House rushes to approve new regencies

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.