Revision of laws needed to decentralize and democratize Jakarta
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Campaigners for a more democratic Jakarta must work harder to get their voices heard by lawmakers, who did not support the idea of further decentralization in the capital in their first draft revision of the law on Jakarta's status as a special territory.
House of Representatives member Totot Sugianto, who is secretary to the special committee for the revision of Law No. 34/1999, said they had submitted the draft revision to the presidential office in 2004.
"We're waiting to schedule a meeting to deliberate the draft together with the government," he told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
The drive to revise the law that gives the governor sole authority to appoint mayors and the regent of Kepulauan Seribu regency has been debated since 2002, led by city council members before the re-election of Governor Sutiyoso that year.
The city councillors expressed the hope that a revision to the law would open the possibility for better governance in the capital, "so that officials, particularly mayors, do not only report good things to the governor in order to ensure their reappointment".
A political commentator from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) Indria Samego corroborated the councillors' argument, saying that decentralization of power, where mayors act as policymakers, would improve public services as their fate would be in the hands of the people.
Unfortunately, the idea failed to convince the House's special committee who prepared the revision draft in 2004.
And the law on Jakarta's status is not the only regulation blocking further decentralization of the capital.
According to City Regional Administration Bureau head Agus Salim Utud, Law No. 32/2004 on regional administration that regulates direct elections for all governors, mayors and regents, also specifically excludes Jakarta.
He referred to Article 227, paragraph 2 of the 2004 law which states that decentralization in the capital stops at the provincial level and that there is no autonomy at municipal and regental levels.
"Decentralization in the capital is only possible if the House first amends Article 227 and then revises the law on Jakarta's status as special capital territory," he told the Post.
He said that decentralization at municipal and regental levels would favor politicians because there would be more positions for them on the councils.
The chairman of the City Council's Commission A for legal and administrative affairs, Achmad Suaidy, one of those who initiated the drive at the council, said that there was still time to make changes to the laws.
"I believe that our party compatriots in the House would support the idea of allowing directly elected mayors and regents to make the capital more democratic and more accountable to the people," he said on Monday.