Local policy-making mechanisms - Forest Climate Center

Sudirman, Dede Wiliam and Nely Herlinaset the agenda. This made it difficult for anymember of parliament outside the committeeto review the drafts, and even more difficult formembers of the public to review them or evenknow when an issue might be discussed inparliament. Table 8 shows the time allocationset by the committee for discussing andadopting 16 draft regulations.It is hard to see how all 16 draft regulationscould be deliberated and passed in such atight schedule. Do individual members havethe right to reject the committee’s decision todeliberate all draft regulations as one package?Can they appeal for additional time to considerimportant regulations? These questions relateto the role of the district parliament membersas representatives of the local communityat large. As local people’s representatives,they should be entitled to raise objectionsconcerning decisions that do not take accountof the people’s aspirations.4. The HearingThe final hearing took place in the localparliament. The draft of District Regulationson IPHH and RHH 44 were deliberated andadopted simultaneously with 14 other draftregulations 45 . The final hearing comprised fiveplenary sessions:a. Plenary Session IThe District Head submits introductory notesfor each proposed draft regulation. Ideally,the introductory note should include thebackground, purpose, scope and principlesof each draft. This is beneficial for severalreasons: (1) it demonstrates that the policiesput forward have gone through serious studyand investigation; (2) parliamentary members,or factions, can immediately make generalobservations (support, questions or rejections)regarding the substance of the regulation; and(3) it avoids the impression that the process ofdeliberating a draft regulation is nothing morethan a formality. However, the District Headdid not include any detailed information in theintroductory notes (see Annex 1). This madeit difficult for local parliamentary members tounderstand the main ideas behind the proposeddrafts.The first plenary session, on 16 October 2002(see Table 8 above), was chaired by TanjabbarDistrict Parliament Chair and attended by:i) 32 out of the 40 members of parliament;ii) members of the Tanjabbar LeadershipForum (Muspida) 46 ;iii) the heads of the district governmentoffices/agencies;iv) heads of Tanjabbar Government SecretariatBureaux;v) directors of district-owned companies(BUMD) in Tanjabbar 47 .According to the notes of the plenarysession, no village representatives or localcommunity members from forested areas werepresent at these sessions, although they werethe stakeholders most relevant to the issuebeing discussed.No one who attended the plenary sessionreceived copies of the proposed drafts prior tothe meeting. From a democratic perspective,the people present at these sessions shouldreceive at least basic information concerningTable 8. Schedule of Plenary Sessions to Discuss 16 Draft Regulations in TanjabbarStage Date Time ActivityPlenary Session I Monday, 16.10.2002 09:00 Submission of introductory notePlenary Session II Monday, 21.10.2002 09:00 General observations by the factionsPlenary Session III Thursday, 24.10.2002 09:00 Response of the District Head to the generalobservationsPlenary Session IV Thursday, 28.11.2002 09:00 Presentation of the report of the special committeePlenary Session V Thursday, 2.12.2002 09:00 Final general observations, adoption of the 16district regulations, closing remarks from the DistrictHead23