The government’s new design for the structuring of regions has been praised as a significant step in improving regional autonomy, which one expert has criticized for creating regions that are “underdeveloped and fail to benefit the people”.
The 2010-2025 Grand Design for the Structuring of Regions should be used to stop the “uncontrolled” establishment of new regencies and municipalities, Indonesian Institute of Sciences political researcher Siti Zuhro said on Thursday.
“The government should consider the grand design as a basis to take decisive measures against new autonomous regions that have failed to bring prosperity to the people, which is the key word in decentralization,” she said.
“Several new regions have been approved by the House of Representatives but almost all of the new regions have failed in terms of bringing prosperity and providing more local and better public services.”
Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi said this month that only 12 percent of the 205 autonomous regions established between 1999 and 2009 could be considered “successful”, and the rest were “problematic”.
“There are already too many cities and regencies in the country, and most of them do nothing but burden state funds,” Siti said.
Beside providing rules to merge and abolish regions, the grand design also outlines a requirement for an aspiring autonomous region to undergo a three-year preparation period, and stipulates a limit on the number of new provinces and regencies that can be created
before 2025.
A government taskforce analyzing the feasibility of creating new autonomous regions estimated that Indonesia’s current 33 provinces and 491 regencies and municipalities could increase to 44 provinces and 545 regencies and municipalities within 15 years.
However, Siti criticized the insertion of this estimation in the grand design, saying it could encourage locals to propose the establishment of new regions.
She proposed that a reward and punishment mechanism be inserted into the revision of the 2004 Regional Autonomy Law, which was now being deliberated at the House.
“Regions that fail to achieve prosperity and significant development within a certain period of time should get a warning. If no major change is seen after the warning, the region must be abolished or merged with nearby regions,” she said.
Many new decentralized administrations are being used for political benefit rather than public gain,
Siti said.
Thus, merging and abolishing established regions would “face strong political resistance from local elites”.
“Local elites collude with politicians in Jakarta to establish new regencies or municipalities for the sake of autonomy.
“The elites are actually seeking new electoral areas that could benefit certain political parties. That is why merging or abolishing regions would be very sensitive if done before the 2014 general elections.”
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker Ganjar Pranowo said merging or abolishing an established region could trigger unrest.
“Imagine what would happen if a regency with a running administration and councilors along with all the infrastructure were suddenly dismissed?
Ganjar, a member of House of Representatives’ Commission II overseeing regional autonomy, criticized Gamawan for stating that 88 percent of new autonomous regions had failed.
“So now what? Should all of them be merged or abolished?” he said.
Ganjar said the government had failed to fulfill its promises on regional autonomy.
“I am now on a visit in Papua. Local people here have asked me when their territory will be officiated as a new regency,” he said.
However, he said, the grand design’s requirement of a three-year preparation period before a new region could be officiated was good.