Delay not autonomy

Delay not autonomy

At the beginning of next year, the government will start the
much-awaited implementation of regional autonomy. State Minister
of Regional Autonomy Ryaas Rasyid has said that all necessary
supporting regulations for the implementation of the law on
regional autonomy will soon be completed.

The measure has been waited by the whole nation because it is
believed it will minimize the threat of national disintegration
and increasing separatist activities. And, perhaps, it will
postpone -- for the time being at least -- the heated debate
about federalism.

However, the government is yet to instruct provincial
administrations to fully prepare themselves to administer full
autonomy before it decentralizes its power to the provinces.

Are they ready to manage everything? Perhaps they are running
out of time to prepare their budgets, set up institutions and
agencies and recruit human resources from other regions -- mainly
Jakarta. But all these things can be done simultaneously, so
there should be no reason to postpone the implementation of the
autonomy law.

Ryaas recently conceded that some Cabinet ministers were
reluctant to transfer authority to the regions. Their reluctance
is unquestionably counterproductive because it could rekindle
regional restlessness. The state minister might have to imitate
President Abdurrahman Wahid's charisma to iron out the hurdles
along the road leading to full regional autonomy.

It is an ugly reality that whatever euphemisms are attached to
our regional autonomy system the central government still remains
the holder of the monopoly of power since our development system
is still very much centralized.

In the current paradigm, our provinces will not enjoy much of
the proceeds from their natural resources. And in this case, in
Jakarta, the greater power is still held by the administration,
not the legislative assembly. And provinces have a little say in
their own development.

In this realm we can understand why several resource-rich
provinces are still demanding a larger share of their resources.
The most contentious point to the regions is that for far too
long they were exploited by authoritarian and centralistic
regimes. On the other hand, the government has a strong case in
its refusal to give in totally to the provinces' demands: for the
sake of equity and the nation's responsibility to repay foreign
debts. These two facts made a social observer claim to see the
ghost of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in this scenario.

The government is now negotiating with each provincial
government on its potential before granting it autonomy.
Apparently there will be no set standard for regions any longer.
The type of autonomy for each region will differ depending upon
the negotiations, Ryaas said recently.

On the other hand, conditions in each province are rife with
problems, and the most crucial among them is a lack of skilled
human resources and inadequate administrative capability to
capitalize on the advantages, as one expert has pointed out.

So the provinces need to prioritize attracting the qualified
human resources that migrated to Java due to the centralized
economic system.

For this purpose the provinces will have to build social
infrastructure, including high-quality education and health
facilities. This will be no easy task.

Only with all these hurdles eliminated can the autonomy policy
put an end to the demands for separatism.