Local heads may be punished under new bill
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
State Minister of Administrative Reforms Taufik Effendi said on Monday his office was currently preparing a bill on state administrations, which would make incompetent regional leaders who made bad policies answerable to the law.
Taufik said the drafting of the bill was expected to be completed next year and once it was passed into law, "all governors, regents and mayors will no longer be able to create policies as they could be charged in the courts for doing so."
"Nowadays, many people are jostling for political positions either in the central government or local administrations. But once we have this legislation, I believe that only qualified people will be able to join the race," he said on the sidelines of a ceremony on good governance in regional administrations.
"The legislation will work to ensure that only people with their integrity intact, who have the honest intention of developing their area will run for political positions," he said.
Taufik acknowledged there would likely be resistance to the new legislation, but vowed to get the law passed.
"As of today, my office has completed nearly 80 percent of the contents in the bill and I hope that the government and legislators can begin to debate and will endorse it by early next year," he was quoted by Antara as saying.
The planned legislation comes amid reports of rampant corruption in regional administrations and the creation of confusing local government policy that is often in conflict with national laws.
The central government introduced regional autonomy in 2001, giving regional governments greater power to manage economic and social affairs after 32 years under the centralized authoritarian Soeharto government.
Disputes involving heads of the local administrations and the local legislative councils also frequently occurred, with motions of no confidence launched to remove Cirebon Mayor Subardi and his deputy Agus Alwafier in 2003 after the later were accused of abusing their power. The past two Surabaya mayors, Soenarto Soemoprawiro and Bambang D.H., also faced similar dismissal threats from the municipal legislative council in 2001 and 2002 respectively for being incompetent.
The central government accepted Soenarto's dismissal but rejected Bambang's.
Another case took place in 2002 when 30 out of a total of 45 members of the Riau legislature voted to impeach of Kampar regent Jefri Noer and his deputy A. Zakir.
Jefri was accused of making controversial policies and statements on numerous problems, all of which had caused confusion amongst local people. But the central government decided at the time to retain Jefri.