CSIS says autonomy a long-term process
CSIS says autonomy a long-term process
JAKARTA (JP): A study conducted by the Centre for Strategic
International Studies (CSIS) found that there were many erroneous
fundamental assumptions on regional autonomy which have caused
various complications.
Tommy A. Legowo, coordinator of the research, in a seminar to
present the results here on Friday, said regional autonomy must
be viewed as a long-term process and its implementation must be
conducted in phases and evaluated continuously.
"Regional autonomy is actually not a matter of decentralizing
authority and funds from the central government to regions, but
also of creating and developing democratic political institutions
which are transparent and able to encourage participation of
local people," he said.
Tommy said that based on a survey in 27 regencies and
mayoralties in nine provinces between May and December 2000,
researchers found numerous problems resulting from a common
misperception of regional autonomy.
The 27 regencies and mayoralties included, among others, Sikka
and Manggarai in East Nusa Tenggara, Situbondo in East Java,
Cirebon, Garut and Sukabumi in West Java, Palembang in South
Sumatra, Serang in Banten and Batam in Riau.
Tommy said most were enthusiastic about autonomy but felt
uncertain about a smooth decentralization of the authority,
personnel, etc. from central government and about their ability
to create good and clean governance.
Of the more than 1,200 respondents in the survey, 36 percent
said the main problem in their local administration was
leadership, 64 percent pointed to corrupt, collusive and
nepotistic practices and 40 percent lamented the lack of public
accountability.
Most respondents also complained that political parties have
yet to provide political education to their supporters and were
not serious in fighting for local people's aspirations.
Prof. Koswara, a panelist in the seminar, said central
government should proceed with programs to establish regional
autonomy and quickly issue the necessary regulations.
"The government should not support autonomy half-heartedly,"
he said.
Cornelis Lay, a political expert from Gadjah Mada University
in Yogyakarta, hailed the virtues of autonomy for a pluralist
nation but said local politics could not support it.
"Regional autonomy is actually a classic problem. Of course,
it is not an answer to the disintegration problem but its
implementation in the reform era will support a pluralist
nation," he said.
According to him, the empowerment of local politics was
unrealistic and irrelevant because regions actually had no true
politicians and they were not close to nongovernmental
organizations and political parties.
"Most locals cast their votes in elections not for local
figures but for the parties' leaders in the center. More than 30
percent of the people voted for the Indonesian Democratic Party
of Struggle in the last election primarily because of the
Megawati Soekarnoputri factor," he said. (rms)