Megawati warns regions of misuse of authority
SUMEDANG, West Java (JP): President Megawati Soekarnoputri warned regional administrations here on Friday not to misuse their authority by competing to acquire natural resources and imposing additional taxes and levies on the public.
"Such policies will only generate new environmental problems and dim the business climate in the regions," she said when addressing 612 graduates of the Institute of State Administration in Jatinangor, Sumedang, some 15 kilometers east of the West Java capital Bandung.
It was Megawati's first official domestic trip since she was elected President on Monday. Following speech to the graduates, she flew to Palu, Central Sulawesi, and Makassar, South Sulawesi, where she will inaugurate several projects on Saturday.
The institute, which was established in Malang, East Java, on March 1, 1956, has produced 5,489 graduates, who have been placed in various governmental institutions in the archipelago.
"Indonesians must gradually become self-supportive. And the regional administrations, with their autonomy, should become the backbone for the public to achieve this goal. Someday we hope to see the regional administrations play a convincing role in pioneering and facilitating regional development," the President said.
Surjadi Soedirdja, the outgoing minister of home affairs and regional autonomy, Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso, West Java Governor R. Nuriana and National Resilience Institute governor Ermaya Suradinata were among the officials accompanying the President on the trip.
Megawati said both the central government and the public were determined to make the regional administrations autonomous. "But to achieve this will require creative administrators that will work hand in hand in solid teams."
"Therefore, a new generation of state administrators is needed to drive and stimulate the regions' growth. We need people who have entrepreneurship and intuition, without a corruptive, collusive and nepotistic mentality."
While Megawati was speaking, dozens of students from Bandung's Young Indonesian Front staged a rally outside the building, urging the President to resolve human rights violations, including the bloody takeover of the Indonesian Democratic Party headquarters on July 27, 1996, and the Semanggi shootings.
In Palu, the President opened the Sulawesi Regional Development Cooperation Board at the Golden Hotel.
Left behind
In her 35-minute address, the President said that during the last two decades eastern Indonesia had been left behind other parts of the country.
"Many say that investment is the only way to develop this area. However, investors will come only after the infrastructure is in place. The problem is that the government does not have the funds to build the required infrastructure."
She reiterated that the country had yet to emerge from the lingering economic crisis.
"Cooperation among the provinces is a good way to deal with the crisis," she said.
The President also criticized provincial officials who appeared to care little for the development of their regions.
"I have been informed that several provincial officials have been unable to come up with any development programs for their provinces despite the abundant money allocated by the provincial budgets. The officials eventually went to Jakarta for a comparative study, so they claimed. But they just bought new houses in Jakarta," she said to the applause of the audience.
The President's entourage then flew to Makassar, South Sulawesi.
As promised by local officials and authorities, there was not a single protester there to greet Megawati.
Local journalist, who followed Megawati from the airport to the Sedona Hotel, were disappointed by her decision not issue any statements. (24/25/27/sur)