Small lords and new KKN looming in Pangkep

By Jupriadi

PANGKEP, South Sulawesi (JP): Local lawmaker Muchtar Rauf frowned and shook his head. "Autonomy is suitable only for a community ready for democracy. Here, autonomy will only give rise to fresh problems."

The 35-year-old member of the regional legislative council spoke with The Jakarta Post after attending a meeting to discuss the organizational structure of the regions when the regional autonomy law comes into effect on Jan. 1, 2001.

The regency that is comprised of the Pangkajene group of islands (known as Pangkep and located some 55 kilometers to the north of Makassar) is considered to be among the best prepared for the implementation of autonomy among the 24 regencies in South Sulawesi. In terms of regional revenue, it is one of the largest regions in South Sulawesi, the other four being Makassar City, Luwu regency, Gowa regency and Bone regency (see table).

Made up of 117 islands, this regency is endowed with a great many natural resources, including 16,995 hectares of food crops with 117,607 tons/year in production; 32,353 ha of plantations with 7,354 tons/year production; 9,121 ha of fish ponds breeding 6,947 tons of fish a year; and marine fisheries with a production level of 11,408 tons a year.

Pangkep regency measures 1,112.29 square kilometers and has 13 subdistricts. It has a population density of 239 people/square kilometer and an annual population growth rate of 1.6 percent. The regency also has mining areas measuring a total of 34,088 ha spread across a number of subdistricts. From the mines the regency gets marble, mountain rocks, coal, quartz sand and limestone. The area is also home to the Tonasa cement mill.

Thanks to this abundance of natural resources, Pangkep was ranked third in terms of regional revenue in 1998/1999 with a total regional revenue of Rp 5,102,982,000. It trailed only Makassar City (Rp 25,183,864.83) and Gowa regency (Rp 7,451,637,000).

In the current budget year, the regional revenue of Pangkep is estimated at Rp 12,281,161,864.83, quite a large increase from the 1998/1999 budget year.

"In terms of regional revenue, Pangkep is the most ready for the implementation of regional autonomy, as we can boost regional revenue by two or three times its current level," said Pangkep Regent HA Gaffar Patappe.

On a number of occasions, Gaffar has expressed his optimism that the regional revenue of Pangkep can be increased by tapping the potential of taxes on mining, entertainment, advertisements and road lights.

Pangkep may be ready for regional autonomy in terms of natural resources, but problems with human resources may prove to be a hindrance. Muchtar, a member of Commission C at the Pangkep legislative assembly, is one of the community members pessimistic about the ability of the regency's existing labor force to adequately meet the needs of regional autonomy.

He fears that Pangkep residents, mostly farmers and fishermen, will only be subjected to abuse by local officials, whose authority will be greatly enhanced with the implementation of regional autonomy.

He is afraid the community's generally low level of education and infrequent participation in the political process will only provide fertile ground for new-style collusion, corruption and nepotism (known by the acronym KKN). Worse still, in his opinion, small lords will emerge from among the regency's population of 266,508 and the community will fall victim to them.

"These small lords will be arrogant regional administration officials, as autonomy will mean regional administrations will enjoy a much wider authority," he said.

He cited as an example the fact that the public budget will be under the complete control of the regional administration and its apparatuses.

"You can guess whether or not the community can exercise control. Even the legislative assembly cannot do so. It is a public secret that those people in the legislative assembly are the henchmen of those holding executive power. The relationships may vary: family or party relationships or other interests," he noted.

Another problem to be taken into account is the appointment of service heads, currently being discussed by the regional legislative assembly.

The regional administration has proposed 17 services and six new agencies be established in the wake of the implementation of regional autonomy.

These services are in the areas of public works, health, national education, agriculture, communications, trade, industry and investment, cooperatives and small-scale businesses, forestry and plantations, maritime management and fisheries, information and communications, spatial layout design and development supervision, revenue and land affairs.

"As a matter of fact, an appointed service head must be an echelon II/IV D (official) and have a master's degree. Yet it is the regent who will determine this matter. So the likelihood of collusion is quite large. (Besides not) many people in Pangkep have this qualification," he said.

Muchtar may be apprehensive, but one of the essential points of autonomy is the freedom on the part of the community, including the executive and legislative bodies, to determine their own choices in matters of development.

The deputy chairman of the Pangkep legislative assembly, Taliang Adam, is well aware the people of Pangkep are not yet prepared for autonomy, given the absence of an adequate political infrastructure.

To put it simply, for the time being only the legislative and executive assemblies will be put under the spotlight. "We are so used to having everything decided at the top so (we cannot exercise control over the executive body). In Pangkep, the legislative assembly is now expected to be able to control the executive body," he said.

Were things that simple. It is a fact that 20 of the 30 members of the regional legislative assembly come from Golkar Party, which supports the government. It is unlikely it will exercise proper control over the executive body.

Silahuddin Genda, 28, who resides in Pangkep, is also pessimistic about the legislative assembly's ability or willingness to exercise control over the executive body. He argued that the election of the current Pangkep regent was marred by rumors of bribery of legislative assembly members.

"This shows a distortion of the process of democratization, and at the same time lay bare the low moral quality of legislative assembly members," said Silahuddin, a resident of Bontotiro village, Minasetene subdistrict.

Silahuddin and Muhtar both are worried that collusion on a grander scale will come about if the executive body actively seeks to negotiate with the legislative assembly. This could in turn give birth to small lords who will suck dry the people.

"Just imagine how things will stand if the legislative assembly, which is supposed to exercise control over the executive body, is hand in glove with the executive power and is corrupt," Silahudin said. "Worse, most people here are not concerned about political (matters because of) poor human resources."

This would mean that regional autonomy would benefit only the educated and those in positions of power.