House plans to revise autonomy law<\/p>\n
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
To be consistent with the newly enacted law on direct
\npresidential election, the House of Representatives will propose
\nthe direct election of regional heads in its draft revision of
\nthe Regional Autonomy Law.<\/p>\n
House Commission II on legal and home affairs has set up a
\nteam to draft the revision, focusing on this particular issue.<\/p>\n
The government had submitted its draft revision of the law,
\nbut it accorded too much power to the president to intervene in
\nthe election of regional heads, thus prompting the House to
\ndevelop its own draft revision.<\/p>\n
Deputy chairman of Commission II Ferry Mursyidan Baldan said
\non Thursday that the team was still evaluating the implementation
\nof regional autonomy and seeking inputs from regions in order to
\ndevelop the draft revision.<\/p>\n
Declining to provide further details on the evaluation, Ferry
\nsaid his commission would propose several pertinent ideas,
\nincluding the direct election of regional heads, to alleviate the
\nnegative impacts experienced in the three years since regional
\nautonomy was implemented.<\/p>\n
\"The team will present the results of our evaluation as
\nimportant inputs for the commission to take into consideration in
\npreparing the draft revision,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Ferry added that direct election of governors, regents and
\nmayors were expected to help develop democracy and maintain
\nregional political stability.<\/p>\n
Gubernatorial and regental elections have raised numerous
\nproblems, including cases involving bribery, and have disrupted
\npolitical stability in a number of provinces and regencies.<\/p>\n
\"If governors, regents and mayors are directly elected by the
\npeople, such bribery cases can be avoided and political
\nconditions in regions will be relatively more stable,\" Ferry
\nsaid, adding that the election of regional heads conducted by
\nregional legislatures was only one of several complicated issues
\nthat had arisen with the implementation of regional autonomy.<\/p>\n
Ferry said that besides the regional head elections, his
\ncommission would also propose the establishment of administrative
\nborders to prevent conflicts between provinces, between regencies
\nand between regencies and mayoralties.<\/p>\n
\"The unclear administrative borders have given rise to issues
\non administration income and natural resources, which have
\nfrequently become the source of conflicts between provinces and
\nregencies,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Director General of Public Administration and Regional
\nAutonomy Oentarto was unavailable on Thursday to comment on the
\nissue.<\/p>\n
The government proposed that the law be reviewed only a year
\nafter regional autonomy was implemented on Jan. 1, 2000.<\/p>\n
It had also proposed the annulment of thousands of conflicting
\nbylaws that do not support regional autonomy, while issuing
\nhundreds of regulations to cope with problems caused by its
\nenforcement.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/house-plans-to-revise-autonomy-law-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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