Regional Autonomy Challenges Grow More Complex, Home Affairs Ministry Accelerates Desartada

Deputy Home Affairs Minister (Wamendagri) Bima Arya Sugiarto has stressed that regional autonomy governance is currently facing increasingly complex challenges. He considers that the issue cannot be viewed solely from the perspective of decentralisation or recentralisation of authority. “Regional autonomy cannot be seen merely as recentralisation or decentralisation, but more than that, we must view it from a broader perspective; it is very complex,” he said in a written statement on Tuesday (9/6/2026). This was conveyed at the launch of the book Decentralization, Democracy, and Local Politics in Indonesia at the Populi Center office in South Jakarta on Tuesday (9/6/2026). Bima explained that this complexity encompasses various interrelated aspects, ranging from institutional design, the quality of regional leadership, fiscal capacity, to the effectiveness of development programme implementation. Therefore, efforts to improve regional governance must be carried out comprehensively and based on real needs on the ground. He affirmed that the Ministry of Home Affairs (Kemendagri) is currently accelerating the drafting of the Grand Design for Regional Structuring (Desartada) as the policy foundation for a regional autonomy system that is more adaptive to needs and realities in the field. The drafting of Desartada is targeted for completion by the end of 2026. Bima added that the ministry’s evaluation results show that most regions, including those resulting from regional proliferation, are still in the medium to low fiscal capacity category. This condition indicates a high dependency on fund transfers from the central government, so regional independence remains a shared task that must be resolved. Nevertheless, Bima assessed that many regions are still able to demonstrate positive performance through innovation and strong leadership. He cited the example of Jambi City, which mobilised funding sources outside the regional budget (APBD) amounting to more than Rp1.96 trillion to support stunting reduction and poverty alleviation programmes. “That is also an interesting portrait that not all regions collapse when the Transfer to Regions (TKD) undergoes adjustments and they are asked to oversee priority programmes; there are regions that improve because their regional heads oversee them,” he revealed. Furthermore, Bima emphasised that the success of regional development is determined not only by the size of the budget owned, but also by the quality of leadership in managing resources and building cross-sector collaboration. Therefore, he urged academics to continue providing constructive input in the process of formulating regional structuring policies. Bima stated that a combination of scientific studies and empirical experience is essential so that the regional autonomy design being drafted can address development challenges more effectively. “This autonomy design must truly combine academic studies and existing empirical realities, so dialogues like this are very important to provide input to all of us,” he concluded. The book launch event was also attended by Populi Center Executive Director Afrimadona, Special Staff to the Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia Nico Harjanto, Executive Director of the Regional Autonomy Implementation Monitoring Committee (KPPOD) Herman Suparman, book author Dr. Testriono, regional autonomy expert Prof. Djohermansyah Djohan, researchers from BRIN, as well as lecturers and academics.