028 ha. is garden lands, and
0.5 ha. is village cemetery.9
without the council's advance approval would encounter such
great resistance from the residents of the village that they
could not carry out their jobs.
Since the War, those entitled to take part in choosing
the lurah have been all residents who are at least 18 years
of age and who have lived at least three months continuously
in this village. Candidates for the position of lurah need
not be or become residents of the village, but they must be
sound in mind and body, well-behaved, and at least 18 years
of age. (In 1943 an 18-year-old man was chosen lurah in this
village, and he held the position until 1946.) Since 1952,
candidates for the position of lurah must first have passed
an examination for lurah-candidates administered by the
sub-district administration (ketjamatan). The aspirant is
examined on his ability to write and to measure land, and on
his general knowledge. The purpose of this restriction, which
is enforced by the kabupaten, is the improvement of the
quality of lurahs and the limiting of the number of candi-
dates. Although this might be regarded as restricting the
right of free choice of the residents of the village (a
person who is regarded as fit for the position of lurah
by the residents of the village, but who is illiterate,
would be denied candidacy under this regulation), there
has evidently been no significant opposition to this new
requirement. Possibly this regulation is simply regarded by
the residents of the village as a decree from above which
must be accepted without opposition, but it is also possible
that the residents of the village (or at least the leaders
of the village) realize that this regulation is for the good
of their village. Before the War, the right to choose and
to be chosen depended on land ownership, which meant that
only those who owned wet-fields, garden-lands and houses—
that is, members of the kuli category—were allowed to choose
and to be chosen. And in order to become a kuli, a person
who was not descended from one of the village founders had
first to be accepted as such by the people of the village.
This took a long time, for the person had to demonstrate his
earnestness in fulfilling his obligations as a citizen of
the village.
Officially the candidates for lurah are not allowed to
make an election campaign. However" they do campaign in an
informal fashion by organizing slametans (ceremonial meals—
tr.) and wajang performances, making house-to-house visits,
etc.
The ballots are cast secretly; they are in the form of
palm leaf ribs (lidi), and a bamboo tube serves as ballot-box.10
This is all carried out according to the instructions and
under the supervision of the wedana and the tjamat who are
the authorities of this village. The election is also
attended by the bupati and other officials of the kabupaten.
In 1946, in accord with a regulation of the kabupaten
of Keburaen, there was a new election of all the village
officials at once. The real purpose of this action is not
clear, except that there was a public announcement that "the
vestiges of practices of the colonial time are to be removed."
Since at that time administrative connections (kabupaten—
kelurahan) were not yet clearly established, the regulation
of this kabupaten was carried out differently in different
kelurahans. Some kblurahans carried out a complete new
election; others merely gave an examination to the lurah;
and in others the residents were asked if they still wanted
the present officials or not. The office-holders in Djabres
at present are the result of the 1946 election.
At the present time the kelurahan of Djabres still has
no office building of its own" but uses the pendopo (large
roofed gathering floor usually in front of houses of the
pamong desa or pamong pradja officials) of the lurah’s house.
It is urged that the village officials keep the office hours
of the Government Offices, especially as regards services
and the disposition of administrative problems. It is hoped
that in this way the residents will get used to bringing
their problems to the village officials during office hours,
and an official will thus not be forced to serve his residents
at any time they choose to come and visit him. To what
extent these hopes can be realized, and how long it takes
the residents to get used to this system, cannot be said yet.
And indeed the desire to make a clear line of distinction
between one's hours of public service and one's private
time is one symptom of the process of modernization now being
carried out in this village. Conversely, this desire and
the efforts connected with it will certainly have an influence
of a very direct nature on other aspects of life in this
village.
At fixed times village meetings take place. Since 1950
these meetings have been attended by the adult male residents.
In the event that there is some problem concerning the women
which must be submitted or discussed, a village meeting
especially for the adult female residents is called. During
the struggle for independence (1945-1950) the function of the
village meetings was carried out by a council of village
representatives (Dewan Perwakilan Desa); there was one repre-
sentative for every 100 residents. During the Japanese11
occupation (1942-1945) the village meeting was a meeting of
the kumityos (kepala rukun tetangga—the heads of the household
societies). Before the War, only residents of the kuli
category were entitled to attend the village meetings.
The village meetings occur regularly once every 35 days
(selapanan). This is a continuation of an old custom, and
it has been formalized by village decree so that the occur-
rence of a village meeting does not have to wait for the
initiative of the residents to manifest itself in action.
But the exact day of the meetings is fixed by the tjamat,
because usually the tjamat and other officials (local repre-
sentatives of the Ministries of Information, Agriculture,
Health, and so forth) attend the meetings. In addition to
these regular meetings, special meetings may be called if
it is thought necessary.
The subjects discussed in the special village meetings
are those connected with what are regarded as the special
interests of the village. For example: officially approving
the budget of the kelurahan; determining the kinds of jobs
that will be carried out by gotong-rojong as well as the
method for dividing the labor to be performed; determining
the use and division of the village lands (should they be
rented out or tilled by the village itself, etc.); maintaining
the peace in the village; forming co-operatives; and so forth.
The regular meetings of the village are occasions for the
officials of the Government (the tjamat and local officials
of various Ministries) to give full explanations and make
proposals (concerning, for example, agriculture, migration
to other parts of the country, general elections, etc.), as
well as to pass on orders from above. The village meetings
have no authority in the matter of fixing or collecting
taxes. The obligations and powers which the village meetings
have at present are practically the same as in former times;
the new regulations are those concerning who is entitled to
attend the meetings, and who may speak or vote. Besides
these, there is also a difference in the frequency of dis-
cussion of certain matters in the village meetings. For
example, kerigan (gotong-rojong for the village) was much
less frequently discussed in the time before the War and
during the Japanese occupation than it is now; it was often
simply determined by the village government.
