'Federal state improper for RI'

'Federal state improper for RI'

JAKARTA (JP): A state administration based on federalism cannot work in an archipelagic country like Indonesia, experts and officials said on Saturday.

Harun Alrasid, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Indonesia, said Indonesia should maintain its unitary state because the nation-building process was not yet completed.

"No way to the federal state option. It is against the 1945 Constitution, and not suitable for a country consisting of thousands of islands. Archipelagic terrain is contradictory to the idea of federalism," he said during a seminar on autonomy versus federalism here on Saturday.

Harun hailed the government's move to implement the regional autonomy law to allow provinces to manage their own resources. He said a combination of regional autonomy and decentralized authority in certain fields was expected to reduce the threat of disintegration.

He suggested the government and security authorities take stern measures against separatist activities in the provinces.

"Once the government tolerates a province's wish to secede, the nation will disintegrate," he warned.

Hasyim Djalal, a professor of international sea law at Padjadjaran University in Bandung, said a federal state would likely prove to be a disadvantage to Indonesia.

"If the option is adopted, Indonesia will face a serious threat of disintegration because of rivalries and conflicts that will easily explode among federal states," he said.

He noted that the federal system only worked in conterminous countries such as the United States, India and Australia, while archipelagic countries such as Japan and the Philippines adopted other systems.

He said a unitary state which allowed regional autonomy similar to the principles of federalism was suitable, if not ideal, for the current Indonesia.

"Therefore, the government should implement regional autonomy immediately," he said.

Another speaker at the seminar, Lt. Gen. Johny Lumintang, governor of the National Resilience Institute, said that from the point of view of defense, Indonesia would face difficulty maintaining stability under a federal system.

"Indonesia will pay a high price in its defense if it adopts the federal system, which will raise crucial points in its defense field. Foreign infiltration through the sea will be unavoidable," he said.

He also warned that conflict among federal states would be unavoidable because of border disputes. He said the nation's pluralism would also make the federal state more difficult to maintain.

A political expert from the University of Indonesia, Maswadi Rauf, said the idea of a federal state had been raised in response to the repressive governments of the past.

"Many provinces no longer have confidence in the central government because of their suffering in the past, and this is why Aceh, Riau and Papua turned down the government's offer of autonomy," he said.

He said the New Order regime's implementation of the unitary state was the main reason the province's had lost confidence in the government in Jakarta.

Political observer J. Kristiadi said all governmental systems would fail without democracy.

"Without the true implementation of democracy, both the unitary state and regional autonomy will be useless, because without a true democracy any governmental system that is adopted will certainly be authoritarian," he said. (rms)