Megawati slams regionalism in recruitment
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Confronted with strong opposition from regents and experts on her move to revise the current autonomy law, President Megawati Soekarnoputri lashed out at regional authorities on Monday for what she termed excessive and ridiculous regionalism in recruiting civil servants.
However, she stopped short of calling for the revision of Law No. 22/1999 on Regional Administration, known also as the autonomy law, a move she has long wanted to make, but which has met strong resistance from local authorities and experts.
"Some regional authorities have refused to accept people from other provinces becoming civil servants or provincial officials," Megawati said at the opening ceremony of a three-day coordination meeting of the Office of the State Minister of Administrative Reforms here on Monday.
"Such arrogance is a setback to the nation. If a province runs out of eligible people to occupy certain positions, what would the administration do? Will you bend the qualifications for the candidates?" she asked.
She underlined that such a move would eventually muffle the performance of regional administrations and hurt the country as a whole.
Many regions preferred putra asli daerah (indigenous locals) to become leaders in certain regions, Megawati said.
Megawati's criticism came after her proposal to review the existing autonomy law, No. 22/1999, had met strong opposition from regional councillors and leaders, who saw the move as part of a series of moves to recentralize the government.
"The revision must be rejected since it will merely allow the central government to reclaim power," deputy chairman of the Association of Regional Legislative Councils (Adeksi) Ali Hanafiah was quoted as saying earlier.
Megawati has insisted that the revision is needed as there were several fundamental problems with the very concept of autonomy in the current law, which took effect on Jan. 1, 2001. The problems, she said, were related to "our statehood and nationhood."
"We want to amend those items; indeed we must do it in order to strengthen our national unity and the integrity of the unitary state of the Republic of Indonesia," Megawati said in late January.
In a bid to prevent the country from breaking up, the central government introduced on Jan. 1, 2001 Law. 22/1999 on Regional Administration. The legislation, however, raised much concern that it would become another means by which regional officials could inflate their personal incomes.
"At first I thought of bestowing the Adipura Award to the best-managed region in the country, but then again I think it will be of no use if the regional autonomy only encourages excessive regionalism," Megawati said.
She reminded local administrations to concentrate on how to improve the welfare and capability of people in each region in order to support the implementation of regional autonomy.
Meanwhile, former state minister of administrative reforms Ryaas Rasyid admitted on Monday that an atavistic spirit had arisen following the downfall of former strongman Soeharto in 1998, but rejected the notion that the implementation of regional autonomy had triggered excessive regionalism.
"The central government is supposed to formulate several regulations to supervise the implementation of regional autonomy," Ryaas told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
"I guess the atavistic spirit can be curbed if the central government manages to supervise local administrations through regulations banning local authorities from giving employment privileges to indigenous locals," Ryaas said, adding that any violation of the regulations would face stern sanctions from central government.
According to Ryaas, the special autonomy for two troubled provinces, Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam and Papua, was more atavistic than Law No. 22/1999, but "no one complains about it."