The procedure followed in holding a village meeting is
as follows. Several days in advance the village officials-—
especially the kebajans—inform the residents as to the day
and time of the meeting, so that they will have an opportunity
to think of the things to be proposed in the meeting. Usually12
the meeting is called in the house-of the lurah. Excepting
the meetings called especially for electing the lurah, these
meetings are usually attended by 80 to 100 persons, approxi-
mately 25% of the adult residents of the village. This low
percentage of attendance is due to a lack of interest in the
proceedings, and to the fact that the tile workers are re-
luctant to leave their work because they get paid according
to the number of tiles they produce. So far the question
has never been raised as to whether, considering the number
of residents who attended, a particular meeting was valid
or not. The requirement that'a quorum (2/3 of the adult male
residents of the village) be present at the meetings is only
insisted on when there is a meeting to decide something of
particular importance; for example, an election of village
officials, or some matter connected with the village budget
or the use of the residents as a labor force (in building a
road or a new dam, etc.). Although the meeting may be attended
by the tjamat and representatives of the Ministries, the
chairman of the meeting is always the lurah or his substitute,
except in meetings for the purpose of electing a lurah. Every
resident of the village who attends has the right to speak
and to vote; voting is by a show of hands.
Special matters regarding the development of the
village which have been discussed in the village meetings
during the last two years are, among others, construction of
village streets, irrigation ditches, bridges and sentry
boxes; widening of the village streets; forming of co-opera-
tives; and erection of barns for storing rice against times
of shortage. Most of these problems were brought up by the
village officials, the remainder by individual residents
(usually those regarded as the prominent men of the village).
The proposals are discussed, but rarely do they meet with
opposition, so that it may be said that practically every
proposal is always supported by all those present at the
meeting. Opposition to the forming of co-operatives has at
times arisen. According to several prominent members of the
community, all the past resolutions approved in the village
meeting have been carried out by the village government. Up
to the present time no village meeting has formulated a
suggestion or resolution to be submitted to the civil service
officials oi’ to the Central Government.
In connection with the government of the village it will
be well to discuss the Rukun Tetangga and the Rukun Kampung
(kampung societies—tr.), although they are not government
agencies. The Rukun Tetangga and the Rukun Kampung originated
during the Japanese occupation, and they were intended to act
as distribution agencies; but their special function was to13
act as counter-espionage organizations for the Japanese
military government, for by this means every household
could be watched easily and cheaply, Every 17 households
(somah) formed on RT, and an RK coordinated several RT’s.
The heads of the RT’s and the RK's were chosen from among
the adult residents of the RT’s and RK’s concerned. During
the time of the Indonesian Revolution there were no RT’s and
RK's, but since 1950 they have been revived on the same
basis but with a different function. The new function of
the RT is to stimulate the spirit of gotong-rojong within
the circle of RT’s, e.g., in repairing houses, providing
assistance when someone dies, maintaining a night watch,
etc. In other words, what we have here is nothing else
than the modernization of sambat-sinambat: what was formerly
spontaneous has now to become an organized activity. Un-
fortunately, however, at the time when this study was
carried out it appeared that these RT’s had in actuality
ceased to function.
Connections between the kelurahan and the Civil Service--
above all with the tjamat (who often visits the villages)—
are evidently close and good. Once a week—and any other
time there is a need--the lurah reports to the tjamat on the
state of the village. In addition to this, there are
meetings attended by the village officials and by Civil
Service employees. On the 8th and the 18t,h of each month
there is a meeting of the l^et jamatan attended by all lurahs,
the tjamat, and wedana; on the 2nd of each month there is a
meeting of the kawedanan attended by all lurahs, tjamats, the
wedana, the patih, and representatives of the Ministries and
police in the kawedanan. The subjects discussed in these
meetings are observations regarding the state of the district,
routine matters, and statements of clarification regarding
the policy of the local government (kabupaten, kawedanan,
or ketjamatan) or of the Central Government, along with
methods of carrying these policies out (for example, the
Central Government's policy of buying rice from the districts)
Although the atmosphere of these meetings is unconstrained
nowadays and they resemble rather an exchange of ideas,
nevertheless it is clear that the Civil Service—especially
the tjamat—still maintains its role and position as the
determiner of how government policies are to be carried out.
In connection with this, it must be regretted that the
tjamats, the backbone of the system, are pitifully equipped:
none of them have telephones, typewriters, enough paper.
Moreover, even the offices of the wedanas are no better out-
fitted. Thus it is easy to understand the anxiety of the
Civil Service regarding the carrying out of the decentraliza-
tion edict (Edict no. 22, year 1948, Republik Indonesia, Jogja14
which divides Indonesia into three levels of autonomous
areas—provinces, kabupatens, and villages (desa)); for
according to thia edict, the kawedanan is to be abolished
and the ketjamatan is to retain merely an administrative
position"; but according to the Civil Service officials it is
quite clear at present that rural development projects are
mainly the result of the efforts of tjamats and wedanas.
