House to pass bill on regional autonomy

JAKARTA (JP): The House of Representatives is expected on Wednesday to pass a bill which will provide more autonomy to regional administrations and legislatures from the central government.

The new law will only take effect two years after the presidential endorsement, a period which the government and the House can use to review existing laws in line with the new law and draw up operational regulations.

However, the debate remained tough on Tuesday on a closely related bill on fiscal balance between the central and regional governments, a legislator said.

"No common ground has been reached yet on the percentage of state income allocated for provinces," Robbani Thoha of the United Development Party (PPP) told The Jakarta Post.

The Armed Forces' faction's Budi Harsono, who is the deputy chairman of the House special committee deliberating the regional autonomy bill, said the regional autonomy bill accommodated many public aspirations.

"It will later depend on human resources of each province to make full use of the bill," he told the Post during a break in the committee's final session which was held behind a closed door.

According to Budi, the bill, containing 15 chapters and 134 articles, wields notable consequences for the present state administration, for years marked by the central government's domination of both decision making and financing powers.

Budi said the bill applied the principle of power decentralization by giving wide-ranging autonomy to regencies. It also introduces the principle of power deconcentration at the provincial level, in which governors and deputy governors have served as mere representatives of the central government.

Unlike present practices, the bill stipulates that candidates for both governors and deputy governors will be selected by the provincial legislature after consultation with the president.

On the election of a regent, the bill states a regency legislature has the authority to choose candidates and appoint one. The present law allows the central government's intervention, if not the final say, in the election process.

"Each faction will have to nominate its regent and his or her deputy candidates altogether. The same method also applies in the gubernatorial candidacy," Budi said.

Both a regent and a governor are "political jobs", meaning they are not part of the civil servants corps, Budi said.

The principle of decentralization regulates that a regent is not a subordinate to a governor. A regent also will supervise district heads.

District heads are civil servants, according to the bill, but Budi said that unlike the present arrangement, village heads would not be the subordinates of a district head. Instead, they would give their accountability to the regent.

"Villages will be left alone to retain their own community characteristics of administration, in which villagers will have their own way of electing their heads," Budi said.

The village is the lowest government administrative level under the bill.

As for the bill on fiscal balance -- dubbed the "soul" of regional autonomy -- Robbani said the bill recommended that the central government return a number of income resources contributed by provinces to the state budget.

He said the bill was slated for endorsement on Friday. (aan)