'No such thing as clean accountable political party'

When the central government is widely attacked for its reluctance to facilitate the autonomy policy, among the first things to look at is the quality of its bureaucracy. In a recent interview, Chusnul Mar'iyyah, a political expert at the University of Indonesia's School of Social and Political Sciences, came up with more questions than answers but was firm in her belief that the bureaucracy must be streamlined and its accountability improved.

Question: What is your assessment of the autonomy drive?

Answer: Law No. 22/1999 was drafted during an uncertain situation, when there was a lack of public consultation. That's why autonomy will go all the way down to the regencies -- which will cause problems later on. If autonomy was confined to provinces, maybe the central government would be afraid of disintegration.

Now the autonomy policy is being used as an alternative to solve conflicts in the regions, but the problem lies in the fact that even supporting regulations are not yet completed.

There's also the question of political capacity. There's a tendency for the autonomy drive to become a determination, rather than distribution, of power. People in regions I have visited, such as in Banjarmasin and Makassar, spoke about their wish to control this resource or that, ignoring the regulations that were issued.

Another problem relates to attitude. For the past 32 or even 40 years, we were always under a heavily centralized authoritarian administration. Now everything is being transferred to regions, so what will happen? They might not have the necessary initiatives, so the autonomy drive will remain in the stage of mere rhetoric. It would take a considerable process to change (the attitude).

Furthermore, the central government is facing difficulty in distributing power because there should first be, for instance, bureaucratic reform. Look at how crowded some state offices in the regions are; this is despite the fact that some regions need only, for instance, forest rangers.

(Heavily forested) Irian Jaya, for instance, is said to have only five civil servants (in charge of forestry). How can they be effective? It is clear that the regions should understand their needs.

Development sectors must also be scrutinized. Who will draft the school curriculum? Who will make decisions regarding what diseases should get more funding for treatment? Will it be AIDS or breast cancer?

There are so many other questions. Will the central government determine the policy and distribute (the authority) among regions? Will there be initiatives from regions to have their own social policy development? What will happen to arts and culture?

I am not saying the regions are not ready, but they really have to develop in accordance to the challenges facing them, which differ from one region to another. Regions in Java may not have a problem of human capital, or even physical capital, given their advanced infrastructure. But how will it develop its social capital, which will differ from Irian Jaya. In Irian Jaya, most educated people are migrants.

Maluku, which is an area of conflict, will have different requirements than Lampung or West Kalimantan. In places like Maluku the social challenge is the greatest, while the economic challenge comes second. In East Nusa Tenggara, economic challenge is the most important because of its dire poverty.

Q: So the regions need to be creative?

A: On the one hand, the central government has to distribute its control over natural resources; on the other hand, regions have to use creativity. The more decentralized powers are, the closer the lowest level of government should be to issues of public services. How will regions handle this? The legislative councils have so far been talking about what percentage of income will go into their pockets. And who will become regent?

With decentralized power, public demands should be handled and solved at the local level. So the regions should not be forever waiting for instructions from above. They should start by first identifying the issues, and establishing policies. Education, for instance, has a budget of only 3.7 percent of the total GNP. How will regions handle this?

Q: So education will be a sector to be transferred to regions?

A: This has failed to be discussed in public discourses about autonomy. No one asks what will happen to our education. What will happen to health services? People have been busy talking only about money. Not that this is any less important, but let's discuss real things that directly affect the people.

Take the Jakarta legislative council for instance. When its budget was increased from Rp 3.9 trillion to Rp 4.5 trillion, each of its members received a bonus of Rp 10 billion. When they were criticized, its chairman said "We didn't ask for the money!" The point is, they should not have accepted the money.

The legislators (ignored) the real issues in Jakarta, such as student brawls, lack of safe public transportation, which directly influence the quality of life.

Q: You are saying...

A: I am saying the autonomy policy should directly improve public services.

Q: There are worries that the autonomy will create 'small lords' in the regions...

A: It's not as simple as that. Let's just discuss what challenges are facing us. For instance, how to build a democratic, transparent and accountable political culture.

If the political parties are not transparent, what results are we expecting from the drive? I heard from an accountant of one party that political leaders travel everywhere by helicopter. Even today, there is no such thing as a clean, transparent and accountable political party -- down to the regional and local levels.

(What's important in the autonomy drive) is how people can enjoy its fruit. Perhaps the bureaucracy should be streamlined in order to achieve that.

Q: How would we go about establishing a democratic political culture in the outer regions?

A: It will be a (lengthy) process, taking perhaps some 20 years. What we have at the moment is crisis intervention. But in the next four years, we need to be able to identify various problems in the regions and to prioritize.

We need to think about how to build a participatory democracy. A civil society where the public is involved in decision-making. We also need to think about skills development -- because building up human resources is not an easy thing to do.

What we need to build is a system of participatory democracy. (Ali Said Damanik)