Robert Go, Kutai Kartanegara – Children go to school for free, college students get scholarships, and child labour will be abolished by 2005 in this small town on the edge of the vast rainforest on the island of Borneo. Teachers earn twice as much as they did in 1998, get subsidies for motorcycles, and work in computer-equipped classrooms.
Farmers also get a break in the Kutai Kartanegara regency, one of eight administrative regions, known as regencies, in East Kalimantan province. Thousands of tractors and modern farming tools are leased or sold to farmers at big discounts. Two hospitals are being built, one at each end of the sprawling regency, so the sick would not have to travel far.
At first glance, the decentralisation programme Indonesia embarked on in 2001 seems to be working wonders. But a closer look uncovers worrying signs.
A lavish resort the government is building on Kumala Island is only one of a number of dubious enterprises sprouting across Indonesia.
To encourage democracy and accountability throughout its extensive archipelago of more than 13,000 islands, Jakarta has put more power in the hands of their many regency-level governments. But in the process, some analysts fear, the central government might also have unwittingly decentralised corruption. Local players now take stakes, instead of officials from Jakarta. The people remain the losers.
For that reason, the government is considering overhauling the programme. It may curb the powers it gave regencies and give them instead to the next tier of administration, officials at the provincial level. But some governments, particularly those which have reaped great financial rewards from decentralisation, are unlikely to sit still as Jakarta tinkers, observers said.
Looking princely wearing his tailored uniforms, golden civil servant's pin and matching Mont Blanc pens in the left breast pocket, Kutai regent Syaukani talked about how well his region has fared since decentralisation.
Seated on an orange-leather-and-carved-wood sofa, he said: "Before, we were spectators watching our wealth carted away to Jakarta. Now we are participants. There is no turning back." Indeed, Mr Budi Dharmawan, a businessman based in Semarang, Central Java and a brother of Development Minister Kwik Kian Gie, said: "If you compare [things now] to a few years ago, you see many changes. The media, for instance, has highlighted corruption and forced the government to become cleaner."
In some places, a reverse of the decentralisation policy could be counter-productive. Ms Rustriningsih, 36, who runs the Kebumen regency in Central Java, has been praised for her anti-graft crusades. She has cleaned up her bureaucracy and tried to involve the people in its decision-making process, including budget planning. But anecdotes about graft abound.
A Jakarta-based contractor said a regent in Irian Jaya marked up a street-lamp project to 800 million rupiah, cheating his people of around 600 million rupiah. An official in Central Java reportedly ordered "improvements" on a road that was paved the year before, and creamed off 200 million rupiah from the project's cost.
Dr Tukiman Taruna, a community development specialist at Diponegoro University, said most regions suffer from the problem of a lack of accountability. He said: "Projects give opportunities for corruption. Mark-up levels are steep, sometimes more than 300 per cent. There is no questioning from the people – no control."
In Semarang, officials described a budget item, tagged "contingency funds" and amounting to nearly $1 million Singapore, as a yearly unofficial payment to legislators. Each year, mayors or regents present accountability speeches to local parliaments.
Regional autonomy moves began in 1999
Indonesia's decentralisation was implemented in 2001 but has its beginnings in 1999 when former president B.J. Habibie's interim government drafted two constitutional laws for regional autonomy.
The first law focused on political decentralisation. Governments became responsible for delivering public services, and setting agricultural and other policies. A second law focused on finance.
Regencies now control 90 per cent of income from property tax, 80 per cent of income from forestry, mining and fisheries, 15 per cent of money from oil production and 30 per cent of gas revenues.
The central government provides specific and general grants to the regions based on a series of complex formulas.
Through regional autonomy, Indonesia meant to address two main issues: First, during the Suharto era, all decisions were made in Jakarta, and locals had little say. Decentralisation was supposed to give people more control over their immediate regions.
Second, autonomy was meant to reduce separatist sentiment in resource-rich areas like Aceh and Irian Jaya.
Separatist movements in the two regions accused the Suharto government of stealing locally-generated revenue.