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Parliament passes bill on regional autonomy

Source
Agence France Presse - April 21, 1999

Jakarta – Indonesia's House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill which will grant greater autonomy to the governments of the country's 27 provinces and their sub-regencies, witnesses said.

The bill, passed in a plenary session, was endorsed by all four factions in the parliament – the United Development Party, the ruling Golkar party, the Indonesian Democratic Party and the Armed Forces.

Ryaas Rasyid, a home affairs ministry staff expert, told AFP the law covered autonomy in fields of politics, administration, finance, personnel and organization of local governments.

"The vision is similar to that of a federal state, but the form is different," Rasyid said. "In a federal state, regional governments leave [some of] their affairs to the central government, it's the other way around," he added

Minister of Home Affairs Syarwan Hamid said the law does not include defense and security affairs, foreign affairs, judicial, monetary, fiscal or religious affairs, which will remain in the hands of the central government.

It also excludes the thorny issue of revenue sharing between the central government and local governments, which will be regulated in a separate law. Rasyid said local governments would have greater authority regarding investment policies.

"Although foreign affairs remain with the central government, it will make local cooperation with foreign investors easier," Rasyid said.

The new law will take effect two years after its endorsement by the president, and the pending completion of new sub-regulations, Hamid said.

"As soon as it is endorsed, I will form a working group to draw up an implementation schedule, and to study organizational structures," Hamid said.

He said his ministry would coordinate with other ministries to study the needs of regional governments.

People in provinces rich with natural resources have expressed their increasing discontent with the central government's exploitation of their regions' natural resources without fair revenues shares.

Public debate on the sidelines of the bill – which are broad outlines with little detail – has been fierce, with those against saying it will hasten the breakup of the Indonesian nation.

Those saying it does not go far enough, argue that continued discontent with heavy handed central rule, would do more to strengthen local breakway movements.

Two Indonesian provinces – Irian Jaya and Aceh – have active separatist movements, while discontent over revenue sharing is growing in the oil-rich province of Riau and several other regions.

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