Page 210 - kpiebook63002
P. 210
210 ²££°¸¡§´²²£
ª²±£°À¥i² £±ÉµÈ
¤±³µÃ£Ã£ j³¨£i³¿¸Ç®³¤²³
Question, was it successful? I would say, yes and no, but more on the yes.
Sure we’ve had some problems. Nothing is perfect. So, why, what are the reasons?
This was a study we did for the Asian Development Bank. And what are
the reasons? And they bring policy framework. We have the local government goal.
Early on, I showed you a slide that all of us in the region, Thailand, Indonesia, you
have a law.
No. 2, leadership is important.
No. 3, financial resources.
Do not decentralize if you don’t transfer resources. Forget it. Money is very
important.
No. 4, cooperation between the national and local governments, and among local
governments. But, there are problems, still, inadequate finance, capacity building.
But as I mentioned, capacity building not only of local but national as well.
And finally, important too, taxing powers. It’s still our work in progress. You
cannot hurry the process of decentralization and that’s also the… we’re taking about
deepening it through federalism.
So, these are some of the lessons learned. I will end by taking about the need
to recognize the impact of globalization. When we talk about globalization, it’s really
about localization. Thinking global, but acting local. Changing the paradigm, changing
the mindset of our local governments, in other words, local governments have also to
think global, yet act local. Globalization.
So, finally 25 years, 27 years of decentralization, shall we deepen it? Well, our
President said, let’s do federalism. I must mention that as early as 1970s… I’m
done… As early as 1970s, we’ve been talking about the importance of federalism.
Because we’ve always thought that federalism will help empower our local
governments. Our President, himself, said let’s do federalism, which is fine, but
I always caution them, being academic and also being with the administrative local
government. I said, you cannot hurry the process of federalism. It’s really part of the
process to not hurry change. First 25 years with the devolution, perhaps we can do
federalism. If only to deepen it because there is still some inequity, inequity not
inequality, inequity among our local governments.
So, I end by saying that we have to look at federalism within the context of
decentralization. It is an instrument for development and an instrument to bring about
peace. We have problems in Mindanao, and one way to adjust it is through adoption
of strong autonomy, and this could be done through federalism. And our country
ª£¸²£ª±¡¡²¥¸h¡¢h¢µÈ They have a nice theme called Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, unity in diversity.
continues to be diverse. Again, I keep on referring to my friend from Indonesia.
I end by sharing with you a public sector reform framework that you have done.
If you want to bring about change, you change structures, decentralization. But we
