The Tua Golo, traditional leader in Mbhal
We had a long walk to a sub-village, Kampung Mbhal, were we met the traditional local leaders, the Tua Golo. The Tua Golo are in charge of their own districts, but in cases where conflicts involve more villages, they cooperate.
There is no priest in Mbhal, so the village has a local Goro Agama who takes the responsibility for religious matters. The general attitude to the church is quite negative. They think the church is to demanding and they get little in return. If the church arranges something, all villagers have to pay the same amount of money, even though some people are poorer and struggle to give these payments. These payments should depend on your income, according to the Tua Gol.
On rare occasions, politicians visit the village. The general knowledge about politics is low, and people are sceptical are don’t normally trust what politicians say. Mostly they vote for the most charismatic person or the political party that the Tua Golo recommends. But there is rarely any help in the Tua Golo`s advice, since he knows just as little about politics as the other villagers.
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