Law No. 13/2012 on Special Status of Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta (DIY) has been established for about two years. Nevertheless, its implementation is often unstable and ultimately emerges issues. The issues are obviously dealing with people’s satisfaction of special fund, local government alignment with the effort of creating public welfare and with the leadership of governor of DIY. On the other hand, the shortages does not eliminate trust of DIY’s community to the leadership of Sultan.
It was the main point of a “Seminar and Research Finding Exploration of Evaluation and Monitoring the Implementation of DIY’s Law”. It was conducted by Faculty of Social Political Science (FISIPOL) of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) in Building A.R. Fachruddin A Floor 5 on Saturday (31/1). It was inviting GKR Hemas (DPD DIY), Isti’anah ZA., M.Humn, (a Law Expert), Ane Permatasari, M.A. (a researcher of Political Studies of UMY), and Drs. Afnan Hadikusumo (DPD IY) as the speakers.
Moreover, three major ideas need to discuss regarding the Law of DIY’s Special Status. “The research findings examined by Governmental Studies of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) revealed that three foremost points to deliberate are Yogya people’s welfare in implementation of the Law of Special Status, the use of special fund, and trust of Yogya’s people to the leadership of Sultan,” explained Isti’anah ZA., M.Hum (a Law Expert) as the speaker of “Seminar and Research Finding Exploration of Evaluation and Monitoring the Implementation of DIY’s Law” on Saturday in Building A.R. Fachruddin A Floor 5 at UMY.
The issues of the peculiarity has taken place since Soeharto’s era and it continued till SBY’s era that DIY was a province to measure public welfare. “The special status conflict has occurred since Soeharto’s era and carried on in SBY’s era. In fact, Yogya would not be privileged if the palace and Sultan did not exist. Even if we, Yogya people, should preserve what has existed and been provided, it is not allowed to have any interest regarding this privilege,” emphasized GKR Hemas (DPD DIY) as the speaker.
The monitoring found that a lot of aspects have not been significant and optimal yet in applying the Law of DIY’s Special Status concerning 5 authorities written on the law, namely replenish governor position, institution, culture, defense, and lay-out. Furthermore, the people were lack of understanding of the special fund use. However, the weakness did not diminish their trust to Sultan in leading DIY. “The amount of Yogya people’s trust to Sultan is high. It could be noticed that 83% of respondents believed that Sultan could cope with issues in DIY,” elucidated Ane Permatasari, M.A., as a researcher of IP UMY.
The recent issue was that many people have not perceived prosperity yet in the implementation of Law of DIY’s Welfare. For instance, there has not been synchronous yet Yogya people’s welfare about 5 authorities of DIY on Law of DIY’s Welfare. “If I discern the public welfare on the Law, it was very less. Yet, I admit that, since the Law of Yogyakarta’s special status existed, the people feels very peaceful because conflicts did not rise in the society,” explained Isti’anah.
Besides prosperity, Isti’anah continued, people’s knowledge of the use of privilege fund was very less. It was the effect of lack of socialization about the use of the special fund. It was getting worse since the regulation of the special fund disbursement was very complicated. Many steps to carry out like writing a proposal, sending it to Mendagri and DPRI, and after being evaluate, the fund would be disbursed. The fund disbursement could not be immediately as in Papua and Aceh,” she conveyed.
GKR Hermas stressed that the chaos of the implementation or the use of the special fund since the regulations of special fund need improve. The special fund was not accomplished because the solution did not exist. It happened since the political and group interest got involved in worsening the condition.
One of the issues of DIY regarding the five authorities was land that a number of conflicts of Sultan’s land ownership existed. “The recent hot issue of land is the establishment of airport in Yogyakarta, and some people still question it. Additionally, the construction of airport in Kulon Progo is hampered because of some interest. I was advised to build the airport in Purworejo, but if the airport is constructed there, what would Yogya have, then?” uttered GKR Hemas.
The same statement came from Drs. Afnan Hadikusumo (DPD DIY) as the speaker that the land issues was not only the construction of airport but also many of Sultan’s land misemployed. If it was attempted to analyze again the issues of land, it occurred to not only society but government as well.
From the issues of the Law of Special Status, Yogya should preserve the privilege. In addition, the people trust should maintain elevating. “The crux is that Yogya ought to be free from any interest. We should conserve what we achieve and what we provide since the political and group interest would be shattering,” asserted GKR Hemas.
Isti’anah recommended a long term and short term plan. The long term plan is that it is necessary to amend the law and to have mechanism suggestion of special fund. Whilst, the short term plan is that some fund might be switched to Yogya public welfare, the changes of the Regulation of Special Fund and socialization of the special fund.
