Abstract
Community development in the border areas of Indonesia have not received sufficient government attention, despite being a strategic area and a reflection of a country's front line. The focus of this article is the National Community Empowerment Program in the rural border area of West Borneo. Previous studies have indicated various impacts to the border area welfare, such as the rise of unemployment within communities, difficulty in gaining access to food sources, increase in the consumptive nature of the people, heightening of criminal cases, decrease of the quality of environment, and the rising presence of patrons and clients. If this issue is left unresolved, the community will surely face increasingly complex conditions.