Central govt urged to be earnest about regional autonomy

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.