Bagus Budi Tama Saragih, Jakarta – More than a 1,000 village heads and their subordinates staged a rally in front of the House of Representatives' building Monday demanding lawmakers immediately pass the village development bill into law. They said it was filed a decade ago.

Village public servants from the Indonesian Village Heads Asso-ciation, wearing civil servant uniforms, arrived using dozens of buses that parked on the side streets of Jl. Gatot Subroto, causing traffic jams.

Using a mini stage with a mini sound system, the village heads voiced their demands in turns.

"The government should listen to us as 78 percent of the country's population live in rural areas," Sudir Santoso, Parade Nusantara chairman, said.

"But state funds are centralized and rarely reach village levels. The current village budget is small and mostly absorbed for salaries and wages. How can we develop the local economy without sufficient funds?"

The village heads urged the House to deliberate the village development bill as it would be the legal platform of their demands.

A Parade Nusantara official, Agus Salim, said the bill consisted of three main points. "First, we want the government to allocate 10 percent of the state budget as a 'block grant' for villages," he said.

Home Ministry data reveals there are about 73,000 villages in the country. Assuming that the state budget reached Rp 1,000 trillion (US$108 billion), villages should receive Rp 100 trillion, or Rp 1.36 billion each on average, Agus said.

He explained that the block grant scheme was better than the Community Empowerment Fund (PNPM Mandiri). "The requirements to apply for PNPM Mandiri funds are not clear. As a result, most program funds were used for publication and TV advertisements," he said.

The second point, Agus added, was the bill also regulated 65 as the maximum age to be a village head. "Currently, it's 56 years old."

The last point, he went on, was that financing for village head elections must be fully covered by regional budgets. "Our current budget is low and not sufficient to hold quality village head elections," Agus said.

Sudir said village authorities would boycott all public services at village level if their demands were not implemented. "This nation will paralyze without us," he said.

Abdul Rozak, the head of Besito village, Gebog district, Kudus regency in Central Java, protested to the parliament for neglecting the bill for more than 10 years.

"It's ironic," he said. "The government took only one hour to disburse the Rp 6.76 trillion Bank Century bailout funds that pleased just a few."

Priyo Budi Santoso, House deputy speaker, promised to accommodate their needs. "I understand, there is no other choice but to pass the bill into law this year," he said.