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)