Central govt urged to be earnest about regional autonomy
Rita A. Widiadana, The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua
The Indonesian central government must wholeheartedly hand over administrative powers to provincial and regional governments in order to properly and effectively enforce the decentralization drive launched in 2001, an expert recommended.
"It is common that any central government may be reluctant to immediately hand over its authority to officials at the regional level on the grounds that the local human resources are not yet ready," Dennis Taylor, director of the Washington-based International City/Council Management Association (ICMA), told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
"But, decentralization is a long-term process. We cannot expect an instant result in only a year or so. In this transitional period, the central government has to let these local officials adjust to and learn the new system otherwise the decentralization will not run smoothly," Taylor said on the sidelines of a two-day conference on Improved Public Services Practices through Local Government Partnerships at Sheraton Laguna, Nusa Dua.
ICMA through its Building Institutes for Good Governance and Resource Cities programs established partnerships between five Indonesian cities and eight American cities to closely work together in certain fields including clean water projects, education, culture, environment, human resources and capacity building. The programs, also supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), were started in early 2004 and will finish by the end of 2005.
The partnerships include Balikpapan- Samarinda in Kalimantan and Tigard, Oregon, the United States (water management and education); Yogyakarta-Bukittinggi- Savannah (education-culture); Solok in West Sumatra and Gresham (clean water service and management); Bitung-Sangihe-Coos Bay (environmental protection); Berau-Port Angeles (water and waste management).
"The programs were designed in the framework of regional government cooperation in handling issues that could be managed at the regional levels," Taylor said. For Indonesian local authorities, these programs were very important as they could share expertise and experience with their counterparts in the United States.
"We have been focusing on certain important issues such as education, the environment and so forth although there are so many more problems that should be solved by local governments," he said. By establishing a partnership, officials as well as the community in each city were encouraged to take part in the programs. "In clean water management, for instance, officials and technicians of the cities involved can learn from each other how to improve the system and its services to the public," he said.
In the education sector, teachers were trained to adopt new styles of teaching methods, materials and to include social, cultural and environmental issues in the school curriculum.
During the two-day meeting that ended on Thursday, each partnership presented its achievement in the two-year joint projects. "I am quite satisfied with their accomplishment although they should work harder in the future. These clearly showed that the local authorities are capable of handling their own problems effectively if they were given a chance and proper skill and knowledge," Taylor added.