DPD wants Autonomy Law amended
DPD wants Autonomy Law amended
M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
The Regional Representatives Council (DPD) demanded on Thursday
that Law No. 34/2004 on regional administrations be amended to
allow direct elections for governors and regents.
Council deputy speaker Laode Ida said the prevailing law --
which was a revision to Law No. 22/1999 -- curtailed wider
participation in local elections as it disallowed independent
candidates.
"Our proposed amendment will focus on, among other things, the
stipulation that only a political party or coalition of parties
can nominate candidates in local elections," he told a discussion
here.
The council, according to Laode, would soon meet with
officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs to discuss the issue.
The government is preparing for the election of hundreds of
regents and governors in mid-2005.
Article 59 of the law stipulates that independent candidates
cannot run for the position of head of regional governments,
unless he or she is nominated by a political party or a coalition
of parties with at least 15 percent of the seats in the local
legislature, or at least 15 percent of the popular vote.
The Regional Autonomy Law was endorsed by the House of
Representatives after secretive and speedy deliberations. Its
approval was made one day before the House ended its five-year
term in late September.
Laode said the hasty deliberation had resulted in a poor
quality law that was rife with contradictory articles.
"The all-encompassing nature of the law has blurred the
substance of the law, which is supposed to regulate regional
governments," he said.
He said the DPD also proposed the deliberation of a new law
detailing the electoral process for local elections.
The amended Constitution states that the DPD has the authority
to draw up regulations pertaining to autonomy.
Experts have said that the ban on individual candidates would
only perpetuate oligarchy among political parties, which bars the
way for a healthy rotation of local leaders.
Also speaking at the discussion, law expert Ibnu Tricahyo of
Brawijaya University in Malang, East Java, said that prevailing
Regional Autonomy Law in fact retracted the greater degree of
autonomy that had been granted to local administrations.
"One of the primary considerations of the central government
in revising the autonomy law is its perception that the
decentralization drive had gone too far and it wants to reverse
the process altogether," he said.
On the other hand, regional governments feel that the central
government has not done enough to relinquish its grip on local
governments, Ibnu said.
"Among the many indications showing that the central
government strives to continue its hold on important financial
resources in the regions," he said.
Ibnu also said the law went too far in rendering the central
government control in drawing up guidelines on the drawing up of
local bylaws.
"The spirit of the central government in making the new law
was similar to that of the bygone New Order regime," he said.