Mendes Yandri Highlights Extortion Of Village Heads By NGO Personnel And Fake Journalists

Minister of Villages and Development of Disadvantaged Regions (PDT) Yandri Susanto. ANTARA/Devi Nindy.

JAKARTA - Minister of Villages and Development of Disadvantaged Regions (Mendes PDT) Yandri Susanto highlighted allegations of extortion against village heads (kades) carried out by unscrupulous NGOs and fake journalists or bodrek.

"The two of the most disturbing village heads are NGOs and bodrek journalists and they are pouring it out. Today to this village asking for Rp. 1 million. Imagine, if there were 300 villages, Rp. 300 million, the Ministry of Village salaries lost, the minister's salary lost," said Yandri in a video clip circulating on social media as monitored in Jakarta, Antara, Sunday, February 2.

The video clips that reaped various comments, especially comments from a number of journalists, came from the live broadcast of the Socialization of the Minister of Village Regulation (Permendes) Number 2 of 2024 concerning Operational Guidelines for the Focus of Using Village Funds in 2025 for the Java region, which was broadcast on the YouTube channel of the Ministry of Villages PDT on Friday, January 31.

On this occasion, Mendes Yandri responded to Taufan Zakaria's presentation as the Coordinator at the Deputy Attorney General for Intelligence (Jamintel) at the Attorney General's Office (AGO) which alluded to the Village Guard application.

The application was presented by the AGO to accelerate the response to various legal problems that occurred in the village or involved the village head.

At that moment, Mendes Yandri then revealed that one of the problems faced by the village head at this time was the alleged extortion by NGOs and fake journalists. He then asked the AGO and the National Police to follow up on all reports and findings regarding the case.

Apart from Yandri and Taufan, the socialization activity was also attended by the Head of the National Police's Security Maintenance Agency (Kabaharkam), Police Commissioner General Fadil Imran.

Previously, Mendes Yandri had conveyed that the Ministry of Villages and Development of Disadvantaged Regions (Kemendes PDT) was collaborating with the police and prosecutors, among others, to prevent the use of fictitious Village Funds, especially related to efforts to realize food security.

"If we calculate this Village Fund, there will be at least Rp. 16 trillion, it's huge. So we ask the police and prosecutors to take part in guarding this, we don't want anyone to be fictitious," he said.

He gave an example that what is meant by the use of the fictitious Village Fund is that the village head claims to use the Village Fund for ten thousand corns, but in fact it is only a thousand corns.

"Yesterday (the socialization of the Permendes) in Sumatra Zone II, planting a thousand packs of corn, was made ten thousand. That's fictitious. Later, the Police and Prosecutors will please enter it," said Mendes PDT Yandri Susanto.