Corruption a stumbling block to autonomy
Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government has blamed regional autonomy for exacerbating the problem of widespread corruption in the country and the slow mechanism of essential policy making.
Addressing the Regional Representatives Council plenary session on Tuesday, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said regional autonomy had contributed to financial mismanagement.
"The ills of corruption, collusion, and nepotism are still occurring. With the transfer of financial management to the regions, the tendency of the increase in improprieties and embezzlements in the regions is also on the rise," he said.
Since declaring a war against corruption upon taking office in October last year, the President has approved the prosecution of 47 regents in connection with graft. Scores of active or former officials and councillors have also been put behind bars.
Susilo said that regional autonomy, which took effect in 2000, had also posed a stumbling block to various policies being implemented by the central government.
"The capacity of the regions in performing larger and more important functions and roles, which are in line with the regional autonomy policies, have not proceeded as we would have expected.
"Such a condition often causes (the central government) a dilemma in making a decision and in implementing a policy. Consequently, in spite of our desire for a decision to be made immediately and the policy implemented, we quite often experience impediments," Susilo said.
He said that in various regions of the country weak human resources were a major problem.
"The tendency of being served is still prevalent in various government agencies and institutions, whereas the duty of the state apparatus is to serve the people and meet their needs," said Susilo.
After regional autonomy was put in place, new provinces have emerged, making up the current total of 33, with 440 regencies and municipalities.
Nonetheless, the President acknowledged that regional autonomy was a mechanism intended to bring the government closer to the people.
He said, however, that implementation was a different story due to the political and administrative barriers.
"This is actually due to the unfinished division of authority and financing between the levels of governance up to the present," Susilo said, adding that the country needed to be able to reverse the centralistic governance way of thought.
In order to cope with those problems, Susilo said that a balance needed to be realized between the capability to implement the authorities that had been conferred upon the regions and of financing their development.
"Clarity in the arrangement of authorities between the levels of government has become an urgent necessity ... This is an absolute must to avoid overlapping authorities in the conduct of governance affairs," he said.
Regional autonomy was part of a sweeping reform aimed at bringing democracy to the country following the fall of the New Order authoritarian regime in 1998. But a revision was made to the regional autonomy law last year, thanks in part to complaints from business sector of overlapping taxes and levies at various levels of administration.