So far there have not been any serious preparations—in
the form of moves to strengthen the financial position, etc.
of the village—which might enable a village to achieve
autonomy except for the establishing of a position called
the glondong. It is intended that the glondong act as coordi
nator for several villages, and one of the lurahs in the
glondong-area doubles as glondong. The village of Djabres,
for example, is included in the glondong-area of Sruweng,
which consists of the villages of Sruweng, Giwangretno and
Djabres. This office does not result in any addition to the
bengkok wet-fields of the lurah who fills it. Indeed, in
practice this position has no effect whatever, and it may be
regarded as a merely honorary office.15
ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION OF THE VILLAGE
The village treasury, like the national treasury, is
the source of funds for running the village government,
both as regards routine matters (costs involved in administra
tion, maintenance, and so forth), and expenses which fall
into the category of "social overhead capital" of the village
In contrast to the Central Government, a part of the main-
tenance costs as well as the "social overhead capital" of
the village need not be drawn from the village treasury,
for they can be met by means of gotong-rojong activities,
as discussed above.
The source of the village funds is the village bondo,
as a permanent source, and the pologoro, as a non-pernlanent
source. The village bondo is the name applied to land
owned by the village whose yield goes into the village
treasury. Different names are used in other regions. The
village bondo of Djabres consists of wet-fields 0.714 ha.
in area and garden lands which were formerly used as sites
for rice-storehouses for the village 0.028 ha. in area.
Of these bondo lands, 0.286 ha. are used by the andjir,
while the remaining 0.428 ha. are rented for Rp. 622.50 per
year to three residents of the village. Up to the present
time, these viilage wet-fields are the only large source of
income for the village, that is, about 85% of the total
income of the kelurahan (see Appendix I).
The pologoro is a fixed sum of money paid to the village
government by the residents when they carry out some particu-
lar job or transaction, which usually requires registration.
The fixing of the various types of actions which will re-
quire payment, and the amount of each payment, are accom-
plished after each election of a lurah in the village
meeting; thus these calculations are of irregular occurrence.
The proceeds of the pologoro type usually come from the
following sources; registration of marriages and divorces;
buying and selling of cattle (the buyer pays the pologoro);
slaughtering of cattle; feasts; buying and selling of land
(the pologoro is paid by the owner, by the celebrator, and
by the buyer respectively); and inheritance of land. Part
of the pologoro goes into the village treasury, and part of16
it goes directly to the officials of the village government.
The pologoro amounts in force at present in the village of
Djabres	are as follows:		
a.	Marriages and divorces:		
	for the village treasury	Rp.	0.50
	for the tjarik		0.50
	for the kaum		1.00
	Total	Rp.	2.50
b.	Buying and selling of cattle:		
	for the village treasury	Rp.	2.50
	for the lurah		1.50
	for the tjarik		1.00
	Total	Rp.	5.00
c.	Slaughtering Of cattle;		
	for the village treasury	Rp.	2.50
d.	Feasts:		
	for the village treasury	Rp.	5.00
e. Buying and selling of land:
—If the buyer of the land is a resident of the
village, he is taxed 5% of the selling price of
the land, with a maximum tax of Rp. 100.
—If the buyer is not a resident of the village,
he is taxed 5% of the selling price of the land,
with a maximum tax of Rp. 200.
—Of this pologoro money, the village treasury
receives 1/5, the lurah 1/5, and the other officials
of the village government 3/5 (which amount is
divided equally among them).17
f. Inheritance of land:
—If the heir is a resident of the village, he is
taxed 2^% of the estimated value of the land he
inherits, with a minimum of Rp. 5 and a maximum
of Rp. 50.
--If the heir is not a resident of the village,
he is taxed 2|% of the estimated value of the land,
with a minimum of Rp. 10 and a maximum of Rp. 100.
—Of this pologoro money, the village treasury
receives 1/5, the lurah 1/5, and the other officials
of the village government 3/5 (which amount is
divided equally among them).
The payments made out of the village treasury are
mainly for the following: office expenses, expenses connected
with improvement of the village, other irregular expenses,
and costs of carrying out plans for new works. The Office
expenses are those for the purchase of writing materials
for the kelurahan office. The expenses connected with
improvement of the village are mainly those of repairing
roads and bridges and of caring for the cemetery. The
other, irregular, expenses are for things such as contri-
butions toward the building of a mosque, and so forth. The
rest of the treasury funds are supposed to be for plans for
new works, but so far nothing requiring such an expenditure
has appeared. Of the total expenditures from the village
treasury, about 15% goes for office expenses, while most of
the expenses (±70%) go for improvement of the village, which
may better be termed public works activities. In this
connection, it should be remembered that the public works
activities which are carried out gotong-rojong fashion are
far greater than those which are paid for out of the village
treasury.
In order to illustrate this, let us try to compute the
money-value of a gotong-rojong project of the public works
type. Suppose that half of the male residents who are able
to work in this village (half of 219 is 110) participate in
road repairs which are carried out once every three months.
In the discussion of gotong-rojong above, it was stated that
if someone wants another person to perform his gotong-rojong
duty for him, he must pay "wages" of Rp. 3 per day plus two
meals; as the latter will cost at least Rp. 1, the total
wages for one day may be figured at Rp. 4. Thus the money-
value of the road repairs carried out gotong-rojong fashion
during the period of one year will be llO x 4 x Rp. 4 - Rp. 176018
This means that the money-value of these gotong-rojong road
repairs is more than three times as great as the expenditures
for public works activities from the village treasury. If we
suppose that all of the male residents who are able to work
in this village participate in these gotong-rojong road re-
pairs, then the money-value of the work would be Rp. 3520, or
seven times the expenditure for "public works" from the village
treasury. This figure does not include the value of the
broken tiles which are used to repair the roads, nor does it
include the cost of transporting them. If we include in
our calculations the money-value of gotong-rojong activities
in keeping the mosque in good repair" keeping the cemetery
clean, and other gugur-gunung projects, it is clear that the
sum would amount to 10 or 12 times the "public works" ex-
penditure from the village treasury.
