Adkasi urges strengthening of regional legislatures' position to maximise natural resource management

Jakarta — The head of the Association of Regency and City Regional Representative Councils (Adkasi), Siswanto, believes that the position of regional legislatures must be strengthened to maximise the role of these institutions in managing natural resources in regions.

“We are part of the regional government administration system, which means regional government comprises the regional head and the DPRD. So our domain is not legislative — our domain is executive with supervisory functions, the authority to establish regional regulations, and budget functions. In my view, what is actually needed is a strengthening of the DPRD’s own positional role,” he said during a podcast with ANTARA TV in Jakarta on Monday, 9 March.

Siswanto referred to the extremely limited authority of regional governments through the DPRD for natural resource management due to post-reform legislative changes, particularly with the enactment of Law No. 23 of 2014 on Regional Government and Law No. 1 of 2022 on Financial Relations between the Central Government and Regional Governments.

“Today, with Law 23 of 2014 and Law 1 of 2022 on Financial Relations between the Central and Regional Governments, our regions lack strength in terms of budgeting and division of authority, including natural resource management,” he said.

Following the 1999 to 2004 reform period, Siswanto explained that regional governments’ authority for natural resource management became very broad, but this authority resulted in the emergence of “small kings” in the regions.

The central government, aware that regional government power had become uncontrollable, imposed restrictions on regional authority for natural resource management through Law 23 of 2014. This is felt by regional governments, namely the DPRD, which now require permission from provincial and even central governments when managing natural resources.

“When given broad and extensive authority to manage natural resources, regions indeed — in the reform era, which they had never experienced in the Old Order — benefited. But once the authority became so extensive, some people became intoxicated with power and political euphoria ensued, so those authorities were then reduced. Now they are so limited that even extracting sand, extracting stone, one stone, one handful of sand requires approval from the province or the centre, let alone discussing the sea, nickel, or oil,” he said.

Additionally, Siswanto explained that the reduction in authority affects regional own-source revenue (PAD). Regional governments have only limited revenue options, such as parking fees, market levies, hospital services, and land and building tax.

“Regions can now only generate PAD by raising parking fees, market levies, hospital and service fees, and land and building tax — which recently went viral, including in Pati Regency and other regencies, with more than 100 regencies raising the land and building tax,” he explained.

For this reason, he hopes that the strengthening of regional DPRD in regencies and cities will be heard by the central government so that their authority for natural resource management can be adjusted accordingly.