Regional autonomy: Building a ship while sailing

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia is set to launch in the New Year its ambitious project of granting unprecedented autonomy to its regions, hoping to allay widespread discontent and even threats of national disintegration following heavily-centralized regimes of the past.

Dubbed by some scholars as the world's largest experiment in decentralization of powers, the autonomy policy may not necessarily face a quick death as some doomsayers have predicted but pessimism is indeed great. There are all the signs that the infant project will face difficulty breathing as even its most ardent proponents, including the man responsible for initiating the drive, Minister Ryaas Rasyid, have predicted chaos.

Poor preparation over the past months since the issuance of laws No. 22 and No. 25/1999 on regional autonomy and fiscal balance respectively, is only the beginning of a long list of complaints that some scholars have cited. The two laws have also received their fair share of criticism; "good intention but bad laws" as one legal expert has put it.

The most important factor lacking in the drive is strong leadership, Ryaas pointed out in a recent interview with Kompas. Imagine doling out authority over affairs that concern the livelihood of 210 million people to 400 regents and mayors who all have interests and whims of their own!

Even some non-governmental organizations are increasingly aware how some regents and mayors have begun to treat regional resources as their private property, parceling them out to the highest bidder.

"We need strong leadership to guide regions in establishing the necessary regulations," he said. "Otherwise, those regions will race with one another making up their own rules, and in fact they have already started to do this."

"Meanwhile, the government has not completed the necessary guidelines and it is only a matter of days before the implementation of the laws," he said, underlining the second most important problem facing the drive, namely the incomplete legal infrastructure.

Some scholars, for instance, have counted up to 1,200 decrees and regulations at various levels of administration that need to be amended before the autonomy drive can proceed smoothly. This seems unlikely in the near future, as many have noted.

The problem of legal infrastructure is worsened by the fact that some decrees on autonomy actually conflict with one another. A People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) decree on regional autonomy, for instance, permits regions to set up their own rulings for matters that are not regulated by the central government.

The Government Regulation No. 25/2000, a set of directive regulations for Law No. 25/1999, on the other hand, stipulates that the central government complete all guidelines and rulings that will serve as the guidelines for the regional administrations to introduce rulings on aspects such as mining, trade, investment, agriculture and others.

"It (the contradiction) can be dangerous," Ryaas said.

"The two most important factors that need to be present for the autonomy drive to be successful are complete regulations and strong leadership, an effective supervision," Ryaas said, implying the absence of both.

For all good intent and purposes, Ryaas' complaints about how the autonomy drive has been progressing may be interpreted as the whining of a sore loser in a higher level political game.

After his hard work in formulating the policy, he was removed from the government team of autonomy and, by his own admission, all of his further actions were effectively thwarted by President Abdurrahman Wahid. The president, for instance, rejected his suggestion that the dissolved office of state minister for autonomy, which Ryaas occupied for nine months, be enhanced into the Supervisory Board of Regional Autonomy.

To give credit where it is due, Ryaas continues to champion the need for decentralization and regional autonomy. His colleagues and supporters such as Andi Alfian Mallarangeng, even while decrying what they believe is Abdurrahman Wahid's reluctance to decentralize powers, insist that the drive commence as scheduled.

"We are not ready at all, it will end up in chaos," Mallarangeng said. But, ever onward because the stakes are too high, namely the survival of the unitary state of Indonesia, according to some observers including British economist Anne Booth and Indonesian legal expert Bagir Manan, citing the irreversible push for greater say for the regions.

"We have to go ahead with what we have, while preparing to launch the amendments (of the existing regulations)," another scholar said. Yet another scholar indicated that Indonesia would have to resort to old, "centralized" regulations but "with adjustments here and there."

With such a patch-work approach to the huge undertaking, public apprehension is therefore understandable. Indonesia is being forced to build the ship while sailing, as one writer puts it.

The authority on autonomy is now in the hands of Surjadi Sudirdja, appointed minister of home affairs and regional autonomy in August, he has yet to educate the public about how his office is planning to go about implementing the campaign on January 1, 2001.

He is widely considered to be reticent. He does not talk much. A self-proclaimed egalitarian and poor conversationalist, Surjadi indicated in a September interview with Forum Keadilan that he was aware of signs of troubles in the regions in relation to the autonomy drive.

"With all of their shortcomings, the two laws are basically a democratization of the administration. Some authorities that were part of the central government are now being transferred to regional administration...We are now facing problems (from regions)," he said.

"We will have to work hard to deal with these problems," he promised.

We are banking on this promise to ensure that the good intention contained in the laws will materialize, and the feared chaos does not. (swe)