'Regional autonomy on the wrong track'
'Regional autonomy on the wrong track'
Sari P. Setiogi and M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The implementation of regional autonomy has turned both
provincial and regental legislatures into oligarchic entities
eager to fight for their own interests, a survey says.
A five-year survey chaired by noted sociologist Daniel
Sparringa showed that local legislatures were also prone to
anarchy.
"There are five big groups of people's perceptions to regional
councillors," Daniel Sparingga said on the sidelines of the VIII
National Congress of Science 2003.
The first was that regional counselors were prone to oligarchy
practices.
"They misuse people's trust to serve their own interests
instead of the people's interest," said Daniel.
Many such cases had happened in the country, such as the suit
and traveling budget requested by the Jakarta City Council
recently.
People saw such practices as the regional counselors' effort
to enrich themselves.
Another image was that regional councillors in most cases were
becoming free-floating elite as they were not attached to the
community they were supposed to represent.
"They become insensitive and careless with many real problems
faced by the people in their regions."
He also said that local councillors were prone to becoming
"moral brokers" as they were forcing certain value among the
people, although the values were not wanted by the community.
As an example, he mentioned the tendency of some regional
councillors to close amusement places during the fasting month
and establishing sharia law.
"The regional councillors are also sometimes developing
anarchism by issuing regional laws that are not in line, even
sometimes contrary, to existing laws. It happens particularly
with economic-related laws," said Daniel.
Anther criticism directed at the regional councillors was that
most members were acting as aliens instead of speaking with the
same 'language' as the community. As the result, people would
feel isolated from their councillors.
The research was conducted by Daniel over the last five years
across the country, from Sabang in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam to
Merauke in Papua.
Separately, Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno said, after
regional autonomy had been implemented for three years, that the
central government was alarmed by a tendency of a number of local
administrations to manipulate the newly found power for the
benefit of their respective regions.
He told members of the House of Representatives' Commission II
on legal affairs that a number of local administrations in
resource-rich regions claimed the full ownership of natural
resources, while disregarding the plight of neighboring poor
provinces and regencies.
"To make things worse, the natural resources were later
controlled by certain majority ethnic groups in the region. This
easily fuels resentment from disenfranchised ethnic groups and
such a condition might trigger clashes between the two," he said.
Hari also cited a number of cases where local administrations
imposed regulations that were meant simply to enrich local
leaders.
The central government has been under fire, especially from
foreign investors, saying that the regional autonomy policy was
confusing and gave rise to too many local regulations that placed
additional burdens on their companies.
The minister said that due to the distortion in the
implementation of the regional autonomy law, the central
government was determined to revise the law despite opposition
from the regions.