Governors want their autonomy powers reinstated

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Governors urged the central government on Monday to give back some of the powers of the country's regencies/municipalities to its provincial administrations, claiming that regencies and municipalities lacked the human resources needed to exercise their new powers.

In a meeting with President Megawati Soekarnoputri on Monday, the governors, grouped under the Association of Provincial Governments (APPSI), said that a lack of competence and skills on the part of the regencies/municipalities had led local autonomy down the wrong track.

"We can see that there is nothing significant coming out of the implementation of regional autonomy, and the problem is centered on the lack of preparedness of the regencies/municipalities to make good use of their powers," APPSI chairman Sutiyoso, who is also the governor of Jakarta, said.

He said regency and municipal administrations lacked the human resources needed to ensure that autonomy could boost development within their jurisdictions.

"That's why we are asking for clear powers for the governors to coordinate the implementation of local autonomy," Sutiyoso said.

He said the association had concluded that the existing law on local autonomy had weakened the position of the country's governors and was wasting the resources of the provincial administrations.

"There should be a team established to independently examine whether the regencies/municipalities are able to exercise the many powers they enjoy or whether these powers should be handed back to the relevant provincial government," Sutiyoso said.

The country introduced wide-ranging regional autonomy in 2000, shifting most powers to the regencies/municipalities, with the provincial governments being left to serve as supervisors.

The Local Autonomy Law No. 22/1999 provides that only defense, foreign, religious and fiscal affairs remain in the hand of the central government.

Megawati repeatedly said that the implementation of local autonomy was threatening national unity, and has ordered a revision of the legislation so as to reduce the powers of the regencies/municipalities.

Both domestic and foreign investors have also been complaining about the many local ordinances they have to deal with, which they say are discouraging new investment.

The association of regency administrations has opposed the plan to revise the law, saying it went against the spirit of reform.

Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno said the Cabinet would put the final touches to the amendment bill soon before submitting it to the House of Representative.

"The President has promises that the deliberation of the amendment bill will be finish before the election next year," added the association's deputy chairman, Fadel Mohammad, the governor of Gorontalo province.

Apart from restoring some powers to the provincial governments and limiting the powers of regency administrations, the draft amendment introduces the direct election of governors and regents in order to establish strong and credible regional governments.