Decentralization of Forest Administration in Indonesia, Implications ...

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Origins and Scope of Indonesia’s Decentralization Laws
administrative arrangements by integrating the parallel apparatuses for autonomous and
deconcentrated tasks (Kanwil and Dinas) (cf. Niessen 1999: 110).
10
Emergency Law and Law on Fiscal Balancing 1956. (Undang-undang Darurat and Undangundang
Perimbangan Keuangan 1956)
11
Draft of Law on Fiscal Balancing Between the Central Government and Regions (Rancangan
Undang-undang Perimbangan Keuangan Pusat dan Daerah)
12
The final legislation established “a floor of 25% domestic revenues (including all oil and gas
revenues) for transfers to regions through a General Allocation Fund (Dana Alokasi Umum,
DAU) aimed at supplementing local revenues and equalising regional needs and revenue
capacities (Ahmad and Mansoor 2000).
13
The severance of the hierarchical relationship between provinces, on the one hand, and
districts and municipalities, on the other hand, is a critical part of the decentralization process
defined by Law 22/1999. As an editorial in the Jakarta daily Suara Pembaruan noted, if the
legislation was to ensure that the districts and municipalities achieve true autonomy, it will
be important that governors, as the representative of the central government, no longer have
the ability to ‘interfere’ in the business of the districts and municipalities as they had up until
the present (Suara Pembaruan, November 2, 1999). On this point Law 22/1999 states that
autonomous regions “shall respectively be independent and shall not have a hierarchical
relationship to each other” (Art. 4). However, the degree to which district and municipal
governments would indeed be free of provincial ‘interference’ under the law remained
limited. Subsequently, Law 32/2004 gave some authority to provincial governments to
intervene in the affairs of district and municipal governments.
14
It should be noted, however, that Article 13 of Law 22/1999 does stipulate that coadministration
(tugas pembantuan), defined to include “the performance of certain tasks
by the administration of autonomous region, but under the full authority and responsibility
of the central government”, would continue to occur at the district level (Niessen 1999). In
other words, districts and municipalities would continue to carry out particular tasks under
the authority of the central government, and with its financial and other support (Art. 13).
15
In practice, members of the DPRD at each level are elected indirectly through political
parties. General elections determine what portion of the DPRD seats will be allocated to
each party, and the party then selects the individuals who serve as DPRD members.
16
For clarity, it should be noted that the title of Regulation 25/2000 uses the term ‘the
Government’ to refer to the national or central government.
17
Decree of People’s Consultative Assembly IV/MPR/2000 on Policy Recommendation on the
Implementation of Regional Autonomy (Ketetapan Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat No.
IV/MPR/2000 tentang Rekomendasi Kebijakan dalam Penyelenggaraan Otonomi Daerah).
18
PP 62/1998 tentang Penyerahan Sebagian Urusan Pemerintahan di Bidang Kehutanan
kepada Daerah. The regulation defines ‘Hutan Milik’ as “forests that grow on land assigned
as private property, also commonly referred to as ‘community forest’” (Hutan milik adalah
hutan yang tumbuh di atas tanah yang dibebani hak milik yang lazim disebut hutan
rakyat).
19
Peraturan Pemerintah No. 6/1999 tentang Pengusahaan Hutan dan Pemungutan Hutan
pada Hutan Produksi.
20
Peraturan Pemerintah No. 34/2002 tentang Tata Hutan dan Penyusunan Rencana
Pengelolaan Hutan, Pemanfaatan Hutan dan Penggunaan Kawasan Hutan.
21
Regulation 34/2002 says nothing about authority to allocate commercial operating licenses
for the pulp and paper industry, which remains with the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
22
Article 10 stipulates that applications for HPH timber concessions and HTI timber plantation
licenses that had reached the point of ‘approval in principal’ (persetujuan prinsip) before
Regulation 34/2002 was enacted would continue to be processed.