In Creation of New Regions, Parties, Not People, Benefit
A resident of Bawomataluo village in South Nias, North Sumatra. The Nias Islands are headed toward province status after the House gave the nod last week. (JG Photo/Afriadi Hikmal)
Following the House of Representatives' approval to form 65 new administrative areas, questions have emerged over whether the creation of new regions will bring prosperity, especially in restive Papua.
House Speaker Marzuki Alie said that, among other reasons, a primary rationale behind the creation of so many new regions was to bring the government closer to the people, making land ownership processing more accessible and improving prosperity, especially in underdeveloped border areas.
But many analysts and experts reject that explanation, and suggest that the motive behind the creation of a whole slew of new administrations is to open up a rich new field of government spending, ripe for plowing by the local political elite. This argument even hints at the possibility of kickbacks for central government politicians in exchange for the opening of new regional bureaucracies, bringing fresh opportunity for corruption and patronage through the allocation of state funds on new local salaries and buildings.
In the 2013 national budget, the central government has allocated Rp 528.6 trillion ($48.1 billion) to more than 500 administrative regions so that they can finance their operations. The creation of 65 new regions means the government will have to spend an additional $5.9 billion next year on financing elections, civil servant salaries and new offices.
Analysts have said that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono should reject the House's proposal to form new regions, because of this additional burden on the national budget.
"The creation of these many regions will be very costly. The money should instead be allocated directly to infrastructure, education and health care," said Siti Zuhro, a regional autonomy expert at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI).
The Home Affairs Ministry said recently that half of the money allocated to regions was spent on salaries alone.
Regional corruption
Masdarsada, from the Institute for Political and Democratic Analysis in Jakarta, went as far as to argue that new regions would actually impoverish their residents compared to their current situations.
"If the government really wants to help local people, then use the money to build infrastructure, education and health facilities," he said, echoing Siti's comments.
According to the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo), 85 percent of new regions fail to develop because few investors are keen to open businesses in newly created administrative areas due to incompetent and corrupt bureaucracies, legal uncertainty from unclear regional regulations, and rampant illegal fees.
Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi has acknowledged the problem, noting that 298 governors, district heads and mayors had been jailed since regional autonomy was introduced in 1999.
Haris Azhar, coordinator of the Jakarta-based Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), said the creation of new regions would simply provide unlimited opportunities for officials to embezzle regional budgets.
"This idea is perplexing. You have a lot of dirty dishes, but instead of washing them, you decide to build a new kitchen — that is just absurd," he said.
Bribery and elections
In the face of clear evidence of the failure of new regions, in 2009 the government and the House actually agreed on a moratorium on the creation of new regions.
However, the lure of getting hefty kickbacks from local elites and the chance for political influence in new regions has proved too much to resist for political parties ahead of next year's legislative and presidential elections.
Emerson Yuntho of Indonesia Corruption Watch said the public had good reason to be suspicious of legislators who proposed the creation of new regions.
"I think the KPK [Corruption Eradication Commission] should investigate what really happened," he said.
Legislators have in the past been caught red-handed receiving money from regional officials who pushed for new laws or projects in their areas.
Meanwhile, new regions mean political parties have a chance to place party members in public office.
"I'm afraid it's all about money and getting more votes rather than boosting prosperity for the people of those regions," Emerson said.
Divide and conquer
In Papua, where discontent with the central government runs high, leading to pervasive separatist sentiment, division into five provinces is a means of breaking Papuan unity and reducing the push for Papuan independence, said Papuan priest Socratez Sofyan Yoman.
"The creation of new regions is based only on security and political motives. It groups Papuan ethnicities into different regions so they can't unite," Socratez said as quoted by Selangkah Magazine during a seminar in Yogyakarta last week.
He said the new regions could also create tension between indigenous Papuans and transmigrants, who continue to flood into Papua and have made the indigenous people a minority in many areas.
In 2005, native Papuans constituted 59 percent of documented citizens on the island. However, in 2011, that proportion had fallen to just 47 percent of the total population, according to census data.
Andreas Harsono, a researcher with Human Rights Watch, said that breaking the island up into tiny pieces was not a solution to the problems there.
"We know that Papua does not have sufficient human resources to support development," he said.
"With this limitation there will be a lot of unqualified and incompetent civil servants employed, thus creating a poor-quality bureaucracy."
Legal expert Irman Putra Sidin, however, said that new administrative areas might be good for Papua, adding that for a vast island like Papua, more local bureaucracy was needed to narrow the gap between the public and public services.
"You can imagine how far a Papuan has to go to obtain documentation. With new regional administrations, services will get closer and eventually make people's lives easier," he said
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