The budget for the village is make up by the village
officials (the lurah together with the tjarik) before the end
of each year and is submitted to the village meeting. After
the official approval is obtained in the meeting, the budget
is used as a guide during the following year. As can be
seen in Appendix I, the composition of the budget is extremely
simple. This form of the budget was fixed by the kabupaten
and was in use before World War II.
The sum of the different types of pologoro payments that
are made by the residents of the village really exceeds the
amount shown for that item in the budget. This discrepancy
is due to the fact that part of the pologoro which is for
the village officials is not entered as an item in the village
treasury. Nor is it entered as an expenditure. Thus the
manner of bookkeeping gives the impression that the residents
pay part of the pologoro directly to the village officials
without its passing through the village treasury. There is
also the indication that the profits for the village
officials which originate from the pologoro are not obtained
from the village government (the village treasury), but
directly from the residents. Possibly this impression is
not correct, but is only due to the imperfect system of book-
keeping. But there also exists the possibility that the
impression is really true, and that among the residents and
the village officials there is no consciously felt line of
differentiation between the village government as a socio-
political institution and the individual office-holders of
the village government.
In reality the pologoro is nothing else than a form of
tax. The existence of a close connection between the income
of the village government and the various types of transactions19
may have rather definite results: for example, it makes
easier the buying and selling of land, marriages (especially
when there is a problem of estimating the age of a woman
who is to be married), and divorces.
In contrast to other types of pologoro, the pologoro
which originates from the slaughtering of cattle and feasts
is not divided among the village officials, but it deposited
in toto in the village treasury. The cause or rationale
of this is that this pologoro is of the nature of a tax (a
collection fixed by the government), while the other types
of pologoro contain an element of payment for a witness and
for administrative costs.
A fact which draws attention is that transactions of
buying and selling which are subject to pologoro payment
are only those involving the sale of large animals or of land;
sales of paserans (places where raw tiles are made), tobongs
(places where the tiles are baked), equipment for transport
(wagons, carts, etc.), and so forth, are not Subject to
pologoro. The reason for this distinction may be that the
pologoro is a traditional practice in one particular field
of work, and there have so far been no changes (that is, it
applies in matters concerned with agriculture, while other
fields of work are not or have not yet become subject to
pologoro payments). On the other hand, it is quite possible
that the reason for the distinction noted above is that in
order to buy and sell land and cattle it is necessary to
have a written statement (signed by a witness) registered
with the village government, while the buying and selling of
other things does not require this procedure. If it is
really this latter feature which is the cause of the afore-
mentioned distinction, then the pologoro may be regarded as
simply and solely a substitute for the payment of administra-
tive costs and of witness fees.
In Appendix II are shown the real income and expenditures
of the village Djabres for the year 1954. It is extremely
interesting to note that the surplus in the treasury for the
following year was listed as being the same as the surplus
for the preceding year. Receipts on an average of Rp. 750 per
year is really not very much. It is thus not surprising that
expenditures were limited solely to maintenance. And even
these expenditures were only possible thanks to the continued
existence of the gotong-rojong system, which greatly reduces
the need for payments in the form of money. Up to the
present no efforts toward increasing the income of the village
treasury have been noted, either from present sources of
income or from new sources. When greater autonomy of the20
village is established later on, the receipts of the treasury
will probably be increased by turning over to it a part of
the proceeds from taxes which have so far been turned over to
the Central Government or to the kabupaten. But this increase
in the receipts will probably still not be sufficient for
development projects in the village if at the same time
gotong-rojong activities decrease as a result of a weakening
of the traditional ties. For this reason it is essential
that the gotong-rojong system—which is really simply a
mobilization of disguised saving potential—be further culti-
vated and be provided with a definite purpose, so that there
may be a movement from the unconscious use of a system for
maintaining an existing situation to the conscious use of the
system for building something new.21
TAXATION
Of the taxes required of the residents of the village,
part goes to the kabupaten and the other part goes directly
to the Central Government. The taxes collected by the
kabupaten are those fixed for horse-drawn carts (dokar),
heavy ox-drawn carts (gerobag), and bicycles; the amounts
collected are Rp. 12, Rp. 15, and Rp. 5, respectively, per
vehicle per year (the technical term for this payment is
penning). The taxes collected by the Central Government
are the large interim tax and the small interim tax.
Before the year 1950 there was no interim tax; there
were only a land tax and a profits tax. The land tax was
levied on the yield of lands subject to a land tax, and
the amount depended on the class of the land concerned, as
follows; Class I wet-fields—Rp. 12.20 per ha.; Class II
wet-fields—Rp. 10.10 per ha.; Class III wet-fields—Rp. 7.90
per ha.; Class I garden-lands—Rp. 8 per ha.; Class II
garden-lands—Rp. 5.80 per ha.; Class III garden-lands—
Rp. 3.80 per ha. The profits tax was levied on the yield
which was not harvested from lands subject to a land tax--
for instance, from lands held under hereditary tenure (that
is, lands not under the juristiction of adat law). At
present these two types of taxes have been combined into
one tax under the name of interim tax.
