Regional autonomy bill dissappoints experts

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)