Taufiq Kamal, Motivator of a Digital Village

For Taufiq Kamal, there’s nothing he wants to achieve more than dedicating his life and being of benefit to a lot of people.

KOMPAS/FERGANATA INDRA RIATMOKO

Taufiq Kamal

Government functions can be executed digitally. Matters are handled faster and more easily and control can be done by the public. Taufiq Kamal, the Kalurahan (village) Head of Pleret, Bantul, Yogyakarta, has proven this. Digital administration has proven to facilitate the life of village residents.

Since his installment as village head on 29 December 2020, Taufiq has gradually changed the government system in his village into an all-digital arrangement. The administration is managed in a controlled fashion under an integrated information technology (IT) system through the website pleret.id. This village administration can also be followed via the application Kalurahan Pleret, which can be downloaded from Google Play Store.

As a note, kalurahan is another name for a village. In Yogyakarta, villages are subsumed under the nomenclature of kalurahan. Kalurahan is different from kelurahan (subdistrict) although their leaders share the same title of lurah (head). A kalurahan (village) has the authority to govern itself according to its local socio-cultural conditions, while the authority of a kelurahan is limited.

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With an IT system owned by Pleret village, village administrators record their presence electronically. The presence can be viewed digitally by residents. If they are late for work or skip work, all residents who open the website pleret.id will find it out. If they start office work before 7 a.m., they receive a Rp 5,000 (US$3) performance allowance. “The value indeed isn’t much, but at least there’s a reward for those who come earlier,” said Taufiq.

Correspondence service standards can also be accessed from everywhere. The village head’s signature can be added digitally. The administration presents the village budget (APBD) and its spending on a real time basis on the village website.

At present, the data recording of village residents is done by putting up QR codes on houses. If the occupant of the house wants to renew their data, they can easily do it themselves. “We also upload development plans and budget utilization in real time on the website. All residents can open and monitor the village budget,” said Taufiq.

The value indeed isn’t much, but at least there’s a reward for those who come earlier.

He added that the treasurer would report the village treasury every month through the website. This is meant to prevent irregularities.

The village of around 14,000 residents has a website that operates dynamically in conformity with the instruction of Whatsapp (WA) because the website is directly connected with the WA gateway in real time. “Even the development activity execution team (TPK) in the village is also linked to this IT system. They can thus input the progress of developments,” he said.

Taufiq has authority over the budget expenditure and can easily monitor progress in every hamlet. “Our development makes rapid progress because Pleret has a master plan. So, the direction in which Pleret is heading into in the future is clear. What is to be done with the village communal land is also clear. The main aim is to achieve public welfare,” he pointed out.

KOMPAS/FERGANATA INDRA RIATMOKO

Taufiq Kamal

Offline relations

In Pleret village not everything has to do with digital technology. Personal relations between the village head and administrators, the village head and residents are also fostered. Taufiq often personally visits residents, attends programs where he is invited and has heart-to-heart talks. All these activities strengthen the bond of brotherhood in the village.

“Residents are very pleased to be visited. It’s even more so when we can have heart-to-heart chats. Therefore, the key to building good relations with residents is meeting with them, listening to their complaints and ideas that can be realized for the sake of village development,” said Taufiq.

Building good ties with residents is not difficult for the man who has previously had frequent contacts with many people. His first test was after being appointed as village head, how he approached village personnel who had earlier been closer to the former village head whom Taufiq defeated in the regional election.

“After I was elected, no village administrator seemed to support me. However, I called on them to join hands in developing the village. I invited them to make a pact of integrity. With the information technology I have mastered, I convinced them that the administration we are building will be different from the previous one,” said the holder of a master's degree in computer science from Gadjah Mada University.

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Taufiq strives to encourage his staff to work but he does not abandon those who declined to follow him. “I approach them and ask them to join. At first, they might refuse. But I try again for a second time and a third time, until they agree,” he added.

With all his innovations, Taufiq hopes his knowledge can benefit many people, especially the village residents. “The best of men are those of great benefit to his fellow men. That is why I ran for the post of village head. When I worked in a private business I only brought benefits to myself and my family,” he said.

For Taufiq, there’s nothing he wants to achieve more than dedicating his life and being of benefit to a lot of people. “What more is to be sought in life? I’ve done everything, I’ve traveled everywhere. I’ve also had lots of money from projects I used to undertake. I was once offered to be a minister’s staffer. But I refused it. I want to build the village and create a suitable system so that in the future, although I’m no longer in office, it will continue to operate and be beneficial to residents,” said Taufiq.

Steadily, Taufiq’s aspirations to upgrade his village have materialized. A year after Taufiq served as village head, Pleret village emerged as champion of Bantul regency’s village competition. Pleret village has shown that it is not impossible to work out serious problems. The village that was once never taken into account has now become one of the region’s referral villages.

Taufiq Kamal

Born:Bantul, 13 March 1978

Education:

- Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, STMIK Akakom, Yogyakarta (2005-2009)

- Master’s degree in Computer Science, Gadjah Mada University (2014-2017)

Occupation:

- Head of Pleret Village, Bantul, Yogyakarta

- Lecturer at Nahdlatul Ulama University, Yogyakarta

- Director of CV Infotech Engineering

This article was translated by Aris Prawira.