Draft bill on regional autonomy under fire

Draft bill on regional autonomy under fire

JAKARTA (JP): The government's draft regulation on regional
autonomy sparked severe debate here on Tuesday as legislators and
experts criticized its failure to delegate enough authority to
the regions.

Oesman Sapta, chairman of the 65-member Regional
Representatives Forum (FUD) at the People's Consultative Assembly
(MPR), charged that the provisions in the draft regulation were
not in line with the 1999 law on regional autonomy.

"The government should revise the draft regulation because
based on the 1999 law on regional autonomy, the government's
authority should remain only in five fields -- defense, foreign
policy, monetary and fiscal affairs, court and religious
affairs," Oesman told The Jakarta Post here on Tuesday.

The draft regulation is expected to be signed by President
Abdurrahman Wahid this week.

Oesman noted that under its current form the draft would only
reinforce the strong role and authority of the central
government.

"If the regulation is issued the central government will
remain powerful in all affairs and this is in contradiction to
the concept of regional autonomy," he argued.

According to Oesman, regional administrations hoped the
regulation would contain guidelines on the management of their
autonomy.

"Common guidelines are needed to maintain the unitary state
and national unity as well as to prevent interregional
conflicts," he said.

Separately, Chaidir, speaker of the Riau provincial
legislative council, urged the government not to intervene in the
internal affairs of regions with autonomy because it would
develop into a strong disintegrative factor for the unitary
state.

Chaidir said the central government should no longer issue
regulations which regulate autonomous administrations if it is
committed to implementing regional autonomy consistently.

He supported the idea that the government should only issue
guidelines.

Speaking at a seminar on regional autonomy here on Tuesday,
Chaidir also proposed that the government, in consultation with
the House of Representatives, issue a regulation to further
enforce the 1999 law on fiscal balance between the central and
local governments.

Ben Mboi, former East Nusa Tenggara governor, stressed the
importance of guidelines, not regulations, to be set by the
central government on how regions should develop their autonomy.

"The draft regulation stipulates only the government's
authority and nothing really on the regions' own authority," said
Ben.

But several observers also expressed concern that the
ambiguity in the draft regulation would lead to conflict.

Enny Nurbaningsih, a lecturer of economic law at Gadjah Mada
University in Yogyakarta, said 75 percent of the draft
regulation's chapters were blank checks for regions as they
failed to regulate just what the regions should do with their
authority in various sectors.

She said the government should amend the law and issue one
which would specifically delineate how autonomous administrations
should play their roles in a democratic fashion.

Endang Sih Prapti, a lecturer at the postgraduate program at
Gadjah Mada University, said the ambiguity could create
misunderstandings which would only lead to conflict, particularly
if the regions perceived they were not given enough authority.

"Conflicts in regions could develop into separatism if the
government only accedes limited autonomy, as is the case in the
current draft regulation," she said.

Stevenson, representing an Irianese NGO at the seminar, called
on the government to take notice of the needs of the province.

"Papua doesn't need such a limited autonomy because it does
not cover contributions the Papuan people have given to the
central government in the past," he said. (rms)