Regional autonomy bill dissappoints experts
JAKARTA (JP): Instead of meeting its promise of greater regional autonomy, a recently issued draft bill is striking out with analysts who charge it fails to sever the dependent relationship of regional governments to their central counterpart.
Constitutional law experts Satya Arinanto and Harun Alrasid said separately on Saturday the draft's stipulation that local governments must report both to councils and the central government showed a continuing lack of autonomy.
Submitted last week to the House of Representatives, the draft was eagerly expected to respond to grievances accumulated from decades of centralization. The government also said it would soon submit the draft bill on fiscal balance between the central and regional governments.
Harun Alrasid said the House should be extremely circumspect in deliberating the bill because it differed little from the flawed 1974 law on regional administration.
"The House should be critical of the bill because the concept of regional administration and autonomy is still unclear," he told The Jakarta Post.
He considered it "strange" that council-elected governors, regents and mayors would still be required to obtain central government approval before taking their posts, similar to current procedures.
Harun said full autonomy for regional administrations would mean a clear distinction between the election and appointment of officials.
"If appointed, governors and regents should be appointed by the government, but if elected, they should be elected by their councils without any interference from the central government," he said.
"The mechanism in the bill is quasi-democratic because a governor elected by the provincial council is still required to get approval from the president. This contradicts the idea of autonomy."
Regions should only be obliged to report results of their elections to the central government, Harun added.
The bill still invests the central government with the power to reject officials elected by local councils, he said.
Obligating officials to answer both to local councils and the central government is "dualistic accountability", he said, a practice alien to an autonomous system.
Satya Arinanto, a member of a team appointed by Minister of Justice Muladi to draw up the regional autonomy draft, expressed surprise at its submission to the House.
"We consider the government's decision strange because the government submitted the bill to the House without taking our opinion and approval into consideration."
He said the substance of the draft differed significantly from the team's recommendations.
Led by Sri Soemantri of Padjadjaran University in Bandung, West Java, the team also includes Thalib Puspokusumo, Sigit Eddy Sutomo and M.T. Arifin.
Satya said changes should be made to the current draft bill because of the unclear concept of autonomy and the dualistic power between provincial and regency councils and the president.
He said the team's draft law designated the provincial and regency councils with full authority and independence in the nomination of candidates and their election for positions as governor, regent and mayor. It was only left for the central government to accept the outcome, he added. (rms)