Autonomy laws revision slammed

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Former state minister of regional autonomy Ryaas Rasyid criticized on Saturday central government's plan to revise the newly implemented autonomy law as a sign of its reluctance to relinquish many of its powers to local administrations.

"Why should central government revise the law? The failure of its implementation lies in central government's unwillingness to support the program, as it will only lessen its power on locals," Ryaas told The Jakarta Post over the phone from Makassar, South Sulawesi.

Ryaas, who was heavily involved in the drafting of the regional autonomy law when he was director general of regional autonomy at the Ministry of Home Affairs, blamed the government for not being transparent in reviewing the law.

That's why, many regents resented or even objected to the government's plan, Ryaas said.

"As an integral part of the governmental system, these local administrations should be involved in the project," said Ryaas, who resigned from the cabinet of former president Abdurrahman Wahid due to his differences on how to handle regional autonomy.

Despite protests from regents and representatives of local administrations over the plan to revise Law No. 22/1999 on regional autonomy and Law No. 25/1999 on fiscal balance, Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno asserted that the government would continue with its plan.

Hari also said that local administrations would not be involved in the plan "for their own interest".

Director general for regional public administration at the Ministry of Home Affairs Sudarsono Hardjosoekarto added that the government could not involve more parties in the review of the law because, "We need more time to identify problems caused by the law."

Sudarsono, who chairs the team tasked to revise the autonomy law, contended that the review of the regional autonomy law aimed to prevent disintegration of the country.

He added that the autonomy law, if implemented as it was, could pose a danger of disintegration as it gave too much power to local administrations.

Besides, Sudarsono said, several articles in the autonomy law contradicted each other.

For example, Article 7 verse 2 contradicted with Article 119. They contradicted in terms of which party -- the central or local administration -- should control economic institutions.

Other articles which would also potentially create disputes between central and local administrations or even between the government and locals are Article 93 verse 1 and Articles 126 verse 2 on the establishment, elimination or merger of villages.

"As we know, several provinces such as Maluku and Papua have villages belonging to local tribes. Here, I'm sure they would refuse if their villages were merged into one Kelurahan or village administration," Sudarsono said.