'Self-government may not foster public well-being'<\/p>\n
Berni K. Moestafa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
As legislators consider 10 bills for the creation of 35 new
\nregencies, 2 municipalities and one province in response to a
\nnationwide clamor for autonomy, analysts warned that the
\nlocalities concerned might end up poorer then before.<\/p>\n
Calls for local self-government have risen as people across
\nthe country seek to establish governments that are more
\nresponsive to their needs. But political analyst Andi
\nMallarangeng said Jakarta should tightly scrutinize all such
\nproposals.<\/p>\n
\"At the end of the day, the question one must ask is will it
\n(local self-determination) improve public services?\" Andi said on
\nthe sidelines of a seminar on autonomy organized by the U.S.-
\nbased Asia Foundation.<\/p>\n
The rise in demand for new local governments comes on the back
\nof the 1999 autonomy laws. Observers say the trend reflects
\ndiscontent in the regions over a central government that has been
\nsiphoning off their natural resources for decades.<\/p>\n
Jakarta hopes the autonomy laws will keep the sprawling
\narchipelagic nation together amid the simmering threat of
\nseparatism.<\/p>\n
Effective since January 2001, local autonomy offers local
\ngovernments a greater share of their natural resources and more
\nauthority to manage their own affairs. In return, localities must
\nbecome self-sufficient.<\/p>\n
In theory, those that fail the test will be dissolved or
\nmerged, but in practice new localities have been sprouting up,
\nand more are in the legislative pipeline.<\/p>\n
\"Centralism does not only exist in Jakarta. There's also
\ncentralism in the regions where certain elements, be they ethnic,
\nreligious or territorial based, are being left out by the rest,\"
\nAndi explained.<\/p>\n
Under Government Regulation No. 129\/2000, the establishment of
\na new local government jurisdiction must satisfy at least six
\ncriteria, including economic capacity, local potential, cultural
\naspects, political aspects, demographic aspects and size. Other
\nconsiderations may be added to the list based on the regulation.<\/p>\n
Andi said a locality that lacked economic potential could
\nlater end up forcing its residents to pay higher taxes, and
\ncutting public services just to keep its new administration
\nafloat.<\/p>\n
\"So don't allow new local governments (to be created) just
\nbecause of someone's lobbying or because thousands of protesters
\nare demonstrating somewhere,\" Andi added.<\/p>\n
A study conducted by the Asia Foundation revealed that many
\nlocal governments depend excessively on transfers from the
\ncentral government's General Allocation Fund (DAU).<\/p>\n
The central government pools the DAU from local governments
\nand returns the funds based on a weighting system under a scheme
\nto better distribute wealth between rich and poor localities.<\/p>\n
Paulus Kindangan, a researcher from Sam Ratulangi University
\nin Manado, North Sulawesi, who participated in the Asia
\nFoundation study, said that the budgets of 27 local governments
\nrelied on DAU disbursements for 75 percent of their revenues.<\/p>\n
Local governments did manage to increase their own revenues by
\naround 17 percent this year, but most of the additional money
\ncame from increased taxes and charges at the expense of local
\neconomies, Paulus said.<\/p>\n
Given a frequent lack of economic capacity, some of the self-
\ngovernment calls may be more politically motivated, said Max H.
\nPohan, the director of the Bureau for Local Government Capacity
\nEmpowerment at the National Development Planning Agency
\n(Bappenas).<\/p>\n
He said it was possible that community leaders might be
\nstirring ethnic, religious or territorial sentiments to demand
\ntheir own administrations.<\/p>\n
\"One may call these (sentiments) a national asset, but we must
\nnot let them become a reason for breaking up (existing local
\ngovernment jurisdictions),\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"Every attempt to bring about self-government should be based
\non the goal of improving public services, bringing services
\ncloser to the people,\" Max said.<\/p>",
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