Public, elite divided over Yogyakarta's special status

Public, elite divided over Yogyakarta's special status

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

Councillors in the provincial legislative council are divided
over Yogyakarta's future directions in the fields of public
administration, politics and culture.

A part of the legislature is supporting the bill on
Yogyakarta's special status recently submitted to the legislative
council, which gives the gubernatorial and deputy gubernatorial
positions to the Yogyakarta sultan and the Pakualaman raja
respectively.

The councillors argue that the two royal families deserve the
top positions and that the bill is aimed at preserving the
province's unique traditional and cultural heritage.

"The nation should entrust the provincial administration to
the Yogyakarta sultan and the Pakualaman raja, who have given up
their own powers and privileges, and assigned them to the
Indonesia unitary state. We should not forget the historical
aspect," Totok Daryanto of the Reform Faction told The Jakarta
Post here on Wednesday.

He said a majority of local people did not want their royal
families to be reduced to the level of commoners as, according to
Javanese thinking, both sultans and rajas were "the
representatives of Almighty God on earth."

He also lauded the bill for establishing regional autonomy for
the province as a whole instead of for its regencies and
municipalities as was the case in other provinces based upon the
regional autonomy law, saying that the granting of regional
autonomy to the Yogyakarta regencies would reduce Yogyakarta's
status as a royal territory based on tradition and age-old
cultural values.

Another group of councillors, however, argue that the office
of governor and the office of provincial chief executive should
be separated.

This group of councillors are of the opinion that Yogyakarta
province should be headed by a governor and deputy governor while
day-to-day administration should be the responsibility of the
head of government and provincial administration secretary.

"This proposal is aimed at preserving Yogyakarta's historical
and cultural heritage while simultaneously developing democracy.
As things stand, it will be difficult for the provincial
administration to become fully accountable and it will be
difficult for local people to criticize the government should the
administration continue to be led by the sultan," Achmad Subagya
of the United Development Party faction said, stressing that the
proposal was based on the combination of the traditional feudal
system and the democratic political system.

He added that despite the presence of the royal families in
the administration, democracy could be upheld by handing the
responsibility for administrative over to commoners.

He explained that the governor and the vice governor would
perform mainly ceremonial duties while the head of government
would be responsible for the day-to-day running of the
administration.

Bambang Cipto, a political analyst from Yogyakarta's
Muhammadiyah University, concurred with Achmad Subagya and said
that the chief executive should be elected by the provincial
legislative council in accordance with the law.

"Given such a system, we would be able to maintain the
sultanate for a long time to come while the legislature would
elect the provincial administration's chief executive," he said.

Bambang also said the special status proposed for the province
should place emphasis not only on the political and cultural
fields but also on the educational sector as Yogyakarta drew
students from all over the country as well as many foreign
countries.

"Yogyakarta would be unique not only for its political system
but also its development programs in the tourism and education
sectors," he said.