Despite some decent progress, autonomy remains big problems

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Despite progress over the past three years, the implementation of regional autonomy in some parts of the country has fallen short of what had originally been hoped for, The Asia Foundation revealed.

The foundation noticed improved popular participation in the decision-making process, which encouraged the local democratization process.

"The hoped-for better future, however, is shadowed by the inability of legislative councils to respond to people's wishes," said Hana A. Satriyo, a senior program officer with The Asia Foundation here.

She was speaking at a seminar titled "Reflections on Three Years of Regional Autonomy in Indonesia", which was held here on Tuesday. The foundation's report was based on its monitoring of the administration of government in 31 regencies and nine municipalities in 27 provinces.

The monitoring process began in November 2001, and involved 28 research institutes in the local government jurisdictions concerned.

A number of experts who helped The Asia Foundation in monitoring the practice of regional autonomy also presented their findings during the seminar.

One of them, Medelina K. Hendytio of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said the central government's intervention in some areas of local government was only giving rise to disputes.

In some fields, like mining, maritime boundaries and transportation, Medelina said, the central government had been playing the dominant role compared to that played by the regional administrations.

She asserted the vague dividing lines between the powers of local administrations and the central government would adversely affect the quality of public services.

In order to improve the situation, the central government needed to continuously evaluate the roles and responsibilities of provincial and regency administrations.

She suggested that local administrations formulate minimum service standards based on their evaluations.

Bambang P.S. Brodjonegoro, an economist with the University of Indonesia (UI), hailed the idea of adopting minimum service standards, and said the criteria for the standards should be discussed between the local administrations and the central government.

"Minimum service standards can serve as yardsticks for evaluating how local autonomy is being administered," he added.

Meanwhile, Partini of Gadjah Mada University (UGM) said the bureaucracy in Indonesia was culturally paternalistic by nature.

She said gender bias in the bureaucracy was evident in most areas of the country. Women lived in a male-dominated culture and structure, thus depriving them of access to the policy-making process, she said.