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Viewing cable 08SURABAYA8, EAST JAVA: DECENTRALIZATION AND ACCOUNTABILITY

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
08SURABAYA8 2008-01-20 05:36 2011-08-24 01:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Consulate Surabaya
VZCZCXRO6920
RR RUEHCHI RUEHCN RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHJS #0008/01 0200536
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 200536Z JAN 08
FM AMCONSUL SURABAYA
TO RUEHWR/AMEMBASSY WARSAW 0001
RUEHJA/AMEMBASSY JAKARTA 0129
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS
RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUEHWL/AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON 0065
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 0067
RUEHJS/AMCONSUL SURABAYA 0146
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SURABAYA 000008 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP/MTS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV ECON PREL EAID ID
SUBJECT: EAST JAVA: DECENTRALIZATION AND ACCOUNTABILITY 
 
REF: 07 SURABAYA 89 
 
SURABAYA 00000008  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
This message is sensitive but unclassified.  Please protect 
accordingly. 
 
1. (SBU) Summary:  During a wide ranging lunch discussion with 
visiting DCM January 16, six Surabaya-based political observers 
-- representing the media, academia, NGOs, and religious 
communities -- offered their frank assessments of the successes 
and limitations of decentralization in East Java.  While their 
opinions varied on many issues, they collectively agreed 
decentralization was crucial to Indonesia's democracy and 
stability.  None could name East Java's representatives in the 
national parliament, commenting that their members of parliament 
made little effort to advance local interests at the national 
level.  Performance ratings of individual East Javanese 
regencies were sparking competition among regents and offering 
communities the opportunity to reward strong performers.  End 
Summary. 
 
2. (SBU) On January 16, the visiting DCM engaged in a lively 
lunch-time discussion with six influential members of Surabayan 
society: Indra Nur Fauzi, Director of Regional Economic 
Development Insistute; Syafig Mughnie, Chairman of East Java 
Muhammadiyah; Prof. Kacung Maridjan, Professor of Social and 
Political Sciences at Airlangga University; Nany Wijaya, women's 
activist and Director or Jawa Pos Group; Sirikit Syah, women's 
activist and Director of Klub Guru (an education NGO); and Prof. 
Indrasurya B. Mochtar, Professor of Civil Engineering at the 
Surabaya Institute of Technology.  The participants offered 
their frank assessments of developments in Indonesia, the 
limitations and successes of decentralization, and the influence 
of performance ratings on local regency elections. 
 
Decentralization: Province versus Regency 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
3. (SBU) Asked for their opinions on the decentralization 
process, Prof. Kacung Marijan and Indra Nur Fauzi, expressed the 
view that it was most important to bring decentralization to the 
levels closest to the people -- at the regency and city level 
rather than at the provincial level.  They argued that the 
central government worried that decentralization to the 
provincial level would weaken government control and trigger 
separatist tendencies.  Prof. Indrasurya B. Mochtar disagreed 
somewhat arguing that the government seemed focused on uniting 
the country through decentralization.  He criticized the central 
government for being unwilling to give greater authority to the 
regencies to address economic issues, noting that the central 
government limited local authorities' ability to spend money to 
improve local conditions.  As an example, he stated that a 
regent cannot decide to build a much need power plant with local 
funds because only the state-owned power company (PLN) has the 
authority to build power plants. 
 
4. (SBU) Prof Kacung added that decentralization also came with 
increased costs.  Candidates for East Java's gubernatorial 
election in mid-2008 can expect to spend Rp 425 billion (USD 45 
million).  Sirikit Syah added that too often local officials 
seemed to believe that decentralization gave them the authority 
to spend money to support their own interests rather than 
working to improve services, strengthen education, or build 
communities.  In one example, MPs from Batam's parliament are 
eager to travel to Surabaya for consultations at Airlangga 
University about human resource development, but unwilling to 
fund expert travel to Batam to train large numbers of local 
officials. Prof. Indrasurya suggested Indonesia would do better 
to offer microcredits for the development of small companies to 
promote business opportunities for the poor instead of giving 
money to the regencies where it would be wasted. 
 
Competition Between Regencies Increasing 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
5. (SBU) Nany Wijaya explained the Jawa Pos Group's efforts to 
support decentralization by giving awards to those regencies and 
cities that perform well.  The awards are given based on the 
results of surveys conducted by the Jawa Pos Institute of Pro 
Autonomy (JPIP) on performance in economic, education, and 
service sectors.  All the guests agreed that the JPIP survey 
results were strong indicators of the local government's overall 
performance and public satisfaction.  Notably, a number of 
regents who performed poorly in these surveys had lost recent 
reelection bids (reftel), although Nany stressed that there was 
not enough data to make a direct correlation between the ratings 
and the election results. 
 
 
SURABAYA 00000008  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
6. (SBU) The participants noted that JPIP's research was 
sparking competition amongst East Java's regencies.  Other 
surveys which compared regencies throughout Indonesia had less 
impact because what happened in West Java, for example, had 
little correlation to what was happening locally.  When the 
performance of Kediri's regent was compared with the performance 
of neighboring Sidoarjo, the competition between regents could 
become quite intense because differences were obvious to both 
communities.  JPIP intends to expand its survey activities into 
Central and West Java and East Kalimantan. 
 
East Java's MPs? Who? 
--------------------------- 
 
7. (SBU) The participants laughed when asked about the 
performance and influence of East Java's MPs in Jakarta.  None 
of the guests could name a single MP from East Java or remember 
an occasion when any Jakarta-based MP had visited East Java to 
meet with constituents or discuss local issues.  They agreed 
that governors and regents, who were directly elected by the 
voters, had much greater interest in meeting the needs of their 
constituents.  MPs in the national DPR simply were accountable 
to national parties, not local communities.  Prof. Kacung 
suggested that in 2014 well-respected governors from the 
regions, such as Gorontalo's Fadel Muhammad and Yogyakarta's 
Sultan Hamengkubuwono, could play influential roles in national 
politics. 
MCCLELLAND