Indonesia is an archipelagic state with a variety of uniqueness. Marine resources, particularly in eastern Indonesia, have high potential. Unfortunately, development in eastern region of Indonesia does not go along with their potentials and even the development is not as massive as that of in the west region of Indonesia. Therefore, the presence of the Archipelagic Region Draft Bill is needed to balance the development and management in the eastern region of Indonesia.
Vice Chairman of the Regional Representative Council (DPD), Nono Sampono, said one of the reasons behind the draft bill here is unequal national development which tends to side with the western parts. “This causes development in eastern region of Indonesia to be very left behind,” he said in an online discussion titled “For Whom is the Archipelagic Region Draft Bill?” on Thursday, 18 November 2021.
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Furthermore, Nono mentioned President Joko Widodo’s speech about Indonesia as the world’s maritime center. According to Nono, the core in the draft bill, which regulates management area, government administration, and also budget, can solve the problem, and fill the hollow part in the world’s maritime center.
The Coordinating Ministry for Maritime and Investment’s Deputy for Coordination of Maritime Sovereignty and Energy, Basilio Dias, mentioned the Law 23/2014 about Local Government. As to Basilio, the law has removed the concept of an archipelagic state with the archipelagic “characteristic” of a region. “There is no province that is characterized as an archipelago in Indonesia because this state is not characterized as an archipelago, but this state is truly an archipelagic state,” he said.
More problems arise when the Law 23/2014 requires derivative legal products such as government regulations (PP). Unfortunately, according to Basilio, there are no government regulations made from that law until now. This raises doubts against the governments’ will to organize and manage authority in the archipelagic area.
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Besides, Director of Ocean Conservation Indonesia (YKLI), Nirwan Dessibali, mentioned the concentration and involvement of climate change issues in the draft bill of the Archipelagic Region. From what he found, there are still no climate words in the draft. “Therefore, it is necessary to take an angle on climate change in the draft, because coastal areas and small islands are more susceptible to climate threat from global warming,” he said.
Looking at the inequality of social-economy that happen between western and eastern region of Indonesia makes Muhammad Karim, Lecturer of Economy Development Study Program of Trilogi University, convinced about the importance of the draft. “I think the law needs to be deliberated immediately so that social-economy justice, ecology justice, and also national development equality will come true,” he said.
Editor: Leo Wahyudi, Nur Alfiyah, Lutfy Putra
