New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies 4, 2 (December, 2002): 33-51 OTONOMI DAERAH: INDONESIA’S DECENTRALISATION EXPERIMENT RICHARD SEYMOUR 1 University of Otago SARAH TURNER 2 McGill University In 1999 the central government of Indonesia designed a set of laws to promote Otonomi Daerah, literally ‘regional autonomy’. This paper discusses the potential for these Otonomi Daerah laws to be effective in promoting decentralisation in the current economic and political climate. To do this, we initially outline why decentralisation is often chosen by governments of developing countries, and then critique the benefits of a move towards decentralisation. Then, we draw on recent and ongoing experiences in Indonesia to examine in detail the processes underway there. After contextualising the Indonesian case, including a brief outline of the structure of the Otonomi Daerah laws passed in 1999, a critique of the laws is undertaken from which six key problems emerge. Given the complexity of these problems, the question we then address concerns how likely is it that Otonomi Daerah will succeed in promoting decentralisation in Indonesia? Decentralisation in Developing Countries Defining decentralisation Decentralisation can take a number of different forms, of which Rondinelli and Cheema (1983) suggest four major ones. The first, deconcentration, involves the transfer of central government responsibilities to regions. It can operate at varying scales and to different degrees of autonomy. For example, deconcentration might not actually increase local input in decision making 1 Richard Seymour is an MA graduate from the Department of Geography, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. His thesis focused on regional autonomy and the impacts of political decentralisation on local populations in Indonesia. 2 Sarah Turner (turner@geog.mcgill.ca) is Assistant Professor at the Department of Geography, McGill University, Montreal, Canada. Her research focuses on how small scale entrepreneurs, street traders and market traders in Southeast Asia, specifically those in Indonesia and Vietnam, make a livelihood.