We don't need new regions for now: President

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Indo Neocolonialism : Special Autonomy

We don't need new regions for now: President
By The Jakarta Pos
Jan 27, 2008, 18:35

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We don't need new regions for now: President
National News - Saturday, January 26, 2008
Desy Nurhayati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Regional Representatives Council
(DPD) have agreed the establishment of new provinces and new regions should
wait at least a few months while the government evaluates whether the new
regions would be of benefit to the local people.

After a meeting with the DPD at the State Palace on Friday, the President
said it was not necessary for the House of Representatives to endorse bills
on the formation of new regions for the time being.

"We need to formulate a master plan, including determining the exact
timeframe to allow the formation of new regions, also by synchronizing with
the schedule of the 2009 general election," Yudhoyono said.

"It is feared the formation of new regions may disrupt the current regional
election areas that will be determined ... after the new election law takes
effect."
DPD chairman Ginanjar Kartasasmita said new provinces and regencies should
not be established before the upcoming election was completed.

"It would be better if the House delays endorsing the bills on new regions
until 2009. Why should the bills be endorsed this year when the formation of
new regions could only take place after the election?" he said.

"But we have yet to reach an agreement with the President about the
timeframe," he added.

The House unanimously proposed its initiative to create eight new provinces
and 13 new regencies during a plenary meeting earlier this week. Most of the
new regions would be located in Papua and Sulawesi.
If the House approves the bills, Indonesia will have 41 provinces and over
500 regencies and municipalities.

In the regional autonomy era, a total of 173 new regions have been
established.

Yudhoyono said the government was currently conducting an evaluation on
several newly established regions to assess whether their formation had
successfully improved the welfare of local people and benefited regions as a
whole.

"The most important thing is we need to consider the main objective in
establishing new regions, which is to benefit local people. If the
establishment only brings setbacks for the people, it would be useless," he
said.

Ginanjar said the results of the ongoing evaluation of several newly formed
regions had revealed that some regions had failed to improve their
conditions.

He said the failure was proven by stagnant growth in terms of the Human
Development Index, as well as other parameters.
He did not elaborate further.

"The formation of new regions should not be conducted merely to accommodate
certain interests in the regions. There are various aspects to consider,
especially concerning the people's welfare," he said.
"It seems the formation of new regions only considers technical aspects and
certain local interests."

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