The Minister Of Home Affairs Conveys The Government's View On Material 5 Of The Provincial Bill

Minister of Home Affairs (Mendagri) Muhammad Tito Karnavian. ANTARA/HO-Puspen Ministry of Home Affairs

JAKARTA - Minister of Home Affairs (Mendagri) Muhammad Tito Karnavian conveyed the government's view on the material and content of the five provincial bills (RUUs) which were proposed by the DPR.

"The government in principle asks not to expand the discussion of these five bills beyond changing the legal basis," said Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian in a statement quoted by Antara, Tuesday, May 31.

The five draft laws are related to the West Sumatra Provincial Bill, the Riau Province Bill, the Jambi Province Bill, the West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) Provincial Bill, and the East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) Province Bill.

The Minister of Home Affairs said that in principle the government respects and appreciates the initiative of the DPR RI and approved the discussion related to the five bills.

However, he said, with a note that the discussion was limited to a legal basis, considering that previously the laws related to the five provinces were still based on the 1950 Provisional Constitution.

This, he said, included not discussing issues of authority and others. The reason is, it will potentially conflict with a number of other laws.

For example, Law Number 11 of 2020 concerning Job Creation, Law Number 1 of 2022 concerning Financial Relations of the Central Government and Regional Governments, Law Number 3 of 2020 concerning Mineral and Coal Mining, and other regulations.

According to him, the discussion will have implications for revenue-sharing funds (DBH), general allocation funds (DAU), and human resource issues (HR).

"In addition, it can open up the emergence of issues that ultimately take a long time to resolve, such as the issue of territorial boundaries," said the Minister of Home Affairs.

The Minister of Home Affairs assessed that the five bills would be useful for local governments, such as being able to provide legal certainty. This effort can also strengthen the derivative regulations of the provincial law because these regulations are one of the basis for the preparation of regional regulations, both at the provincial and district/city levels.

"It's a bit ironic if the local regulations were based on a basis or constitution that is not currently in force, so that with the existence of this five-province bill, derivatives (regulations) will be based on the current constitution, the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia," said the Minister of Home Affairs.

In addition, the Minister of Home Affairs continued, efforts to discuss the bill will also accommodate the actual situation whose conditions are different from the formation of a province based on the previous law.

The actual conditions, such as the expansion of regions, both provinces and districts/cities. This situation automatically has implications for territory, area coverage, regional boundaries, and so on.

The Minister of Home Affairs said that the government hopes that the discussion of the bill will not be disrupted so that it can be completed soon. Thus, the regulation will be able to provide benefits to the people in the five provinces.