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)