Lawmaker wants strong legislatures

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta

Direct elections for governors, mayors and regents as stipulated in the draft revision of the Autonomy Law, must be coupled with a strong local legislature to supervise the executive body, a legislator says.

Agun Gunandjar Sudarsa, deputy chairman of the House of Representatives (DPR) committee deliberating upon the revisions, said on Friday that direct elections would afford the heads of regional administrations a wider mandate than they currently enjoy.

"That power that the regional administration heads will have must be balanced by giving the legislatures power to impeach him or her," he announced to the public on Friday.

Under Law No. 22/1999 on regional administration, governors, mayors and regents are elected by local legislative members -- governors are approved by the president, mayors and regents are approved by the minister of home affairs.

In the proposed revisions, governors, mayors and regents would be directly elected by the people and thus they would draw their legitimacy from the people, not directly from the legislature.

It also says that the heads of regional administrations would be dismissed for violations of the oath of office and/or criminal convictions, in which the jail term is more than five years.

Members of regional legislatures could also investigate alleged crimes involving regional administration heads and pass along the case directly to the Supreme Court.

"The ruling of the Supreme Court would be final and binding," said Agun, a legislator from the Golkar Party.

Currently, all criminal or civil cases have to go to the state district courts before going to the provincial/high court and finally the Supreme Court.

Agun emphasized that revisions to the law would improve the conditions of regional autonomy, which took effect in January 2001.

Several governors expressed support of the proposed revisions last Wednesday. They did, however, raise a few questions.

Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso, in his capacity as chairman of the Association of Provincial Administrations in Indonesia (APPSI), said he hoped lawmakers would accommodate the governors' suggestions.

Agun said that the revisions would also be aimed at creating a more proportional distribution of power between the central government and regional administrations.

Taking as an example, he said that the Bung Karno sports complex and the Kemayoran Fairground were still under the management of the State Secretariat -- an instrument of the central government.

Agun added that the sports complex and the fairground should be managed by the Jakarta administration because the two areas were also related to the management of transportation and other public services.

"We will create a standard on which such national complexes should be under the management of the regional administration," he said.

Lawmakers are scheduled to get more input from a variety of parties next week, including the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), the University of Indonesia (UI) and Gadjah Mada University (UGM).