No more new autonomous regions: VP

Jakarta. Government has a policy to run a more effective bureaucracy by suspending the opening of new autonomous regions, the building of new offices, and civil servant enrollment except for that in the field of education and health.

“We have decided on the moratorium of new autonomous regions due to our limited national budget,” said Vice President Jusuf Kalla as he received the President of Regional Autonomy Institute (IOD) Mr. Djohermansyah Djohan along with his colleagues at the Vice President’s Office on Jalan Merdeka Utara, Jakarta, Tuesday (Mar. 1).

In the meeting. Mr. Djohan conveyed three most recent issues related to regional autonomy, i.e. the issue of opening up new autonomous regions which is now developing among the House lawmakers, the stronger need of the establishment of Government Regulation as the instrument to implement Law No. 23 of 2014 regarding Regional Government, and the coming regional elections that will be once again held simultaneously in February 2017 and June 2018.

“Regional autonomy will not succeed unless it is supported with a serious bureaucratic reform,” he said.

Regarding the opening of new autonomous regions, the Vice President underscored the importance of raising public awareness that new regions are opened not merely based on ethnicity, the total area, or the population number.

“We should disseminate this idea that new autonomous regions are opened not due to cultural issues,” he said.

In line with what Mr Kalla said, another IOD board member Ms. Siti Zuhro said that in reviewing the existing regional autonomy, government should consider reuniting under-developed regions.

“In fact, there are 122 disadvantaged regions that government should seriously take care of,” said Ms. Zuhro, who is also a researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI).

Bureaucratic reform

Regarding bureaucratic reform, the Vice President asked IOD to analyze the current open selection system for high officials as he felt the dedication and responsibility of those resulted from the system are decreasing.

One of the solutions, he said, is that the selection committee should not only receiving those enrolling for certain positions, but also hunt potential officials for the posts.

“I don’t think there is an enrollment for a CEO ever existed in this world. That is why we cannot find any advertisement on newspapers seeking a new CEO. We don’t want this open recruitment only become an opportunity for job seekers,” he affirmed.

Concluding the meeting, Mr Djohan invited the Vice President to attend and become a keynote speaker in a seminar on autonomous regions to commemorate the Regional Autonomy Day which will be held on 26 April 2016.

Accompanying IOD’s president were Mr. Satya Arinanto, Ms. Siti Zuhro, and Mr. J. Kristiadi, while the Vice President was accompanied by Head of Vice President’s Secretariat Mr. Mohamad Oemar, the Vice President’s Deputy on Government Policy Support Ms. Dewi Fortuna Anwar, and the Vice President expert staff Mr. Syahrul Ujud and Mr. Sofyan Wanandi.