This study investigated how deliberation is implemented in rural planning practice in Indonesia and what issues are encountered. Qualitative content analysis of secondary data was conducted on the main concepts of deliberative planning, participatory governance, and participatory budgeting, supported by the author's experience as a government planner facilitating deliberation in Langkat District, Indonesia. The deliberative village planning involves interaction between actors in village communities, i.e., community members and representatives from the government and the private sector. The viewpoint is put forward that in deliberation in the Indonesian context, there is more space for knowledge transfer and power contestation than for mediation and negotiation. Community members adopt the planner's knowledge and synthesise it with their experiential knowledge. This knowledge transfer helps to create organisational knowledge. Meanwhile, power relations in informal arenas influence the course of the deliberation process in formal planning meetings, obscuring the essence of the public's desires.