House rushes to approve new regencies

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

At a plenary meeting attended by less than 100 legislators, the House of Representatives (DPR) on Monday endorsed 10 bills on the establishment of 23 regencies and two municipalities in 10 provinces throughout the country.

The meeting also approved a minor revision of Law No. 53/1999 on the establishment of regencies in the Riau Islands.

Though few legislators attended the meeting, nearly 500 supporters of the new regencies and municipalities watched over proceedings.

Agustin Teras Narang, the chairman of House Commission II dealing with the establishment of the regencies and municipalities, told the house the legislative councils in the new regencies would be elected during the 2004 elections.

"The House and government agree that for the time being, development activities in the new regencies will continue to be funded by the provincial administrations."

Meanwhile, Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno said the establishment of the new regencies and municipalities would create a greater burden on the state budget.

Sabarno said the provincial and regency administrations should also take part in financing the new regencies.

Despite its poor performance, the House surprised many by approving the bills.

During the last four sittings last year, the House helped establish 36 new regencies, one municipality and the Riau Islands province.

On top of yesterday's bills, the House has proposed the establishment of three regencies each in West Kalimantan and Maluku and the province of West Sulawesi.

Critics say the enthusiasm of legislators to establish new regencies and municipalities relates to being able to gather more proceeds from corruption.

Some legislators have denied the speculation, saying the speed of the bills' passage was simply because there was nothing controversial about them.

The establishment of new regencies is phenomenal, especially since regional autonomy laws took effect in 2001.

However, the increasing autonomy among regional administration has brought negative impacts, such as increased deforestation and corruption in the regions.

Many corrupt officials are in a race to give businesspeople hundreds of timber concession licenses in order to help fill their own pockets and their administration's coffers.

In some cases, regional autonomy is often misperceived by the local administrations. They have some times attempted to take over the assets or even ownership of state enterprises operating in their regions, causing uncertainty among investors.