Ministry of Home Affairs Accelerates Grand Design for Regional Governance Reform.
JACKTV NEWS – Jakarta, June 9, 2026
Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Bima Arya Sugiarto emphasized that Indonesia's regional autonomy system is facing increasingly complex challenges and should not be viewed solely through the lens of decentralization or recentralization of authority.
"Regional autonomy cannot simply be seen as a matter of recentralization or decentralization. We need to understand it from a broader and much more complex perspective," Bima said during the launch of the book Decentralization, Democracy, and Local Politics in Indonesia at the Populi Center office in South Jakarta on Tuesday (June 9, 2026).
According to Bima, the complexity of regional governance involves various interconnected aspects, including institutional design, the quality of regional leadership, fiscal capacity, and the effectiveness of development program implementation. Therefore, efforts to improve regional governance must be comprehensive and based on actual conditions and needs in the field.
He revealed that the Ministry of Home Affairs (Kemendagri) is currently accelerating the preparation of the Grand Design for Regional Structuring (Desartada), which will serve as the foundation for a regional autonomy system that is more adaptive to local realities and development needs. The ministry aims to complete the framework by the end of 2026.
Bima noted that the ministry's evaluation indicates that most regions, including newly established administrative areas, still fall within the medium to low fiscal capacity categories.
He explained that this situation reflects a high dependence on transfers from the central government, highlighting the need to strengthen regional financial independence as a shared priority.
Despite these challenges, Bima acknowledged that many regions have demonstrated positive performance through innovation and strong leadership.
One example he cited was Jambi City, which successfully mobilized funding sources outside its regional budget amounting to more than Rp1.96 trillion to support programs aimed at reducing stunting and alleviating poverty.
"This is an encouraging picture showing that not all regions struggle when there are adjustments in Regional Transfers (TKD) and when they are required to support national priority programs. Some regions actually improve because their leaders actively oversee the implementation of these programs," he said.
Bima stressed that the success of regional development is determined not only by the size of the budget available, but also by the quality of leadership in managing resources and fostering cross-sector collaboration.
He therefore encouraged academics and experts to continue providing constructive input in the formulation of regional governance policies.
According to him, combining academic studies with empirical experience is essential to ensuring that Indonesia's regional autonomy framework is capable of addressing development challenges more effectively.
"This autonomy design must truly integrate academic research with existing empirical realities. Dialogues like this are therefore very important in providing valuable input for all of us," Bima concluded.
Adolf Hutabarat
JACKTV NEWS
