ABSTRACT
Discourses on regional autonomy, especially those concerning local government grievances, have been taking place since the establishment of the Republic. A long series of regulations can attest to that—from regulation numbers 1/1945, 22/ 1948, 1/1957, 18/1965, 5/1974, up to 22/1999 and 25/1999. If we study the background to these regulations, it seems that their effectiveness was only part of the central government's attempts to please regional governments. Although the 1999 regulations were decreed during the reform era, just like the previous regulations they are actually highly centralistic (Haris 2002). It can be claimed, therefore, that the regional autonomy policies of the central government are really only half-hearted. Hidayat (2001) calls this phenomenon ‘the rhetoric of decentralization’. This rather unenthusiastic attitude of the central government toward granting extensive autonomy has been challenged by many demands to revise the regulations 22/ 1999 on regional autonomy and 25/1999 on fiscal balance. In the eyes of many, the two regulations have yet to give the extensive authority to local governments that is mandated by the reform movement. Therefore, they must be revised.
