By Andi Abdussalam
Jakarta, Feb 7 (ANTARA) - Last Tuesday's violent rally in Medan demanding the elevation of a district's administrative status to that of a province, and causing the death of a North Sumatra councilor, has sparked calls for a review of the benefits of regional administrative re-divisions.
After chairing a limited cabinet meeting on Friday to discuss the Medan incident, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called for a moratorium on all initiatives and proposals for administrative re-divisions of existing province or districts.
Abdul Aziz Angkat, chairman of the North Sumatra Regional Legislative Assembly (DPRD), died of heart failure on Tuesday after being attacked by demonstrators who resented his decision to postpone a DPRD plenary meeting to discuss the proposed administrative transformation of Tapanuli district into a province.
"Therefore, I call on the House of Representatives (DPR) and the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) to call a moratorium on discussions of such initiatives or proposals. We are still making an evaluation of the developmental progress made by the new provinces and districts created in the past through re-division of existing provinces and districts," he said after a limited meeting at his office here on Friday.
Yudhoyono said some of the new administrative regions formed in the past were a success but others were failures as they had been formed merely in the interest of certain political elites.
The president's call for a halt to all processes related to regional re-division proposals was welcomed by the House of Representatives.
Chairman of the House's Working Committee on Regional Re-diviison Chozin Chumaidy said the government should discuss its decision to stop the processes with the House of Representatives because many bills on regional re-division were still under deliberations in the House. The government and the DPR should share the same attitude and reasons as a basis to temporarily stop the processes, he said.
Chumaidy said the achievements of new administrative regions that had been formed by splitting existing regions should be reviewed. Those which were considered able to develop and make progress could be allowed to go on.
"But new regions which have been unable to develop and only became a burden on the people and state budget, need to be returned to their former status as part of a province or district," he said.
A researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Siti Zuhro, said most of new administrative regions that had been formed by splitting existing regions had failed to bring prosperity to their peoples.
She said that regional re-divisions had failed to improve the welfare of the peoples in the new regions. The new administrative status of their regions had even created new burdens for the peoples concerned.
The House and the government can easily approve a proposal for regional re-division while in fact the prediction would only serve the interest of certain political parties.
"Therefore, the government should adopt a firm attitude and stop regional administrative re-divisions," she told a discussion on democracy at the DPR building on Friday.
She said newly administrative regions were likely to fail because with the formation of every new region, the government faced an extensive range of control over the country's extensive areas so that development was hampered.
Regional administrative re-division is basically needed but political party elites, power and budget brokers intervene in it. After all, it involves 'money transactions.'
The money transactions keep the distance of regional re-division from its basic aim even more apart. "If the money is big, the process will also be completed faster," Siti Zuhro said.
Since 1998, the number of new autonomous regions has increased two-folds. It increased from 230 districts/cities in 1998 to 477 districts/cities in 2008, with seven new additional provinces.
"It is quite possible that the number will continue to increase because there are still many proposals for regional re-division. But with the complicated problems arising thereof, the whole processes should well be temporarily stopped," Zuhro said.
On how long the moratorium should be called for, constitutional law expert of the Surakarta-based Sebelas Maret State University (UNS), Isharyanto, said the regional re-division should better be delayed until 10 years.
"The government should firmly rejected regional re-division proposals until ten years to come so that it would have an enough range of time to carry out government control and evaluations," Isharyanto said.
Actually, political elites and public at large have so far maintained a wrong perception with regard to regional administrative re-division. They think it will help overcome political, social and economic gaps.
"All this has nothing to do with re-division. But how far regulations are able to contribute to public services," he said.
After all, proposals for a regional re-division have so far been approved on grounds of people's aspirations only while the government's need to look at their benefits is neglected.
"Therefore, it is the government and the House of Representatives' responsibility to make public that regional re-division almost has no benefits for the people," he said.***1*** (T.A014/A/HAJM/15:45/A/O001)
(T.A014/A/A014/A/O001) 07-02-2009 15:46:44
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