Much ado about autonomy

Much ado about autonomy

Much of the hype about granting increased autonomy to the
regions will most likely end up as empty rhetoric. The
government's bill on regional administration, presented to the
House of Representatives last week, promises more authority and
responsibility to provinces, regencies and mayoralties to run
their own affairs, but not to the extent promoted by officials.
Real power will still rest in the hands of the central
administration in Jakarta, in this case the President.

In the bill, the President will still have to approve
candidates for governorship of the provincial legislatures. While
the President can remove a governor from office, the legislature
can only recommend this course of action to the President. A
governor is accountable to both the legislature and the
President. However, there is no doubt who the real boss is;
loyalty is to Jakarta first and to people in the region last.

A major innovation in the bill is that regional
administrations -- at provincial, regency and mayoralty levels --
will have increased authority over local affairs. All
administrative business -- with the exception of foreign,
security and defense, justice and monetary and fiscal policies --
will now be decided by regional authorities.

The bill on regional administration essentially states that
you can run your own affairs but we will still call the shots in
the crucial areas of policy formulation and leadership choice.
Whether this will satisfy the people in the regions remains to be
seen, since the content of the bill has not been widely
disseminated.

Expressions for increased autonomy stemmed from growing
discontent by regional pressure groups, not only concerning
distribution of the national cake, but also regarding Jakarta's
inclination to meddle in regional affairs. This discontent, in
turn, has raised the specter of a disintegrating republic.

We commend the government for moving quickly to defuse
tension, however, its proposal could fall dangerously short of
expectations. The bill is only proposing to decentralize
administrative tasks, not power, away from Jakarta's hands.

Understandably, underpinning the bill on regional
administration is the need to preserve the unitary state system.
It seeks to decentralize the government without moving to a
federal system. Prevailing views favor preserving the current
system. Federalism is widely regarded as suspect.

Indonesia lost one of federalism's rare advocates with the
passing away of writer YB Mangunwijaya last week. In a book on
the subject, published last month, Romo Mangun, as the Catholic
priest was popularly known, argued that democracy would be more
likely to flourish and be easier to manage in a country as large
and diverse as Indonesia under a federal system. Our experience
with the unitary state system during the past five decades
supports the argument that Indonesia may only be governed by a
totalitarian regime. Romo Mangun also said a federal system of
government could stop the process of national disintegration; a
topic of concern to many people.

Romo Mangun and Indonesia's first vice president Mohammad
Hatta, who also advocated a federal system at the inception of
the republic, were probably way ahead of their time.

While Romo Mangun and Hatta argued for federalism from a
practical point of view, their detractors remain insistent in
defending the unitary state system. For them, the subject is not
even up for discussion. As the bill on regional administration
shows, they remain reluctant to relinquish substantial power to
the regions.

Ironically, in their obsession to preserve the unitary state
system, they may be sowing the seeds of disintegration
themselves. And if the "Balkanization" of our republic begins, it
will probably be too late to talk about federalism or any other
alternative system.