Those who are liable to the small interim tax are
persons earning between Rp. 600 and Rp.5,000 per year; wage-
earners are excempted from this tax, as they already have a
tax on their wages. There is a total of 58 persons who pay
the small interim tax in this village, and their taxes
total Rp. 1,500 per year. This tax is collected by the
lurah himself, and for his trouble he receives a compensation
of 8% of the total tax amount collected. It should be made
clear that this 8% is for the lurah personally and not for
the kelurahan. This is the reason why this amount is not
listed in the budget for Djabres. The amounts of the taxes
and the persons who have to pay them are determined by a
small interim tax committee, which is composed of the wedana
of Pedjagoan as chairman, the tjamat of Sruweng and the" Turah
of Djabres as members, and an employee of the Tax Department
of the Central Government as advisor. The manner of deter-
mining the taxes on individuals is as follows. The lurah of22
Djabres submits to the tjamat of Sruweng a list of names of
residents who are libale to the small interim tax together
with the amount of tax for each individual. This list goes
to the wedana of Pedjagoan, and from there is forwarded to
the Tax Office of the kabupaten of Kebumen. This office then
orders a tax officer to check the list against the known
facts. Items which are in his opinion inexact or unjust are
requested to be changed and justified. After the results of
this check are made known to the Tax Office of Kebumen, the
list is returned to the tjamat of Sruweng via the wedana of
Pedjagoan. After this a day is fixed for a meeting of the
small interim tax committee, and those who are to be taxed
are also invited to attend the meeting. The decisions made
in the meeting are announced at the end of it to all those
who attend, or are later forwarded by the village govern-
ment to all those who have to pay taxes. They are allowed
a certain time within which to request a reconsideration of
their tax-amount if they feel it to be unfair; they must
submit their reasons to the above-mentioned committee via the
lurah. However, usually there is no taxable individual who
has to come to the meeting of the committee or make use of
his right to object to the tax-amount. The explanation for
this is that the lurah—if it really turns out that the tax-
amount fixed is too high and that the taxee in question is
greatly in arrears because he is unable to pay—may request
the government to cancel the unpaid amount of a person’s
taxes, and in this case the request is usually granted.
Persons who earn Rp. 5,000 or more per year are subject
to the large interim tax, as determined by the Head Financial
Inspector of Magelang. A list of those who are liable to
this tax is given to the ketjamatan by the kelurahan at the
request of the Tax Department of the Central Government. The
size of the tax depends on the results of an investigation
carried out by the Financial Inspectorate. The number of
persons in this village who had to pay the large interim tax
was three, and their taxes totalled Rp. 1,250 per year.
According to the information that was obtained, the tax-
collector had no difficulties with his job In fact, each
year in the month of October at the latest all the taxes had
been paid. The impression was that those who had to pay taxes
did not feel that they were overcharged. Furthermore, there
was no indication that the residents and the village officials
felt that too much of the tax money was going to the Central
Government and that too little was being set aside for the
particular needs of the village. Though the villagers may
not , indeed, really feel this way, possibly the reason is
that the paying of taxes to the Central Government is regarded23
as a long-standing tradition not subject to re-evaluation.
On the other hand, it is possible that the villagers feel
that the system is fair because the amount of tax that
each individual must pay is not really felt to be excessive,
and thus the amount handed over to the Central Government is
not excessive, while for developing the village itself it is
felt that there is sufficient "reserve" in the form of
direct assistance that can be assembled when needed.24
UNTAPPED TAXABLE CAPACITY
Having successivly sketched the system of government,
economy, and taxes in the village of Djabres, we now wish to
look more closely at the tile industry in this village—as
we indicated in our Foreword—in order to answer the question
of whether there are really "significant margins of untapped
taxable capacity .... among the upper income groups in the
rural sector," especially those who are of "non-agricultural
functions" (10).
In the village of Djabres there are 20 complete tile
enterprises; they may be grouped as follows:
Number of com-	Number of	tobongs	Total no.	Total no.
plete enterprises	and paserans owned		of tobongs	of paserans
	by eabh enterprise			
	Tobongs	Paserans		
2	1	1	2	2
9	1	2	9	18
4	1	3	4	12
2	1	4	2	8
1	1	5	1	5
1	1	6	1	6
1	2	7	2	7
Totals:	20	21	58
Generally the paserans do not work a full year, but only 10
months, for they do not produce during the season when the
(10) Douglas S. Paauw, "Rejoinder to J. A. van Veen, ’Some
notes on the tax burden and economic development in
Indonesia'," Ekonomi dan Keuangan Indonesia, March 1955,
p. 189.	-------------------------------25
rice fields are being worked and when they are being har-
vested. Furthermore, during the rainy season the paserans
do not produce their full capacity, but only about half their
capacity. A paseran working at full capacity will produce
an average of 15,000 tiles per month. Thus the production
of each paseran in a year will be:
a.	5 months at 15,000 raw tiles =: 75,000 raw tiles
b.	5 months at 6,000 raw tiles r 30,000 raw tiles
Total:	105,000 raw tiles
Each tobong can hold on the average 17,000 raw tiles for
baking at one time. If we assume for the sake of example
that the tobongs are used to bake only the products of their
own enterprises (that is, are not rented out to incomplete
enterprises), and that the net profit on each 1000 baked
tiles averages Rp. 30 (11), we can now compute the profits
of the 20 complete tile enterprises.
As there is a 20% risk of the tiles being broken through
handling or while drying in the sun, about 21,000 raw tiles
must be prepared in order for a tobong to have 17,000 tiles
to bake. From this we see that the production of raw tiles
by one paseran in a year is sufficient to require five
bakings in a tobong and n paserans will thus have to have
n x 5 bakings per year (Τ27Ί Assuming a 10% risk of breakage
cFuring each baking, the product will be 15,000 baked tiles
each time.
Using the information given above, we may compute the
amount of profit" made by the 20 complete tile enterprises
(11)	See Appendix m, "Calculation of the cost price of tiles
in the village of Djabres."
