Separatism fears haunt regional autonomy plan

Separatism fears haunt regional autonomy plan

JAKARTA (JP): Fears of renewed separatism and the trauma of
federalism have continued to haunt the government as it launched
this year a long standing plan to give the regions greater
autonomy, experts said yesterday.

Indria Samego of the Center for Information and Development
Studies noted that the government has been half-hearted in its
approach towards the regional autonomy plan.

"The central government should be really willing to hand over
(part of its) political authority and resources to the regions,"
said Indria said at a seminar on regional autonomy held by the
Center.

"Too much fear of the impact of regional autonomy on
primordial tendencies will be counter productive," said Indria
who also works at the center on regional policy of the Indonesian
Institute for Sciences.

"Primordialism" is the term now often used by Indonesian
political scientists to describe the return of sectarian
sentiments found in society.

Another speaker at the seminar, noted human rights lawyer
Adnan Buyung Nasution, also criticized the government's "trauma
of federalism and separatism and primordialism" saying that overt
concerns have led to the repression of the region's interests by
the central government.

Nasution underlined that the ideals of Indonesia's founding
fathers as embodied in the national motto "Unity in Diversity"
have not been fulfilled.

What Indonesia has instead is "unity in totality" in which the
central government has a strong hand in the affairs of the
regions, said the lawyer who wrote The Aspiration of
Constitutional Government in Indonesia for his doctorate thesis
in 1992.

In the 50 years since its independence, Indonesia has had to
deal with a number of rebellions and attempts at separatism. In
the early years of independence, there were also attempts at
establishing a federal state.

Although the House of Representatives enacted the law on
regional autonomy as far back as 1974, the government only this
year launched the pilot project, testing the giving of more
autonomy to 26 selected regencies. The pilot project is to run
for two years before the regional autonomy plan can be expanded
to all areas.

Sumitro Maskun, the director General for General
Administration and Regional Autonomy at the Ministry of Home
Affairs, told the seminar yesterday that under the regional
autonomy plan, the government will continue to exercise some
control "in the framework of an unitary state"

The speakers highlighted the problem of the regions' heavy
dependence on central government handouts, something which they
said results from the reluctance to hand over resources to the
regions.

Official figures show that on average, the government is
subsidizing nearly 60 percent of each provincial administration
budget.

Maskun pointed out that in the fiscal year of 1992/1993 the
total share of locally generated income by the 27 provincial
administrations amounted to only Rp 1.74 trillion ($790 million),
or just 26 percent of the total provincial budgets for that year.
Ironically, he pointed out, the percentage share of regional
income declined the following year to 25 percent.

Maskun stressed that central government agencies must not feel
robbed of their powers when a number of their authorities and
resources are designated to lower levels.

"The decentralization of authority to lower levels must be
aimed at increasing the ability of the regions to serve their
citizens," Maskun said.

He added that the government is now formulating a regulation
on how "centuries-old indigenous autonomy" can be "tuned in" with
autonomy within the bureaucracy. (anr)