Undemocratic Jakarta makes mockery of local autonomy implementation
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Experts say the implementation of the local autonomy program in Jakarta is being hampered by the city's undemocratic political system.
This situation, they added, was worsened by the lack of political will from executive and legislative leaders, who were reluctant to involve the public in the policy-making process.
"Widespread demonstrations by many groups from among the general public who are against the various policies of the city are indicative of the fact that many of these policies are not in line with the people's wishes," said Wicaksono Suroso, executive director of the Urban and Regional Development Institute (URDI) last Saturday.
According to Wicaksono, the recent gubernatorial election process was proof of the divergence between the wishes of the political leaders and the wishes of the people, and at the same time showed that the local autonomy program, which was instituted nationally in early 2000, was not working well here.
Sutiyoso was reelected as the city governor on Sept. 11 by the City Council despite strong opposition from tens of thousands of demonstrators outside the City Council building on Jl. Kebon Sirih in Central Jakarta.
He won the electoral race after the intervention of President Megawati Soekarnoputri, who ordered councillors from her Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) -- the biggest faction on the 85-member council -- to support the former Jakarta military chief.
According to Wicaksono, the implementation of local autonomy could not be separated from the process of democratization as autonomy without democracy would only create an autocratic system at the local government level.
"The phenomenon of "mini rajas" has already emerged in a number of regions following the putting into effect of the local autonomy program," he added.
Nationally, local autonomy is based on Law number 22/1999 on local governance, while for Jakarta Law number 34/1999 on Jakarta as the special capital district is the operative statute.
Law number 22/1999 rules that each city or regency constitutes an autonomous region with its mayor or regent being elected by its local council. In addition, village heads are directly elected by the people.
Meanwhile, Law number 34/1999 provides that the Jakarta governor appoints all heads of administration in the city ranging from the five mayors and one regent down to all the subdistrict heads all over the city.
Regional autonomy expert Andi Mallarangeng also said that under Law number 34/1999, the Jakarta governor enjoyed much more power compared to the governors in other regions as he was officially only subject to oversight by the City Council.
"Unfortunately, the City Council, the only institution which can control the governor, does not exercise its authority properly as the councillors do not really serve as the people's representatives," said Andi, a former advisor to the state minister for regional autonomy.
Andi added that the views of the public were often ignored by the City Council as corrupt councillors frequently colluded with the governor or other executive leaders.
Therefore, he added, to make Jakarta more democratic, it would not be enough to revise Law number 34/1999, but also Law number 2/1999 on political parties and Law number 3/1999 on general elections would need to be overhauled.
The revision of those laws, according to Andi, would make possible the implementation of direct elections by the public for the posts of governor and the vice governors, members of the City Council, members of the mayoralty councils, and members of the subdistrict councils.
Andi criticized the House of Representatives, which was reluctant to revise the laws even though draft revisions had already been submitted.
Wicaksono agreed with Andi's idea about the need for constitutional change as this was essential for the process of democratization. He added, however, that the public's role in exercising control should be maintained in the absence of formal control mechanisms.
"We cannot entrust the control mechanism entirely to the City Council as it has proven ineffective. Therefore, public pressure is very important for carrying out informal control. Here, the mass media has a significant role to play in channeling the public's views," he noted.