Despite some decent progress, autonomy remains big problems
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.