Autonomy laws revision slammed

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.