JAKARTA – Committee I of Indonesian Regional Representative Council (DPD RI) requested input from the Governors of West Sumatra and Riau Islands related to the 26 Regency/City Bill.
The request comes because every region in Indonesia, both provincial and regency/city, has its own formation of law.
“The law that is the legal basis for the existence of current regencies/cities in Indonesia, most of them are laws made during the 1950 UUDS era. It is no longer able to follow the development of law and society today,” said Vice Chairwoman of Committee I DPD RI Sylviana Murni at DPD RI Building, Jakarta, Monday (3/6).
She explained that in 2022, five provincial laws were passed, namely the Law on the Provinces of West Sumatra, Jambi, Riau, West Nusa Tenggara, and East Nusa Tenggara.
Then, continued with the formation of the Law on Provinces of South Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, South Sulawesi, North Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi, and Central Sulawesi.
“In 2023, the discussion continued and eight Provincial Laws were successfully passed, including Laws on the Provinces of North Sumatra, South Sumatra, West Java, Central Java, East Java, Maluku, Central Kalimantan and Bali. Thus, a total of 20 Provincial Laws have been produced to date,” she said.
Based on experience in formulating and discussing 20 Provincial Acts and 27 Regency/City Acts carried out in a Tripartite manner between DPR RI, DPD RI and the Government, Sylviana added, it was agreed that the standard format of the content material used in the preparation of the Act was the improvement of the legal basis, adjustment of coverage or regional arrangement, and affirmation of regional characteristics.
“Meanwhile, the content material on regional authority will not be regulated in this law because it will potentially conflict with other related laws,” she added.
On the same occasion, Expert Staff to the Governor of West Sumatra Province Jasman admitted that his party had seen the Regency/City Law and there were several points that needed to be underlined.
He hopes that ‘babaliak ka nagari’ can return to the original names of both districts and regions in that law.
“We hope that the names in West Sumatera can be in accordance with the original, not Indonesian, or the original language is used again in this law. I also hope that in this law, the regions can freely add or reduce sub-districts, not be tied like this,” he hoped.
In line with Jasman, Assistant I to the Governor of Riau Islands Province TS Arif Fadillah said that Riau Islands are plains and islands, so the sub-districts in the province have developed.
For this reason, he also hopes that this law can provide breadth to the regions.
“Indeed, this law can provide breadth to the regions so that there can be local emotional closeness,” he hoped.
DPD RI member from South Sulawesi Ajiep Padindang suggested that West Sumatera Province should use this opportunity carefully.
According to him, if the name of the sub-district is replaced with nagari, it will affect village funds.
“Indeed, previously village funds were a long debate in West Sumatera. Because if you talk about nagari, the village funds will be different from the sub-district,” he explained.
