Mega, Wiranto at odds over autonomy

Mega, Wiranto at odds over autonomy

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta

At least one presidential candidate disagrees with the incumbent
president's view about the current revision deliberations of the
1999 Autonomy Law by the lame-duck House of Representatives.

Gen. (ret) Wiranto wants the law to be handed to the new
legislative members, who will be inaugurated in October but
incumbent President Megawati Soekarnoputri hailed the House's
recent decision to make revisions to the law.

New members of the People's Consultative Council (MPR) will be
inaugurated about a month after the Sept. 20 presidential
election. The MPR will be comprised of the 128 Regional
Representative Council (DPD) members -- a new body -- in addition
to the 550 House of Representatives (DPR) members.

"The revision is urgent since it is required by the amended
1945 Constitution, while implementation of autonomy has raised
numerous problems in most provinces," Teras Narang, a member of
the Megawati-Hasyim campaign team, said on Wednesday.

The law was implemented in 2000 and has since caused confusion
in some areas. Pro-revision people argue that the revised law
needs to be done as soon as possible for democratization in the
regions, while rival camps think that a revision would be best
done by the newly elected members of the DPD because of their
intimate knowledge of local problems, as it is made up of four
DPD members from each of the 32 provinces.

The House decided to revise the law to allow the citizens to
directly elect governors, regents and mayors and to settle
numerous problems resulting from the implementation of the law,
said Teras who also heads the House's special committee tasked to
deliberate on the revision of the law.

Ryaas Rasyid, a member of Wiranto's national campaign team,
said Wiranto would ask the new members of the MPR to review the
two laws if he won the presidential election.

"He has repeatedly called on the government to delay the
revision of the law until November because the regional
representatives will have a better idea about what revisions
should be made to the law; but the government has pressed ahead
with the lame-duck House members," said Ryaas, who is a former
state minister of regional autonomy affairs.

The ongoing revision has sparked protests from many regents
and mayors who fear that the four-year decentralization process
could be halted.

Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno defended the revision
process by this House, saying most regions supported the move to
settle disparities among themselves.

Ryaas, one of the key architects of the Autonomy Law, lashed
out at the ongoing process and said the minister knew nothing
about autonomy.

Hamzah Haz and his running mate Agum Gumelar support the
current government's policy on the issue, saying many regional
chiefs and local elites have violated the law.

"Pak Hamzah and I fully support the ongoing revision of the
regional autonomy law because we have to nurture the growth of
democracy," Agum said in a closed-door campaign in Cibitung,
Bekasi, on Tuesday.

Agum cited the number of large-scale corruption conspiracies
committed by local legislators in many regions as an indication
of a deviation in the implementation of the law.

Amien Rais, a candidate nominated by the National Mandate
Party, is a strong proponent of the law.

"The regional autonomy is a fixed price the central government
has paid to the regions through a national consensus by the MPR
to maintain the Indonesian unitary state," he said in a recent
debate with presidential candidate Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Susilo and his running mate, Jusuf Kalla, support the ongoing
revision to decide what authority should be accorded the
provinces, regencies and municipalities, and what should be kept
in the hands of the central government.

"It is most important that we decide it together without
anyone losing face in the bargaining process," said Susilo in the
debate.