Columbia International Affairs Online
CIAO DATE: 8/5/2007
Indonesia: Decentralisation and Local Power Struggles in Maluku
2007 May
Abstract
South East Maluku (Maluku Tenggara, commonly abbreviated Malra), a district in a remote corner of the Indonesian archipelago, is about to be divided in two, and many residents are worried about the possibility of conflict. Attention by provincial and national officials to latent communal tensions, equitable distribution of development funds and even-handed prosecution of corruption, as well as dissemination by neutral parties of information about the division, would help ensure that all remains peaceful.
The separation of the capital, Tual, from the rest of the district is taking place under a mechanism called pemekaran (literally, blossoming) that under Indonesia’s 1999 decentralisation law permitted the division of provinces, districts and subdistricts into smaller units in the interests of better service delivery, more equitable resource distribution and more representative government. A subsequent implementing regulation set in motion a rush around the country to create ever more and smaller units. Despite the Yudhoyono administration’s efforts to declare a moratorium, the carve-up shows no signs of stopping, with the number of districts alone increasing from 292 in 1998 to 483 in early 2007.
