Amien calls on govt to speed up implementation of autonomy law
Amien calls on govt to speed up implementation of autonomy law
JAKARTA (JP): People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker
Amien Rais urged the government on Wednesday to speed up the
implementation of the Regional Autonomy Law to allow provinces to
gain stronger authority in controlling their natural resources.
Speaking at a seminar on decentralization on oil, gas and
energy sectors, the MPR speaker said provinces should be given
the right to get a larger share in the distribution of income
from oil, gas and other mineral resources.
A fairer arrangement is needed to avoid threats of
disintegration which might be raised due to the regions'
discontent over revenue-sharing issues from those sectors, he
added.
"There should be, however, commitment, consolidation and
coordination between central and regional administrations to
achieve it, otherwise we will end up like China," he said in his
speech.
"In China, governors are allowed to draw up contracts with any
party without the central government's consent. It only shifts
corruption practices and other irregularities from the central
government level to the regional level," he warned, while saying
China was reviewing its policy on regional autonomy.
The government will implement the Regional Autonomy Law and
the Inter-governmental Fiscal Balance Law beginning next year as
part of its commitment to give more authority to local
administrations to manage their provinces politically and
financially.
However, many resource-rich provinces consider the authority
they receive under the new laws as still being inefficient as the
central government still controls a larger part of the revenues
from oil and gas.
Riau, the country's largest oil producer, is among the
provinces which protest the current oil and gas revenue
arrangement.
Under the Inter-governmental Fiscal Balance Law, 85 percent of
the revenue from oil and 70 percent from gas go to the central
government. The provinces will only get a larger revenue share
from other mineral resources.
Iin Arifin Takhyan, an expert staff member at the Ministry of
Mines and Energy, said the government should change the Oil and
Gas Law to allow the provincial administrations to give more
power to manage their oil and gas resources.
He said the Oil and Gas Law, which gives state oil and gas
company Pertamina special power to control and manage the
country's oil and gas sectors, should therefore be amended if the
central government was really committed to its decentralization
program.
He also said state oil and gas producer Pertamina had to be
turned into an independent company to be able to compete with
giant oil producers in the world.
The government, under former president Habibie, proposed last
year the introduction of a new law to scrap Pertamina's monopoly
in the oil and gas sector and to change the state oil and gas
company's status into a limited business entity. But the bill was
turned down due to a strong lobby launched by former Pertamina
president Martiono Hadianto. (09/nvn)