Local heads may be punished under new bill
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.