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Depok (25/11) — The Chair of the University of Indonesia Board of Professors and Head of the Policy, Governance and Administrative Science (PGAR) Research Group at FIA UI, Prof. Eko Prasojo, opened the National Symposium “25 Years of Decentralization in Indonesia: Impacts, Problems, and Prospects” by emphasizing the need to critically reassess the implementation of regional autonomy, with a focus on remeasuring regional self-reliance that has increasingly generated uncertainty. The symposium marked the culmination of an academic reflection on Indonesia’s decentralization journey across three key aspects of governance: public service delivery, development, and governance.
In his opening remarks, Prof. Dr. Eko Prasojo, Mag.rer.publ., stressed that twenty-five years of decentralization have brought significant changes, yet continue to face fundamental challenges.
“Decentralization was designed to bring public services closer to citizens, improve welfare, and strengthen local democracy. However, disparities in performance among regions, weak bureaucratic capacity, and fiscal inequality indicate that these objectives have not been fully achieved,” he emphasized.
Fundamental Issues in 25 Years of Decentralization
Prof. Eko highlighted that based on the 2025 regional performance assessment, only 11 percent of regencies and cities are classified as high-performing, while the majority remain in the medium and low categories. According to him, this condition reflects persistent weaknesses in governance, bureaucratic capacity, central–local regulatory synchronization, and the quality of public services in many regions.
He also underscored other fundamental issues, including regional fiscal dependence on central government transfers, high personnel expenditure exceeding ideal thresholds, and local democracy that remains procedural rather than participatory.
“Many regional heads are entangled in legal cases, public participation is still largely mobilizational, and the utilization of natural resources has not fully translated into public welfare. These are clear signs that regional governance must be seriously strengthened,” he asserted.
Looking ahead, Prof. Eko emphasized the need for asymmetric decentralization, stronger multilevel governance, enhanced community capacity, and bureaucratic transformation based on meritocracy and digitalization.
“Governance cannot be managed in a centralized manner from Jakarta. We need stronger institutions, capable regional bureaucracies, and a more synchronized and adaptive central–local relationship,” he stated.
From Authority and Collaboration to Fiscal Independence
The Director of Institutional and Personnel Facilitation for Regional Apparatus at the Ministry of Home Affairs, Dr. Cheka Virgowansyah, S.STP., M.E., highlighted the importance of intergovernmental collaboration to enhance policy effectiveness.
“Twenty-five years of decentralization have brought many advances, but challenges such as overlapping authorities, policy fragmentation, varying regional capacities, and central–local misalignment can only be addressed if communication—both formal and informal, including the culture of ‘having coffee together’—is continuously strengthened,” Cheka remarked.
Cheka’s observations were reinforced by Prof. Dr. Irfan Ridwan Maksum, M.Si., Professor at FIA UI and Head of the Democracy and Local Governance (DeLOGO) Research Group, who cautioned that published statistical figures do not necessarily reflect the true optimization of regional autonomy.
“Do not be lulled by rising GDP graphs and declining poverty rates. In reality, behind these statistics, our decentralization remains far from optimal and continues to leave serious problems that must not be ignored,” Prof. Irfan stated.
From a fiscal perspective, the Executive Director of the Committee for Monitoring the Implementation of Regional Autonomy (KPPOD), Herman Suparman, delivered a strong critique of the current direction of fiscal decentralization policy.
“The current development of our fiscal decentralization policy is not merely a setback, but a betrayal of the spirit of reform,” he asserted.
Meanwhile, Bogor Mayor Dedie A. Rachim argued that the fiscal pressures faced by regions are not solely the result of central government policies, but also stem from a lack of inter-institutional synergy.
“The current fiscal decentralization policy has actually improved or can be understood in terms of its considerations. Fiscal pressure on regions is undeniable. However, what exacerbates this pressure is the lack of synergy in policies and data used by central government institutions,” he explained.
What Does Local Politics Look Like? Is Bureaucratic Reform the Solution?
Amid discussions on representation and public participation, criticism emerged that local democracy remains procedural rather than substantive. Public participation is still largely mobilizational, reflecting the limited capacity of civil society organizations. Senior BRIN researcher and regional politics observer Prof. Siti Zuhro also emphasized the relationship between local democracy and decentralization.
“Remember, the linearization of local democracy will drive the optimization of decentralization progress,” Prof. Zuhro stated.
Beyond local democracy, regional politics characterized by patronage and clientelism have fostered transactional participation, which can negatively affect regional bureaucracies. This aligns with the views expressed by Prof. Irfan.
“The poor quality of Indonesian politics has hampered bureaucratic performance and ultimately worsened decentralization conditions in the regions,” he noted.
The face of local politics needs refinement through improved public service quality, not only in structure but also in function. Regional bureaucracies must demonstrate serious commitment to implementing reform agendas to improve the political landscape. Bureaucratic Reform (RB) can help prepare more structured and impactful systems, structures, and mechanisms for local democracy, as echoed by the Assistant Deputy for Policy Formulation and Coordination of Bureaucratic Reform Implementation at the Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform (KemenPANRB), Agus Uji Hantara.
“The RB Index illustrates the progress of collaborative governance improvements across institutions. We have Thematic RB to assess how RB contributes downstream. All ministries, agencies, and regional governments play a role here. For example, poverty issues are linked to unresolved data problems, program synchronization, and more. Many regional governments still have low RB Index scores, particularly in eastern Indonesia. Thematic RB results also show development impacts such as a reduction in poverty (0.79%), increased investment (IDR 295.3 trillion), and others. When we look at the data, reform must continue,” Uji explained.
The National Symposium was part of the plenary session of the international conferences 5th ICAS-PGS, 6th ICBAP, and 1st IFTAC, held on Tuesday, 25 November 2025. The event was initiated by the PGAR Research Group FIA UI and the DeLOGO Research Group FIA UI. It was attended by key figures from ministries, state institutions, regional governments, as well as national and international academics from universities such as the University of Potsdam, Charles Darwin University, Rikkyo University, and Zhejiang University.
The presence of cross-sector stakeholders further reinforced the symposium’s position as a strategic forum for discussing new directions in Indonesia’s decentralization governance.
In closing, Prof. Eko stated that the series of discussions and ideas compiled throughout the FIA UI decentralization series have been formulated into six policy briefs, intended as strategic inputs for central and regional governments in improving the design and implementation of decentralization policies.



