Small lords and new KKN looming in Pangkep

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.