Guidelines on autonomy law urgent: Analysts

Muhammad Nafik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government should explain and issue guidelines on the autonomy law in order to avoid confusion in its implementation, analysts said on Tuesday.

"The central government should provide a comprehensive explanation for provincial and regency administrations about decentralization programs and law," former minister of regional autonomy Ryaas Rasyid told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Another political analyst, Ramlan Surbakti, concurred, saying the central government has to move swiftly in drawing up implementation guidelines for the autonomy law, which was enacted in 2000.

"The central government should immediately formulate the detailed autonomy policies with the involvement of provincial and regency administrations," Ramlan told the Post.

In a bid to defuse secessionist movements in the country, the central government floated the idea of regional autonomy almost immediately after the resignation of former strong man Soeharto in 1998 and hurriedly drafted laws.

But since regional autonomy was implemented on Jan. 1, 2001, reports of confusion in its implementation were widespread, the latest one being the takeover of PT Semen Padang by the West Sumatra administration and local legislative assembly.

According to Ryaas and Ramlan, the decision of the West Sumatra administration and West Sumatra Legislative Assembly (DPRD) to seize PT Semen Padang, a local unit of cement producer PT Semen Gresik, was triggered by the absence of proper guidelines on autonomy law.

Formulation of autonomy policies "will resolve the dispute and could prevent a similar case from recurring in the future," Ramlan said.

Ramlan, who is also a member of the National Election Commission (KPU), said the failure to swiftly draw up guidelines on the autonomy law was related to the central government's focus on its plans to revise the autonomy law.

According to Ryaas, excesses like the unilateral takeover of PT Semen Padang in West Sumatra were triggered by the central government's failure to deal with the aspirations of people in provinces.

"A new special team must be set up to negotiate with regional administrations on crucial issues," said Ryaas, criticizing Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno for being insensitive and ignorant of national decentralization programs.

"The Ministry of Home Affairs is neither sensitive nor responsive to the feelings of people in the provinces. It (the ministry) has done nothing so far," he said.

Ryaas, who drafted the autonomy law when he served as the regional autonomy minister in 1999, denied the notion that the autonomy law was not clear to regional administrations.

"Excesses like the unilateral takeover (of PT Semen Padang) in Padang have nothing to do with the regional autonomy law. State- owned companies are not subject to the law because it is already clear that they belong to the state and must be used for the greater interests of the whole nation," he said.

Ryaas said the takeover case could have been prevented if minister Sabarno played a key role in dealing with the existing problems.

The controversial takeover has drawn strong criticism from legal experts and economists as well as the World Bank, who said the case would further tarnish the country's business reputation and hamper economic recovery.

Some have said the move was intended purely to protect the interests of local political leaders in retaining Semen Padang, an affiliate of state-owned cement producer PT Semen Gresik as their main cash cow.

Apparently concerned by the criticism, the West Sumatra administration on Monday backed down from the plan, saying it had not intended to unilaterally seize control of the cement producer.

"There has been no expropriation of Semen Padang. The takeover statement is untrue," West Sumatra Governor Zainal Bakar told journalists here on Monday.

Earlier last week, the provincial legislative council approved the takeover move in a protest against the central government's plan to sell a majority stake of the state firm to Mexico's cement giant Cemex SA de CV.

But Zainal said that what had been issued by the West Sumatra legislature was only a "declaration". He did not elaborate further.