Government to issue regulation on autonomy soon

Government to issue regulation on autonomy soon

By Ridwan M. Sijabat

JAKARTA (JP): The government is set to issue this week a much
awaited regulation which will delineate authority in regional
autonomy in 2001.

But as the draft regulation and senior officials at the Office
of the State Ministry of Regional Autonomy indicate, the regional
autonomy plan is not designed as a power-sharing scheme but is
aimed more at promoting democracy and the equitable distribution
of wealth.

Andi A. Mallarangeng, an assistant to the state minister of
regional autonomy, told The Jakarta Post here that the final
draft of the regulation had been completed and was set to be
signed by President Abdurrahman Wahid this week.

He said the regulation describes in detail fields of authority
that will remain with the central government and provinces as
administrative territories.

Regencies and mayoralties will run their administrations and
develop their own potentials autonomously based on the
delineations provided under the authority of the province and
based on the macro national level policies set by the central
government.

The current draft regulation specifies the division of
authority between the central government and provinces in 23
fields -- agriculture, maritime, mining and energy, forestry and
plantations, industry and trade, cooperatives, investment,
tourism, labor, health, education and culture, social affairs,
spatial planning, land, residential settlements, public works,
communications/transportation, environment, public
administration, development of regional autonomy, fiscal balance,
information and laws.

On the macro level, the central government will have authority
in setting out policies on foreign affairs, defense and security,
monetary and fiscal affairs, the legal system and religious
affairs.

The regulation also stipulates that the central government can
issue regulations on the standards of public services, set
criteria on spatial planning, conditions for accreditation of
educational institutions and certification of professional
experts, development policies and the exploitation and protection
of natural resources.

"The law gives autonomous regions' authority to run certain
fields such as public works, health, education and culture,
agriculture, transportation, industry and trade, investment and
environment while the (central) government has authority in
making basic policies in these fields," Mallarangeng said.

As an example he cited the fiscal balance field, in which the
government can make guidelines on the reallocation of portions of
a rich areas' income to poorer areas in the province.

"This is to avoid social jealousy among them," he said, adding
that the government would soon also issue technical guidelines on
how regencies and mayoralties should run their autonomous
administrations in those fields.

Mallarangeng defended the apparent need for central government
"intervention" through the establishment of basic policies for
the sake of maintaining the unitary state and national unity.

He argued that the unitary state would come under threat if
regions had no common or basic policies to guide them in running
their administrations.

"It would also be very difficult for a dissident regency to
break away from the unitary state because it would be under the
close supervision of its provincial administration," he said.

Provincial administrations will be charged with handling all
cross-regency affairs and fields that regions and mayoralties
cannot yet manage.

Democracy

Mallarangeng, an expert on public administration, pointed out
that the aim of decentralizing authority to regencies and
mayoralties was not to share power but mainly to develop
democracy, empower the people and to ensure equal distribution of
wealth.

"We should learn from the nation's past bad experiences where
the people suffered economic hardship, despite the booming
economy ... The robust economic growth in the past was enjoyed
only by a certain small group of corrupt political elite," he
said.

"Regional autonomy is designed to empower local people,
improve their welfare and create a conducive climate for
democracy," he said.

Mallarangeng noted that the regional autonomy law and the
fiscal balance law would also help strengthen the position of
councils at the provincial and regency or mayoralty levels.

"With the fiscal balance law, regions will have better
bargaining power to negotiate with the government because of
their bigger portion in the share of their own natural
resources," he said.

Mallarangeng pointed out that resource-rich provinces such as
Aceh, Irian Jaya, Riau and East Kalimantan could get between 50
percent to 75 percent, instead of the 1 percent they currently
get, from the margin of profit of natural resource exploration in
their respective areas.

While full implementation of regional autonomy is not expected
until next year, some aspects of it have already been
implemented, particularly in the election of governors and
regents.

"The election of governors, regents and mayors has been fully
conducted by local councils. The government only officiates the
election process," he said.

However, Mallarangeng regretted the rising issue of money
politics in various gubernatorial and regency elections in
numerous provinces recently, saying such issues only hamper
democracy.

"The most important thing is that the legislative councils
listen to their people's aspirations," he said.