Yogya hosts international conference

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

A three-day international conference on decentralization opened on Thursday in Yogyakarta, discussing Indonesia's experience in delegating power to the regions following three decades of authoritarian rule.

Over 20 experts from Indonesia, the Netherlands, Sweden and Japan are attending the conference.

The experts discussed, among other issues, how resource-rich and poor regions implemented the autonomy laws, said P.M. Laksono, who heads the Department of Social and Cultural Studies at Gadjah Mada University's Center for Asia and Pacific Studies.

Indonesia implemented regional autonomy in 2001 to quench separatist demands that resulted from former president Soeharto's ironfisted rule over the sprawling archipelago.

The autonomy laws give provinces, regencies and mayoralties more authority to manage their political and economic affairs.

Laksono said the conference also compared the autonomy process in different countries and discussed how decentralization was related to corruption.

The conference is the result of a cooperation between Gadjah Mada University and the School of Social Sciences at Leiden University in the Netherlands.