Akhirnya, pemerintah memikirkan bahwa sudah saatnya
memberikan "KEDEWASAAN" kepada masing-masing propinsi
untuk dapat mengurus dirinya masing-masing.
Desentralisasi adalah yang terbaik bagi kita semua
Dan Keinginan untuk tetap bersatu dibawah Republik Kesatuan
adalah tanggung jawab kita semua, tanpa harus "DIPAKSA dan DITEKAN"
oleh pemerintah pusat.
Mungkin setelah draft ini disetujui oleh Presiden dan Wakil-wakil
rakyat tingkat pusat, Irian Jaya akhirnya dapat membangun daerahnya
dengan sumber dana yang lebih dari cukup. Mungkin jalan antara
Jayapura dan Wamena dan Merauke dapat diwujudkan.
Pembangunan daerah-daerah pedalaman, terutama di lembah Baliem dapat
lebih cepat dan membawa kemakmuran bagi warga setempat.
Untuk putra-putra daerah, BERPARTISIPASILAH di tingkat Nasional. Banyak
putra-putri daerah Irian yang cukup tinggi ilmunya dan telah bersekolah
di LN. Kembalilah ke Irian, bangunlah daerah tercinta kita, atau
wakili Irian Jaya di MPR/DPR PUSAT, jadilah menteri dll.
Demikian juga untuk Putra-putri ACEH, kembalikan ACEH seperti di bawah
pimpinan Sultan Iskandar Muda, ketika bendera ACEH masih berkibar
sejajar dengan Portugis, Inggris, dll.
Untuk para pejuang Gerakan Kemerdekaan Aceh Merdeka dan
pejuang Organisasi Papua Merdeka, sudah selesai perjuangan anda-anda
Anda tidak hanya memberikan kemerdekaan kepada Aceh dan Irian Jaya,
namun kepada seluruh Indonesia. Indonesia sudah merdeka dari
penindasan dan kelaliman.
Untuk pejuang-pejuang RMS, PRRI/PERMESTA, DI/TII,
PKI yang masih menetap di LN. Mungkin sudah saatnya "SAKIT HATI"
ditinggalkan. Berdamailah dengan Pemerintah, bantulah bangsa dan negara.
Sudah saatnya kita saling bermaaf-maafan, Pemerintah harus mengambil
peran terdepan untuk menyatukan tali bangsa yang telah terputus
berpuluh-puluh tahun ini. Ampunilah dan berikan grasi kepada
mereka-mereka yang telah dicap "Pembangkang dan Pemberontak" ini.
Kita butuh Rekonsiliasi Nasional untuk terus memperkuat tali bangsa ini.
Berikan kesempatan kepada Putra Daerah untuk dapat memimpin Bangsa secara
Nasional. Lihatlah Habibie, bukti dominasi satu golongan suku telah berakhir.
Membuat hati Rakyat Makassar bangga sebagai Bangsa Indonesia, karena
salah seorang putranya berhasil menduduki jabatan tertinggi di Republik.
Berikan juga kesempatan ini kepada Rakyat Irian dan Rakyat Aceh.
Hidup Desentralisasi!! (Yg Bertanggung Jawab)
Salam Permias@,
Andrew Pattiwael
>From Indo-News.com
*****************************************************
FEB 3 1999
Indonesia planning to give provinces autonomy
The regional authorities in all 27 provinces
will be given more powers, including the right
to decide and implement development
programmes
JAKARTA -- Indonesia is planning to give its
provinces more power over their affairs and more
control of their wealth in an effort to ease
simmering regional tensions that threaten to tear
this diverse nation apart.
The Home Affairs Ministry's director-general for
regional autonomy, Mr Ryaas Rasyid, said
yesterday that a draft law handing more power to
the 27 provinces would be presented to President
B.J. Habibie this week before being submitted to
Parliament.
"This law is to democratise local governments, to
give them more authority to make decisions in
the interest of their community,'' he told Reuters
in an interview.
"We want the local governments to be powerful
enough to make decisions on investments and
other issues, except in monetary, defence, foreign
and judicial policies,'' said Mr Rasyid, who heads
the team which drafted the law.
Indonesia, a vast archipelago with over 300
ethnic groups spread across more than 17,000
islands, faces simmering regional tensions which
can flare into separatist violence, particularly in
the troublesome provinces of Irian Jaya, Aceh
and East Timor.
Residents from the three provinces have blamed
the central authorities for much of the violence
they have experienced over the years, accusing
Jakarta of suppressing them so they would not be
able to ask for more.
They have grown restive as they watched the
central government exploit their resources, such
as oil and gas, and give little in return.
Indonesia's boundaries are based on the old
Dutch East Indies rather than any ethnic or
geographic grouping.
Some regional unrest is rooted in centuries-old
resistance to central rule.
In Aceh late last year, mobs believed to be
pro-separatist dragged seven soldiers from public
transport buses and killed them, an act which
local officials attributed to an angry outburst over
years of suppression by the military.
Dr Andi Mallarangeng, a member of the
law-drafting team, said that the reforms were
aimed at reducing regional tensions to prevent
the country from disintegrating.
"The call for independence by some provinces is a
reaction to the centralisation of power under the
previous regime," he said. "Unless we solve this
quickly, we could end up with disintegration."
He said that the draft law would give the
provincial authorities the power to decide and
implement their own development projects -- a
power once reserved solely for the national
government in Jakarta.
Mr Rasyid said that the draft law would also at
least double the budget of every province.
"For the resource-rich provinces of Aceh, Irian
Jaya, East Kalimantan, South Sumatra and Riau,
they will get more, maybe a 150 per cent
increase," he said. "But it will not be as much
they have been demanding."
Part of the increased funding will come from
greater revenue-sharing from natural resources
between the provinces and Jakarta.
The Finance Ministry will draw up a
revenue-sharing formula.
Mr Rasyid said that the government had to
balance the demands for increasing revenue for
resource-rich provinces with the policy of
subsidising poor regions.
"If we give more or too much to the resource-rich
provinces, it will weaken the government's
capacity to repay its national debt and to
subsidise the poor regions,'' he said.
"Reducing subsidies for the poor is a very
sensitive issue and the majority of the people in
the country are very dependent on subsidies from
the central government," he said.
"But I believe the majority of Indonesians will
accept this draft because it is our best effort to
create a fair share between one region and
another..."
Copyright � 1999 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. All
rights reserved.
