As capital for development, the village actually has three strengths, viz local voice, local choice, And local wisdom. In fact, strength local wisdom little attention from the government. In fact, this power plays an important role in village development in the present era. This is what is revealed in National Workshop 2015: Innovative Village Design within the Framework of the ASEAN Economic Community, Wednesday (7/10). The event which took place in the Hall of Building A Floor 4 of FIA UB was initiated by the Politics and Governance Laboratory, Faculty of Administrative Sciences, Universitas Brawijaya (FIA UB) in collaboration with the East Java branch of the Association of Observers of Indonesian Community Empowerment.
According to Dr. MR Khairul Muluk, M.Sc, as one of the speakers in this activity, the village is the true form of local government. The expert in the field of Public Participation suggested that the central government should provide as many opportunities as possible for village communities to continue learning. “Local wisdom this is like a unique DNA for a village. Therefore the village must understand its characteristics and make a development plan based on its potential," said Muluk who also serves as Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs of FIA UB.
Meanwhile, dr. Wilopo, M.AB, another speaker at the event which was packaged like Indonesian Lawyers Club in one of the private television stations proposed to the government to start the innovation process from below or the village and not the other way around. According to Wilopo, the three main factors for village prosperity are innovation, entrepreneurial spirit, and new technology. The importance of innovation for village prosperity is reflected in the courage of the United States and China in holding the event Young Entrepreneur in Village. "Innovation is not only talking about new products, but also how to do old things in new ways," added the Head of the FIA UB Business Administration Study Program.
The workshop was attended by a number of representatives from the provincial, city/district governments in East Java, rural practitioners, and academics in the field of public administration. This event is a series of events with titles Innovative Village Competition which was held the day before. In that event, as many as nine villages competed in the final round after going through the selection stage from 25 villages throughout East Java that registered. The nine villages were asked to present their innovation concepts in front of a jury consisting of academics and rural practitioners. It was noted that several cities in East Java sent one representative village in the final round, including Trenggalek, Blitar, Ngawi, Mojokerto and Malang.
Coverage Team:
Article: Aulia Luqman Aziz
Photo: Aulia Luqman Aziz
