Lawmaker wants strong legislatures
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).