A lesson in transparency<\/p>\n
Ahmad Suaedy, Asia Foundation, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Gorontalo may be Indonesia's newest, or 32nd province, and its
\ngovernor, Ir H. Fadel Muhammad, may be rumored to be subject to a
\ntravel ban. But the residents of Gorontalo have begun to
\nimplement transparency and to exercise supervision over their
\nadministration for the sake of good governance.<\/p>\n
While other regions are striving to raise not only locally
\ngenerated revenue but also legislators' salaries by producing new
\nbylaws, the Gorontalo municipality in the north of Sulawesi is
\ntrying hard to improve public participation and transparency.<\/p>\n
About a month after the first anniversary of the establishment
\nof the Gorontalo province on Feb. 16, the municipality produced
\nthree bylaws that reflected efforts to supervise the
\nadministration and to encourage public participation in city
\nplanning. These three bylaws concerned community-based
\ndevelopment planning (No. 2\/2002), transparency in the
\nadministration (No. 3\/2002) and supervision over the
\nadministration (No. 4\/2002).<\/p>\n
Ratified on March 13, these bylaws are binding for the
\nregional administration and set forth clear penalties for
\nviolations. Moreover, city planning must start at the subdistrict
\nlevel upward -- the other way round from the New Order era.<\/p>\n
Of course, these bylaws did not come out of the blue. At
\nfirst, non-governmental organizations urged the local
\nadministration and legislature to encourage public participation
\nand provide information.<\/p>\n
"It wasn't easy," said Nixon Ahmad, the coordinator of a forum
\nof non-governmental organizations that facilitated the
\nestablishment of these three bylaws. They brought together
\ncommunity members, legislators and the authorities.<\/p>\n
At first, following the empowerment of the community by a
\nnumber of non-governmental organizations, the legislative and
\nexecutive bodies were approached about the possibility of a
\nregulation on administrative transparency and public
\nparticipation.<\/p>\n
Luckily, there was a rule that an initiative from the
\nlegislative assembly could be raised with a minimum of only six
\nmembers from two factions. "That was what we did at first," said
\nNixon. After the initiative was signed by six members, other
\nparties were approached, with satisfactory results.<\/p>\n
"There was even an ensuing impression that if any members of
\nthe legislative assembly or the executive body failed to support
\nthis proposal, they would be deemed conservative and their
\nreputation as important figures would drop," Nixon said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Gusnar Ismail, the former municipality secretary
\nand chairman of the regional planning agency, and now a deputy
\ngovernor, said, while serving as a mediator between non-
\ngovernmental organizations and the legislative and executive
\nbodies, that mayors and executive officials in general needed
\nsupport to boost Gorontalo. This support is necessary, he noted,
\nespecially considering that the locals rejected the protracted
\nconstruction of a market for the Gorontalo municipality during
\nthe New Order era.<\/p>\n
"We allowed the legislative agency to table their initiative
\nproposal in the hope that we would be able to better plan
\ndevelopment," he said.<\/p>\n
So, the wishes of the legislative and the executive agencies
\nreally match. Gusnar even expressed the hope that what happened
\nat the municipality level would also occur at the provincial
\nlevel.<\/p>\n
Both Nixon Ahmad and Nurdin Mogoginta, who has replaced Gusnar
\nas the regional secretary and chairman of the regional
\ndevelopment planning agency for Gorontalo municipality, admitted
\nthe great difficulty in implementing these bylaws.<\/p>\n
"We are not used to having a good filing system and don't have
\nthe necessary skills to communicate with the community. We need
\nto learn more," Mogoginta said. He added that they would need
\nmore than six months as a transitional period for the enforcement
\nof these bylaws. "We must really work hard," he noted.<\/p>\n
That these bylaws are indeed very difficult to implement is
\nimplied in the regulation on city planning, which states that
\ncommunity-based development planning (P2BM) is based on dialog
\nand persuasion -- alien features under the New Order era. This is
\ndone through workshops, starting from the subdistrict and moving
\nupward to the municipality level.<\/p>\n
All regional heads concerned -- subdistrict heads, district
\nheads or mayors -- are responsible for these workshops. The
\norganization of these workshops must involve social groups
\nreferred to explicitly in the bylaws.<\/p>\n
A supervisory body involving the public has been set up to
\nensure that the community-based development process takes place.
\nPlans can be rejected if found to be not in accord with this
\nprocess and regional heads face sanctions depending on the
\nseverity of the mistake.<\/p>\n
"Practically, the administration at all levels cannot do any
\nplanning without involving the public, and this planning cannot
\nbe top-down in nature," Nixon said.<\/p>\n
As for the bylaw on transparency, the administration will be
\nobligated to actively provide information -- requested or
\notherwise -- about policies concerning the public. The party
\nproviding the information will not have the right to inquire
\nabout the intention and purpose of the information seeker.<\/p>\n
Supervision of the administration involves superiors,
\nlegislators and the public.<\/p>\n
As the regulations are quite clear, it is expected that
\nlocally generated revenue will not be leaked to officials and the
\npowers-that-be.<\/p>\n
Hopefully, more small worthy lessons in local governance are
\nto be found elsewhere amid the confusion over regional autonomy.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/a-lesson-in-transparency-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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