Tommy Firman, a professor in Regional and Rural Planning Research Group in School of Architecture, Planning, and Policy Development (SAPPK) of ITB, said that decentralization policy in Indonesia is still young. It just began to implement in 1999, not long after the end of New Order or about 20 years ago, whereas in the USA, decentralization has been running for around 200 years.

He said that metropolis such as Jakarta, Bandung, and Surabaya remain the power in economy and development, whereas other regions are yet to be optimally developed. He wrote this conclusion on his research regarding 20 years of decentralization in Indonesia: a perspective on regional development.

His research raises two important questions. First, has the regional disparity in Indonesia decreased since the implementation of decentralization reform in the early 2000s? Second, to what extent does spatial fragmentation occur in Indonesia resulted from the implementation of decentralization?

According to his research on decentralization, it is found that regional disparity between provinces in Indonesia is slightly increased on the first two decades of decentralization. It is also found that national policies and its derivatives give significant contribution to the process of forming Java mega-region.

“The positive impact of decentralization exists, such as how people’s participation in development of the region. Political participation also raises than that during New Order. Local government is now more independent in the development of their region. ”Overall, decreased disparity is yet to achieve, which means it needs other supporting policies,” he said.

Tommy also conducted a research on mega-regionalization in Java. The research focuses on three dimensions of urban development, namely urban forms, urban flows, and urban economics. The research concludes that Java mega-region shows signs of a thriving process urbanization, seen mainly on the interaction between Jakarta-Bandung and Surabaya-Malang.

“Urbanization pattern before decentralization focused to cities such as Jakarta and Surabaya. After decentralization, the pattern remains the same but other regions started to emerge and develop,” he said.

Regarding the implementation of decentralization in regions outside Java, he said that it has brought positive impact because it shows that it has become more democratic and the local governments are able to independently determine the needs of their regions. However, overlapping policies between districts/cities, provincial, and national governments often occur.

“Regional leadership is also an important issue in decentralization. Because if a region has quality leaders, they can push the region forward. Leadership is important,” he emphasized.

He sees that local government proliferation in decentralization era is thriving. There are almost 500 districts/cities and 34 provinces in Indonesia. Within 20 years, there are around 200 new government proliferation. However, there are no collaboration between the regions and hence create fragmentation. “Local development should be well coordinated because in decentralization, each local government have their respective policy,” said this professor who received Harvard Kennedy School Indonesia Research Fellowship (2014) and Habibie Award (2016).

Capital Relocation
The government of Indonesia has planned to relocate the capital, from Jakarta to District of Kutai Kertanegara and Penajam Paser Utara in East Kalimantan. Responding to that plan, Tommy said that it does not matter so long as joint agreement are made. However, capital relocation does not guarantee lesser burden in Jakarta. “It definitely will influence the development in Kalimantan, but Jakarta’s burden will remain as it is. Probably it will lessen but not so much,” he said.

He thinks that capital relocation should be well considered because Kalimantan is prone to forest fires, so that the relocation will not carry new problems.