(12)	For each baking, a tobong is used for a 7-day period:
2 days for putting the tiles in, 2 days to let it get
hot, 1 day for baking, and 2 days for cooling and remov-
ing the tiles. That is, in one month a tobong can
provide as many as 4 bakings. But, as was the case with
the paserans, the tobongs do not work at full capacity,
so that they are only used on an average 3 times per
month.' In order to guarantee a continuous production
of baked tiles based on the normal capacity of tobongs
and paserans, each tobong will thus have to be served by
7 paserans. The ratio of tobongs to paserans (21 : 140)
at present in Djabres may thus be said to be correct.26
referred to above on the basis of the number of tobongs and
paserans in each enterprise and the number of bakings. From
the calculations which we made (13) it turns out that most of
the 20 complete tile enterprises referred to above should
really be subject to the large interim tax, especially if
they rent out their tobongs to incomplete tile enterprises
and have other sources of income as well. At present, there
are only three owners of tile enterprises who have to pay
the large interim tax.
Another kind of tax that may be collected is the wage
tax. As we have said, each paseran produces an average ox
105,000 raw tiles per year, or about 9,000 raw tiles per
month. The wages paid for making these tiles are in the form
of piece-work wages at the following rates: Rp. 5 per 1000
tiles for pulverizing the earth; Rp. 7 per 1000 tiles for
shaping the tiles; Rp. 8 per 1000 tiles for rubbing the tiles.
Thus each paseran pays out an average of Rp. 180 per month
in the form of piece-work wages. Since the incomplete enter-
prises usually consist of one paseran only and are operated
by the members of the family themselves—or at the most use
one outside laborer whose wages amount to less than Rp. 100
per month—we can leave them out of consideration here (as
they are free of wage taxes). We will consider now the com-
plete enterprises in which the owner functions only as the
head. We have said that the total number of paserans in
complete enterprises in 58. Therefore the production of raw
tiles from these 20 complete enterprises is 58 x 105,000 =
6,090,000 raw tiles per year. If, starting with the Rp. 20
which is paid in wages for the production of 100 raw tiles,
we now add up the other wages involved—that is, Rp. 100 per
17,000 for drying the tiles in the sun and putting them in
the tobong, Rp. 30 per 17,000 for heating the tiles, Rp. 20
per 17,0OO for baking the tiles, and Rp. 20 per 17,000 for
removing the tiles from the tobong—we may then compute the
total wages which must be paid out by the 20 complete enter-
prises in this village, and we will thus be able to calculate
the wage taxes which may be collected (14).
Besides the two types of taxes discussed above there is
also the sales tax, the amount of which can be computed on the
(13)	For several reasons we have not included in this report
the calculations on the profits made by the various
tile enterprises.
(14)	For several reasons we have not included in this report
the exact calculations of the wage tax which might be
collected. See also Appendix III.27
basis of the number and price of tiles sold (15).
From the discussion above it should be clear that in
this village there are indeed "margins of untapped taxable
capacity among the upper income groups" which may be esti-
mated in thousands of rupiahs, probably even in tens of
thousands. It is thus also clear that the tile industry in
this village has a very important position, not only as a
means of existence for the residents, but also as a potential
source of revenue for the state.
But whether or not this "untapped taxable capacity" should
be utilized according to the law is another question. We
have grave doubts as to the value of a policy which would
increase sharply the taxes of the tile enterprises of this
village at the present time. If steps were taken to carry
out such a policy at the present stage of development, the
results might be the opposite of what is hoped for.
First of all it must be remembered that these tile enter-
prises are non-agricultural and do not constitute a secondary
means of livelihood for farmers only, but are a primary means
of existence for most of the residents of the village. If
one of the aims of the policy of economic development is
really to strive for a good balance between the agricultural
sector and the industrial sector, so that the surplus popula-
tion in rural areas will have a broader opportunity for work
in non-agricultural fields, than one of the tactics of the
state must be to stimulate the development of non-agricultural
enterprises in rural areas. Not collecting several kinds of
taxes, or collecting less than the amount fixed by law or
custom, is thus a form of government subsidy. It is feared
that by collecting all the taxes in the amounts authorized by
law, the government will actually obstruct the development
of the enterprises referred to above, and may even cause a
deterioration accompanied by all sorts of unpleasant results.
Moreover, in the present state of equilibrium the taxes
collected are not directly used for the particular needs of
the village concerned. The collecting of all taxes legally
required from the tile enterprises of this village would be
a potential source of social tensions, and this would very
probably negate the effects which were supposed to be achieved
by collecting the legitimate taxes.
It would be otherwise if the collection of all legiti-
mate taxes were carried out together with efforts to estab-
lish the autonomy of the village and a fair division of the
money collected between the Central Government and the local
T15) For the same reason as we have referred to in the case
of the wage taxes, we have not included in this report
exact calculations of the amount of the sales tax which
might be collected.28
government (in this case an autonomous administrative
unit of the third level).	If this concerted effort were
made—which would mean all, or the greater part of, these
taxes collected would remain in the hands of the village
government and would be used directly for the development of
the village—then there would be only a very slight possibilxty
that the social tensions mentioned above would develop.
Whether the first danger alluded to abovle—the obstruc-
tion and deterioration of the tile enterprises—would also
be removed by establishing the autonomy of the village and a
fair division of the money collected, would depend on how the
taxes collected by the village were utilized. If they were
used in such a way as to bring about "external economies" for
the tile enterprises, or to further other actions which would
directly assist these enterprises (for example, loans for the
purpose of setting up organizations for collective buying or_
selling; loans for repairing or improving equipment; combat-
ting the various types of debts), then this danger would be
reduced.
