New regents, mayors installed

New regents, mayors installed

JAKARTA: Following the enactment of the law on regional
autonomy, Minister of Home Affairs Syarwan Hamid inaugurated five
new regencies and six mayoralties at a ceremony on Tuesday.

The five regencies are Aceh Singkil in Aceh, Way Kanan and
East Lampung in Lampung, Bengkayang in West Kalimantan and North
Luwu in South Sulawesi. The six mayoralties are Dumai in Riau,
Metro in Lampung, Cilegon and Depok in West Java, Banjarbaru in
South Kalimantan and Ternate in Maluku.

The minister swore in the following acting regents: Makmur
Syahputra for Aceh Singkil, Tamanuri for Way Kanan, Muhammad
Nurdin for East Lampung, Jacobus Luna for Bengkayang and Muchtar
Luthfy Mutty for North Luwu.

The following acting mayors were also inducted: Zainuddin
Abdullah for Dumai, Mozes Herman for Metro, Rifa'i Halir for
Cilegon, Badrul Kamal for Depok, Akhmad Fakhrulli for Banjabaru
and Syamsir Andili for Ternate.

Syarwan explained the purpose of establishing new regencies
and mayoralties was to reduce central government control and to
achieve efficiency and effective administration in the regions.

With the eleven new regions, the total number of regencies and
mayoralties reaches 338. (rms)