Government committed to autonomy, Megawati says

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

President Megawati Soekarnoputri told governors and regents across the country on Friday to stop questioning the government's sincerity in offering autonomy.

She insisted that the government's plan to revise the law, which took effect only in January, was aimed at maintaining the nation's integrity because the law had turned out to be a threat to national unity.

Speaking before 28 governors and 126 regents from across the country during the opening ceremony of a two-day dialog between the central government and regional administrations, Megawati urged the governors and regents to stop exchanging criticisms with the central government.

"I urged everybody to think carefully about our behavior in implementing regional autonomy, which lately has provoked unnecessary conflict," she said, adding that the polemics on regional autonomy should stop.

Megawati also stressed that regional autonomy, despite certain limitations and requirements, was aimed at strengthening national unity and improving the welfare of the people.

"Autonomy, of course, had some limitations and requirements. We all know that autonomy is more an obligation than a right."

"Finally, the success in implementing autonomy can only be assessed, not in terms of strong local administrations, but by how much public participation there is in developing the respective regions," Megawati said.

She reiterated the government's seriousness in implementing regional autonomy, and contended that the changes proposed to autonomy were intended to reduce possible harm to national unity.

Brushing aside public questions over the government's move to amend the current regional autonomy law, Megawati said the government had no plan to suspend the implementation of regional autonomy.

"We have no intention of scrapping regional autonomy. I need to underline this because there are too many unnecessary debates over the matter, which create the false impression that there are conflicts between central government and local administrations," she remarked.

"Should there be a need to amend the autonomy law, it is only intended to amend those aspects that endanger national unity," she added.

Megawati is known to be a strong nationalist and ever since the implementation of the regional autonomy law in January 2001, she continued to criticize it, saying that there were too many negative impacts resulting from its implementation.

Soon after her appointment to the presidency, Megawati called for the amendment of Laws No.22/1999 and 25/1999 on regional autonomy, citing many regional regulations that hurt the national interest.

The sound of protest came very loudly from many regions following the central government's statement that it intended to amend the law. The association of Indonesia's regency administrations even voiced rejection of the idea.