"We are together, come good times and bad."
The subak is a self-governing, communal, democratic association of farmers who work together with the shared goal of farming rice. To ensure that each individual member has equal and fair treatment, the subaks abide by awig-awig, a written rulebook that they created to govern themselves.
The subak head, pekaseh, is elected by the members. The pekaseh helps organize regular meetings and represents the subak at external meetings. At the subak meeting pavilion, where meetings are held, the voices of everyone are heard. Here, every decision, rule or conflict is discussed and resolved together.
Within the subak, the pekaseh leads the members in coordinating the management of water, organizing water temple rituals, planning irrigation schedules and choosing the variety of rice to plant. The farmers synchronize their cropping patterns and irrigation schedule, often in consultation with other subaks, to create an optimal balance between the sharing of limited water and minimizing pest infestations. The subak also takes on the responsibility of preserving the irrigation infrastructure.