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So, until now, we agree that we should not discuss anymore this choice. It’s
like not negotiable. For example, in 1990s, a reform leader at the time, he said that
federalism is better than unitarianism. But people just complain the allegiances just
saying, no, and so on, so on. Even in 1980s, a Catholic priest also say that if we
just keep maintaining this kind of state model or system of government, he believes
that end of several despairs in 2045. So, but most people like to consider that
federalism would only make in recent integration. So, they say, no, we have to stick
on this unitarianism.
At the moment, we have three levels of governments. The first one is Central
government on Jakarta, and then we have 34 provincial governments. Before Suharto
stepped down, we actually had only 27 provinces, but then East Timor just leave
Indonesia. And we have 26, but after reform, now become 34 provinces.
For districts, before, we have only 341, before 1998. Now, almost double, 508
districts and cities.
Talking about decentralization is really long history, and we started discussing
the issue from the beginning of our independence in 1945. Until now, we have
already eight laws. The last one is just four years ago, in 2014.
Just let me discuss, what do we mean by decentralization, at lease in the
Indonesian situation?
The first one is devolution, or political decentralization. Giving more political
power to local government to manage their own local affairs.
The second one, de-concentration, is just administrative decentralization, where
the central government who think local governments as the essential of the central
government, or establishing central government agencies at the local level. It’s like
the tug of war. Sometimes, the central government just makes a law that more
emphasizes on devolution, on the other hand, they switch to de-concentration.
Let me start by law Number 5, 1974. It’s very popular because it was featuring
new government by Suharto. The background is that at the time the economy
worsened, around 60% of the population are poor, with high inflation, and we had a
lot of conflicts, rebellion coming from some regions. You can see that the living cost
index grew up 438 times, rice price increased 824 times, also textiles and so on.
The inflation is rupiah failed from 160 per 1 US dollar to 120,000 rupiahs.
The rebellion in the West Sumatra, South Sulawesi, and West Java. That’s why at
that time, President Suharto just focused on economic development as the priority,
and they need political stability as the necessary condition. What Suharto meant at
the time was we can create decentralization, but they emphasize on administrative
decentralization, then political decentralization. The center government was very
powerful at the time. They made various agencies at the local level. They just
represented the central government at the local level. So, they just give no power to ª£¸²£ª±¡¡²¥¸h¡¢h¢µÈ
local government, but they create government in the society at the local level.
