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The government has ruled out any new autonomous regions being drawn up until the law is revised to slow what it says is a trillion-rupiah drain on the economy.

Home Affairs Ministry spokesman Reydonnyzar Moenoek said on Sunday that the government would postpone all autonomy requests from the House of Representatives until revisions to the 2004 Regional Autonomy Law were passed.

He was responding to a request by the House for the formation of 17 new autonomous regions, including in northern Kalimantan and the southeast region of Sulawesi.

Most autonomous regions, Reydonnyzar said, were incapable of generating enough revenue to be self-sufficient.

“An evaluation of 205 autonomous regions has shown that on average 65 percent to 70 percent of these regions are unable to increase the welfare of the people or improve public services,” he said.

“Moreover, many of these regions are solely dependent on the funding from the central government. These new autonomous regions are only benefiting a minority — only elite groups, not the majority.”

Reydonnyzar said the moratorium on the formation of new autonomous regions would remain in place until regulations were adopted to support the government’s “grand design” to guide regional development through to 2025.

Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi had previously said merging ineffective regions was a possibility but should only be a final option. He said a better solution would be to help newly formed regions better manage their autonomy.

Reydonnyzar said that while the grand design included detailed plans to manage the expansion of new regional areas, it lacked a strong legal platform, which needed to be addressed and fleshed out in the draft revision of the 2004 Regional Autonomy Law.

The grand design not only includes details about the creating new regions, but also mergers and any other adjustments that need to be made.

“The grand design will completely outline the new format of the autonomous regions, the ideal number of provinces and districts required, from 2010 to 2025,” Reydonnyzar said. “We hope the House will patiently wait for the revisions to ensure the effectiveness of new regions.”

From 1999 to 2009, the government and the House formed 205 new autonomous regions consisting of seven provinces, 164 districts and 34 municipalities.

That burdened the state budget’s general allocation fund, with the new regions requiring Rp 47.9 trillion ($5.6 billion) in central government funding.

The government has since put a hold on the creation of new administrative regions, effectively imposing a moratorium on autonomy requests. There are 181 requests currently pending for new regions.

Ganjar Pranowo, deputy chairman of House Commission II, which oversees home affairs and regional autonomy, claimed the government was just trying to buy time on the issue because it wanted a return to a centralized system.

“We sent off a proposal for 20 new autonomous regions to the president during the government’s previous term,” the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker said on Sunday.

“The president said that it should be delayed until the general elections in 2009. After the election, the government decided to put out a moratorium on new autonomous regions and asked us to wait until the grand design on regional administrations was completed.

“Now, after the grand design has been completed, it wants us to wait until the revised law is passed, when we’re yet to receive the revisions.”

Ganjar also contested the high failure rate for new regions, saying most regional administrations had performed well.

“The 70 percent figure doesn’t make sense because we were presented with evaluation results that show more than 60 percent of regions got an average or high score,” he said.

“I guess it’s just the government wanting to centralize the regions again.”

Last year, a report by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) showed only eight of the more than 500 autonomous regions had produced acceptable financial reports.

In April, Arif Wibowo, another PDI-P legislator from Commission II, said the grand design did not accommodate modern autonomy demands and many questions about regional management issues were still unanswered.

In approving new autonomous regions, the government needed to take into account a range of factors, including historical, political and economic, Arif said.

“The formation of new regions must also consider the consequences for the existing provinces or districts, to determine whether separation would adversely affect those area,” he said.

“Expansion of territories tends to bring out injustice in the areas regarding their natural resources or income. The richer areas get more funds, while the areas with no natural resources get less.

“We don’t want that since the government is obliged to disburse state funds equitably and fairly to all regions.

“The revision of the law was initiated by the government, so we want them to make the revision quickly so we can start discussing it this year.”