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)