Appointment Of Primary Officials By Central Government Is Contrary To Regional Autonomy

JAKARTA The Executive Director of the Monitoring Committee for the Implementation of Regional Autonomy (KPPOD), Herman N. Suparman, assessed that the revision of the ASN Law which regulates the appointment of prime officials by the central government contradicts the spirit of regional autonomy.

"In the autonomy scheme, ASN management is fully held by the local government. When the mutation, promotion, and demotion are centralized, of course it will interfere with the effectiveness and efficiency of the bureaucracy machine and have an impact on public services in the regions," he explained, Sunday, May 25, 2025.

Previously, Law Number 20 of 2023 concerning State Civil Apparatus (UU ASN) which had only been in effect for two years was again planned for revision. In fact, the DPR has started discussing after the revision of the ASN Law into the 2025 National Legislation Program (Prolegnas).

In a closed meeting some time ago, the DPR Skills Agency (BKD) offered a draft of the ASN Bill to Commission II of the DPR. However, the articles in the draft bill were strongly protested by Commission II members, including Deputy Chairman of Commission II Aria Bima and a number of politicians from the Golkar Party faction.

One of the articles in question is related to the authority to appoint, transfer, and dismissal of prime high-ranking officials at the central and regional levels. Initially, the authority of the minister or head of the institution and regional head, now the authority can be taken over by the central government.

Primary high leadership positions are equivalent to echelon II officials. At the regional level, the post of high leadership of pratama, for example, is attached to the positions of regional secretary, head of service, head of agency, and assistant regional secretary.

"The president can delegate the authority to determine the appointment, transfer, and dismissal of prime high leadership officials to the minister," reads the regulation of Article 29 paragraph 2 in the draft revision of the ASN Law.

According to Herman, the pretext of relocating authority to prevent the politicization of ASN for every election is completely illogical. Because, there is no guarantee that the central government can keep ASN clean from political influence.

"We just learn from the case of PJ (implementing office) regional heads during the presidential election. Politicization in the regional bureaucracy actually occurs because there are indeed some instruments that are not strengthened, such as the application of meritocracy. Is it really consistent in recruitment or selection. Second, also about monitoring neutrality itself," he said.

He revealed that the management of the central government-controlled ASN will be much more vulnerable to politicization, especially as a winning machine for the incumbent president.

On the other hand, ASN in the regions will be half-hearted in helping regional heads work because there are no sanctions that regional heads can give to naughty ASN.

"The authority to manage ASN is one of the mandates for reform related to regional autonomy aspects. So, it is allowed to grow according to the problems in each region. However, once again it must be controlled strongly," concluded Herman.