Besides this, if the collecting of the legitimate taxes
were carried out along with the establishment of the autonomy
of the village and a fair division of the money, this
action would be of great significance from another point of
view:	it would make weaker the gotong-rojong activities
which up to the present have been the most important source
of "funds” for carrying out the public works projects of
the village. Moreover, the collecting of taxes is a pro-
gressive move, while gotong-rojong may be said to be regres-
sive, although in recent times symptoms of progressiveness
have been shown in gotong-rojong activities, as, for example,
the repair of roads in Djabres.29

pamong
pamong
APPENDIX I
STRUCTURE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT
| Gubernurj
ResiSen |Residen| Residen
Bup*ati
Pradja P&tih
			
	Bupati	
	Patih	
		
Bupati
Patih
Wedana | Wedanaj Wectana
Tjamat
Asisten
^Wedana)
Lur3h~
	
Tjamat (Asisten Wedana)	
	
I Lur ah|
Tjamat
(Asisten
Wedana)
Ltfrah
1 TiongkoklT.iarikl
Desa <	| Kepetengan|Kaum|Andjir]
KebSjan [Kebajanj Kebajan
head of Propinsi
(province")
head of Karesidenan
(residency)	—
head and vice-head
of Kabupaten
(regency)
head of Kawedanan
(dis tr icT)
head of Ketjamatan
(sub-district) r
head of Kelurahan (Desa)
(Vi1lage) and village
administration
head of Dukuh
(hamlet)
The structure and terminology at and below the level of the
Kelurahan does not necessarily have reference to villages other
than Djabres.No.
INCOME
short description
Estimate
of income
during 1
jrear
Rp. sen
Remainder in treasury
this date
Α» Regular income;
Profits from the
village bondo-
1ands 0.428 ha.
sold/rented at
estimated prices
etc. for one year
B. Irregular income;
a.	from witness fees
2% average......
b.	from dissolving
marriages
(divorces)......
c.	from sale of
livestock.......
d.	from celebrations
e.	other...........
40.93
622.50
5.00
10.00
5.00
5.00
25.00
763.43
No.
EXPENSES short description	Estimate of expenses during 1 year		Remarks
	Rp.	sen	
A. Office expenses a.	paper	Rp.50— b.	dark ink	10— c.	red ink	5— d.	stamp-pad ink 7— e.	pens	4— f.	other	39— Total;	115	.00	
B. Village mainte- nance costs; a. keeping cemetery clean.   . . ......	200	.00	
b. repairing roads	250	.00	
c. repairing bridges.	. .	80	00	
d. other. . . 			27	.50	
C. Other irregular expenses; a.	contribution for building a public mosque	 b.	contribution for social welfare...	50	.00	
c. 1 writing desk and chair for the village		 . . . . D. Plan of works to be carried out as described in the attached list of projects Total		722	.50	
Surplus...	40	.93	
	763	.43	
w		
e+		P P
Φ		cr p
9		£ CD
P·		*0 ω
N		P P·
Φ		ct fX
Cl		Φ Φ
P*		P 3 .. p
P·		P
ω		• ·
Ch 0		w w w w
Ho		w o
		α a
P·	Φ	
£3	W pj	w
O	& s	*
Φ	Φ p- cf P.	
P	P	
P	Ho ··	>
Cl	o p a	hd
Φ	Cj.	w
X	<+ P	*
	p- cr	o
Φ	Φ P	w
P	φ	X
Φ	φ	w
	P	Hl
4 a
Η· O
Β H ·
P	o	Φ P
O	Qi CO	
Cj.		Cj. φ
P		P Cl
o-		9 P
P		P P
Φ		c+ P
ω		P P
		P ··
a		• ·
P		
P		ω φ
P·		p ci
P		C O.
aq		3 P
(D 0Q
P-*	P	0	
O	aq	P	
Cl		P	
			co
Received
Assisten Wedana
Lurah33
APPENDIX III
Calculation of the Cost-Price of Tile
in the Village of Djabres
Since none of the tile enterprises in the village of
Djabres use any calculation of cost-price in operations, we
will try below to determine the cost-price on the basis of
the information we collected concerning the process of tile
production.
1.	It is known that the risk of breakage from rubbing in the
paseran is 10%, the risk during drying in the sun and
putting in the tobong is also 10%, and the risk during the
baking is likewise 10%. It has also been stated that for
one tobong to produce 15,000 baked tiles in one baking,
17,000 raw tiles must be put into it, and this requires
that 21,000 raw tiles be made up for each baking (or that
18,900 raw tiles be bought).
2.	Every 1000 raw tiles require about 1 cu. m. of earth, as
the main raw material, at a price of Rp. 0.25 (16), and
1/5 cu. m. of sand, as a secondary raw material when the
tiles are being stamped out, at a price of Rp. 5.00.
3.	The making of raw tiles requires first of all pulverized
earth, which is produced on a piece-work basis at the
rate of Rp. 5 in money per cu. m. plus Rp. 1.00 in the
form of food once a day. This work is usually done by
one man in each paseran, and in one day (±8 hours) he
can produce 1 cu. m. oT pulverized earth.
4.	Then this pulverized earth is pressed out into a flat,
four-sided form with fixed dimensions. This operation is
also paid for on a piece-work basis, at the rate of Rp. 7
per 1000 pressings. Ordinarily this operation is per-
formed by one person in a paseran, and in one day he can
produce 500 pressings.
(lb) One paseran rents on an average 100 ubihs (=1/7 ha.=
l,	429 sq. m.) of land in a year, which means about
Rp. 500. The earth can only be dug to a depth of 1%
m.	Since 1000 raw tiles require 1 cu. m. of pulverized
earth, this amount of earth can be supplied from 2/3
sq. m. of earth dug to a depth of 1% m. Thus the price
of 1 cu. m. of earth is 2/3 x Rp. 500 = approx. Rp. 0.25
T4ZS34
5.	After this the pressing is rubbed until it has the shape
of a tile. This process is also paid for as'piece-work,
at the rate of Rp. 8 per 1000 raw tiles. Usually this
work is done by two women in one paseran, and together
they can produce 500 raw tiles in a day.
