We don't need new regions for now: President

Desy Nurhayati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) have agreed the establishment of new provinces and new regions should wait at least a few months while the government evaluates whether the new regions would be of benefit to the local people.

After a meeting with the DPD at the State Palace on Friday, the President said it was not necessary for the House of Representatives to endorse bills on the formation of new regions for the time being.

"We need to formulate a master plan, including determining the exact timeframe to allow the formation of new regions, also by synchronizing with the schedule of the 2009 general election," Yudhoyono said.

"It is feared the formation of new regions may disrupt the current regional election areas that will be determined ... after the new election law takes effect."

DPD chairman Ginanjar Kartasasmita said new provinces and regencies should not be established before the upcoming election was completed.

"It would be better if the House delays endorsing the bills on new regions until 2009. Why should the bills be endorsed this year when the formation of new regions could only take place after the election?" he said.

"But we have yet to reach an agreement with the President about the timeframe," he added.

The House unanimously proposed its initiative to create eight new provinces and 13 new regencies during a plenary meeting earlier this week. Most of the new regions would be located in Papua and Sulawesi.

If the House approves the bills, Indonesia will have 41 provinces and over 500 regencies and municipalities.

In the regional autonomy era, a total of 173 new regions have been established.

Yudhoyono said the government was currently conducting an evaluation on several newly established regions to assess whether their formation had successfully improved the welfare of local people and benefited regions as a whole.

"The most important thing is we need to consider the main objective in establishing new regions, which is to benefit local people. If the establishment only brings setbacks for the people, it would be useless," he said.

Ginanjar said the results of the ongoing evaluation of several newly formed regions had revealed that some regions had failed to improve their conditions.

He said the failure was proven by stagnant growth in terms of the Human Development Index, as well as other parameters.

He did not elaborate further.

"The formation of new regions should not be conducted merely to accommodate certain interests in the regions. There are various aspects to consider, especially concerning the people's welfare," he said.

"It seems the formation of new regions only considers technical aspects and certain local interests."