Presidential Candidates Agree to Evaluate Regional Autonomy Policy
Friday, 03 July, 2009 | 13:21 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The three presidential candidates in the last round of the debate last night considered regional autonomy as being something necessary.

However, they agreed that the regional separation for the purposes of autonomy should be evaluated.

Megawati Soekarnoputri mentioned that several separations are no longer considered potential and thus they cannot fund themselves.

“What is the solution then? Should they return to their original province?” argued Megawati at the debate held at Balai Sarbini that was aired by RCTI.

Jusuf Kalla also agreed that the separation criteria need to be evaluated. “Perhaps, the separated region should be monitored for ten years after the separation. If it is failed, it can be decided whether it should be returned to the original province or not,” said Kalla.

The government and the House of Representatives (DPR) should consider the separation carefully.

“It has to be seen whether it can bring welfare for people or not. It should not be only because of desires to gain political power,” said Kalla.

However, Kalla affirmed that regional autonomy should be maintained as it is important.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono acknowledged that not all regions were successful being separated.

He agreed to have it evaluated. He mentioned that even two years ago he thought about canceling the autonomy for a while as he found some regions failed in funding themselves.

He promised that when re-elected, he would find out how many regions actually need to be developed and arrange the separation criteria as this would protect public interests after the autonomy.

GRACE S GANDHI | RIEKA RAHADIANA