6.	Before the raw tiles can be put into the tobong they must
be dried in the sun first. The work of drying 18,900 raw
tiles in the sun and filling 1 tobong with them is performed
by 10 persons in two days; for this they are paid at the
rate of Rp. 5.00 per day each, plus Rp. 2.50 in the form
of food once a day.
7.	After the raw tiles are stacked in the tobong they are
first heated slowly over a two-day period so that they
will not crack when they are baked. This work is carried
out by two persons who are paid Rp. 7.50 per day each.
8.	After these preparations the baking is carried out; it
lasts for 16 hours. This requires 8 gerobag-loads of
coconut shells at Rp. 80.00 per gerobag. The job is paid
for as piece-work; usually it is done by two persons who
receive wages of Rp. 10 each, plus two meals and cigarettes
of a value of Rp. 5. After 16 hours the fire is allowed
to die gradually, and two days later the removing of the
tiles can begin.
9.	The removal of the tiles from the tobong is paid for as
piece-work; it is usually carried out by 8 persons who are
paid Rp. 2.50 each. Half or three-fourths of these workers
are usually women. The men workers go inside the tobong
and pass the tiles out to the women workers, who then
stack them and separate the broken tiles from the good
ones .35
Cost-price of 15,000 finished tiles:
1.	Cost of making the raw tiles (18,900):
	a.	earth:	: 21 cu.m, x Rp.	0.25	=	5.25
	b.	sand:	4 1/5 cu.m, x Rp	. 5 per	1/5 cu.m.	«	105.00
•	c.	wages	(piece-work):			
		- for	pulverizing the	earth:	wages in the	
form of money: 21 cu.m, x Rp. 5 in the form of food:		=	105 = 21 126
	21 days x Rp. 1	
- for	stamping the tiles: 21,000 x Rp. 7 per 1000	=	147
- for	rubbing the tiles: 21,000 x Rp. 8 per 1000	= 166
439
549.25
d.	risk of breakage during rubbing:
(21,000 - 18,.900) x Rp. 35 per 1000	=	73.50
622.75
e.	depreciation of equipment:
(18,900 x Rp. 35 per 100) - Rp. 622.75	=	38.75
661.50
2.	Risk during sun-drying and putting into tobong
(= cost of raw tiles which get broken):
(18,900 - 17,000) x Rp. 35 per 100	=	66.50
738.00
3.	Cost of sun-drying and putting into tobong
(day-wages):
a.	wages for 10 persons x 2 days x Rp. 5 «	100
b.	1 meal x 10 persons x 2 days
x Rp. 2.50	=	50
150.00
878.0036
878.00
4. Cost of heating tobong		(day-wages:	
a.	wages for 2 persons	x 2 days x Rp. 7.50	=	30
b.	1 meal 4- cigarettes :	2 persons x 2 days x Rp. 5	=	20 928.00
5. Cost of baking tiles (piece-work):			
a.	cost of coconut shells; 8 gerobags x Rp. 80	=		640
b.	wages of 2 persons x	Rp. 10	20
c.	2 meals + cigarettes: 2 persons x Rp. 5	=		20
680.00
1608.00
6. Cost of renting tobong:			
a. maintenance cost	. =	50	
b. depreciation cost ·+■ bonus and wages of entrepreneur	=	50	100.00 1708.00
7. Cost of removing tiles from tobong (piece-work): 8 persons x Rp. 8.50			20.00
8. Risk during baking of tiles (= cost of
broken tiles):
(17,000 - 15,000) x Rp. 35 per 1000	=	70.00
Rp. 1798.00
Thus the cost-price for 1000 finished tiles is Rp. 119.86, or,
to round it off, Rp. 120.00. As the price of finished tiles
is Rp. 150 per 1000, the profit on 1000 tiles would be
Rp. 30.37
If we look closer at the production of raw tiles, we
see that in reality there is no profit at all, for the cost-
price of 18,900 raw tiles (Rp. 661.50) is the same as the
profits from the sale of 18,900 raw tiles (at Rp. 35 per 1000
raw tiles = Rp. 661.50). And if in the cost-price we include
also the wages and bonus of the entrepreneur together with a
fairly computed depreciation of the equipment (not as we
computed it above, i.e., the difference between the selling
price and the cost of earth, sand, workers' wages, and risk
during sun-drying—a very minimum difference), then there
will be not a profit but a loss. Since the independent
paserans are generally operated by the owners and the
members of their families, the "profits" realized are really
nothing else than the wages of these workers and the costs
of sun-drying risks and depreciation of the equipment. The
"profits" realized by the owner of a paseran on each 1000
raw tiles would be /Rp. 661.50 - (Rp. 5.25 + Rp. 105)7 +18.9
raw tiles - Rp. 29.20. As the production of one paseran
in one year is 105,000 raw tiles, the "profit in one year
would be 105,00 x Rp. 29.20 per 1000 = Rp. 3,066.00, or
Rp. 255.50 per month.
Likewise, if the owner of an incomplete enterprise
rents a tobong to bake his tiles he will not realize any
profit at all on their sale. That is, the "profits" he obtains
are nothing else than the costs noted above plus the losses
due to breakage during sun-drying, putting the tiles into
the tobong, and baking.
Thus the only one who can realize a net profit from
the manufacture of tiles is the owner of a complete enter-
prise .
f»I