Decentralization encourages democracy, researchers say

Decentralization encourages democracy, researchers say

A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Regional autonomy had proven successful in promoting democracy
and creating more effective and responsive local governments, a
group of researchers said on Thursday.

The same researchers also found that decentralization had
created an excess of civil servants with Bandung alone having
16,000 civil servants too many and Semarang, East Java 10,000.

Seven top researchers, who spent 16 weeks studying the impact
of the 1999 Regional Autonomy Law, said that despite shortcomings
that had justified the central government's move to review
decentralization, local governments had moved closer to the
people.

As a result the public could easily demand that government
officials be held accountable for their performances, the
researchers said during a seminar at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in
Jakarta.

Local government officials, who were in charge of implementing
the decentralization program, knew the needs of their own people
better than the central government, and this made them more
capable and effective in meeting those needs.

Paulus Kindangen, one of the researchers, said there was
blossoming awareness among local government officials to support
democracy practices in governance affairs.

"It is easier for people to exercise their control of the
local government rather than the central government. This fact
has forced the local governments to carry out transparent and
accountable governance.

"No wonder, participation of local people in governance
affairs has been increasing, as we saw in the Yogyakarta
regencies of Bantul and Bandung," Paulus told participants at the
seminar.

Paulus said that both regencies had held regular public
hearings to discuss their performances and had provided
suggestion boxes to collect feedback.

Seven researchers, including Paulus, have recently completed
the study exploring decentralization in 11 regencies/mayoralties,
and two provinces. The study was funded by the Asia Foundation.

The regencies/mayoralties comprised Deli Serdang, Bandung,
Indramayu, Salatiga, Semarang, Bantul, Sidoarjo, Gianyar, Lombok
Barat, Pontianak, Minahasa and the provinces of Jayapura and
Jakarta.

The researchers concluded that under decentralization the
local governments had initiated improving the quality of public
services, without having to wait for Jakarta's instructions.

"Sidoarjo district in East Java has formed endowment funds to
finance its public servants to pursue graduate degrees, in a bid
to raise their governance skills," said Juni Thamrin.

In Gianyar, Bali, the Gianyar district government now operated
some ambulances and acted as mobile service points for health and
mourning services, said Partini, another researcher.

Despite the benefits, the researchers admitted that the
decentralization program had also brought losses.

Partini said there were many bylaws enacted by the government
to increase local government revenues, at the expense of people
who had to shoulder more of the burden.

"The number of government levies increases, since the local
government needs more money to finance its activities," Partini,
a researcher from Gadjah Mada University, said.

For example, in a regency, people must pay a Rp 1,500
registration at the local public health center, whereas in the
past they had only paid Rp 300.

Other losses are the mounting trend of sectarianism in the
selection of local government officials and the surplus of civil
servants.

"The surplus of civil servants is unavoidable after the
decentralization in civil servant placement. Bandung has an
excess of 16,000 officials, while in Semarang the number reaches
10,000," said Juni.

Regional autonomy has sparked a long-standing conflict between
local and central governments since it was enacted on Jan. 1,
2000.

The central government, which believes that the
decentralization program has gone too far, is revising the 1999
Regional Autonomy Law. The proposed revision provides the
president with the power to dissolve local councils.

Opposition to the revision has been widespread, ranging from
major political parties, including Golkar and National Awakening
Party, to local governments and legislative councils.

Meanwhile, the government questioned the credibility of the
findings, saying that the methodology of the research was
inaccurate.

"Indonesia consists of 30 provinces and 367
regencies/mayoralties, therefore I doubt whether the research
truly represents the reality of whole situation in Indonesia,"
Made Suandi, the regional capacity director at the Ministry of
Home Affairs, told reporters on the sideline of the seminar.

However, Made said that the government would accept the
findings as "useful input".