This study aims to examine development communication in community participation in village development planning. Community participation is very important because it can guarantee the effectiveness of development programs. There are a number of obstacles to community participation in development planning. Some identified barriers are the absence of legal support (Rumensten, 2012), lack of public awareness, low quality of human resources, length of stay and hours employment type (Wijaksono, 2013), lack of socialization from the government (Sagita, 2016), poverty and limited access provided by the government (Ompusunggu, 2017), and interest of bureaucracy in planning (Mbeche, 2017). These studies, indeed, have not considered yet cultural factor leading to disinvolvement. This qualitative case study extends previous studies by revealing the culture of mamfatin ukunrai discouraging community participation in development planning in Naran Village (pseudonym), Raimanuk Subdistrict, Belu Regency. Mamfatin ukunrai is a custom considering development planning is government's duties and responsibilities. Villagers are merely the executor of development programs. This custom is a legacy of royal government system and dominates the mindset of villagers. The tradition of highly appreciating the government unwittingly creates an invisible distance between government and society. It has discouraged villagers’ participation.

Community participation is very important and contributes to the effectiveness of the resulting development planning. However, until now community participation has not been realized ideally. Previous studies have offered various efforts to increase community participation, namely increased local community initiatives (Muhlinghaus & Walty, 2001), development of government and community cooperation (Pandey & Miznikov, 2001), integration of art and planning (Burford, Kissmann, Rosado- May, Dzul, & Harder, 2012), optimizing the role of social capital (Cerar, 2014), socialization to the bottom of the community (Defina, 2012), participatory leadership (Alyas, 2015), allocation of village funds (Atmojo, Eko, Fridayani, Kasiwi, & Pratama, 2017) and optimizing the role of young people as mobilizers (Fitriani, Selinaswati, & Mardiah, 2017). Unfortunately, there has not been an assessment effort that looks at the cultural side. This qualitative case study examines efforts to increase community participation by considering cultural factors that can contribute to the effectiveness of development planning at the village level. Data obtained through in-depth interviews, participant observation and documentation. This study found that the culture factor of mamfatin ukunrai could inhibit community participation in Naran Village. The community believes that planning development is the duty of the government so that it should not actively participate in planning meetings. Therefore, the researcher offers a model of the family code as an effort to reduce the impact of the culture. Ka'en kelun ba ashamed to represent the government's invitation to cooperate with the community for the realization of development from the ground level.