Musrenbang (Development Planning Meeting) in the Post Conflict Area: Case Study in Poso Lubendik, Junior Analyst, The

Habibie Center Background Musrenbang1 is a bottom-up participatory planning mechanism and a product of Indonesias reform era which saw a move away from the New Orders more centralized approach to development. Since the reform era, Indonesias decentralization system was put in place with the aim of empowering local governments to fully carry out their roles, one of which is to bring public services closer to the community and to achieve the welfare of the people. After the reforms, however, some areas in Indonesia experienced largescale violent conflictsthat resulted in heavy casualties and slowed the wheels of governance that would have carried out regional development for the welfare of the people. We could mention areas such as Ambon-Maluku, SampitCentral Kalimantan, Poso-Central Sulawesi, Aceh and Papua as examples. The process of regional development in post-conflict areas needs to be considered more intensively and the involvement of various classes of society, ethnic and religions in the process of regional development should be explored greater. Therefore, one instrument of stakeholder engagement could be truncated planning that serves as a forum for social re-integration for the welfare of their territories. In addition, the smooth implementation of Musrenbang can also be an indicator of post-conflict recovery in terms of security, political frameworks, humanitarian needs and the restoration of social services. Therefore, a paradigm of conflict sensitive development planning is required by all stakeholders, especially the executive and legislative. In this paper, the author will describe the process of regional development planning in a post-conflict area, namelyPoso,CentralSulawesi.Some areas that will be described are: how the implementation of Musrenbang was presented in the Poso district? Whether it involves all components of society (stakeholders) or not? What problems occurred in the process of implementation of regional planning? And what is the impact of regional development planning process to the life within the framework of post-conflict societies? Musrenbang The Development Planning Meeting (Musrenbang) is a forum between stakeholders in the framework of regional development plans. For the district, regional development planning engages with those at the levels of village, sub-district and district. There are some basic laws that make reference to the implementation of Musrenbang. Namely: Law. 25 of 2004 on National Development Planning System;

 Law. 32 of 2004 on Regional Governance; Government Regulation No.72 of 2005 on Village Government; Government Regulation No.58 of 2005 on Regional Financial Management; Regulation of the Minister for Internal Affairs (Permendagri) No. 66 of 2007 on Village Planning; & Regulation of the Minister for Internal Affairs (Permendagri) No. 37 of 2007 on Village Finance. The Poso regency government also adopted a local rule relating to the implementation of the regional development planning known as the Poso District Regulation (Perda) No. 8 of 2010 on Regional Development Planning System. Socio-Political Conditions in Poso In June 2010, the election for regional heads in Poso ran smoothly with no communal conflict 2. The election period saw four pairs of regent and vice-regent candidates with the four regent candidates being Christians and their vice regents candidates being Muslims. 3 Crucially the people of Poso followed the elections enthusiastically, showing little concern for the candidates ethnic-religious backgrounds and instead were more concerned with the prospective candidates vision and mission. The election campaign ran well, with components from all the different ethnic-religious groups cooperating to provide support for each candidate. In running campaigns, even people from Poso entered the Tentena region and vice versa. Piet Inkriwang and T. Samsuri, who carried the theme of security in their campaign, emerged as the winners of the 2010 elections in Poso. This was the second time Piet Inkriwang became the Regent of Poso. The vision set forth by the elected Regent and Vice Regent of Poso was The Realization of Poso Regency: Safe, Peaceful, Democratic, Corruption-Free & Prosperous Society, Healthy, Intelligent, Supporting Productivity, Reliable Human Resources and Competitiveness Empowerment in 2015. The Vision and Mission of the elected regional leaders become the Vision and Mission for the area and was incorporated into the Medium Term Development Plan (RPJM) 2010-2015 of Poso. This document should be disseminated to the public for the preparation of local development planning from the village to district level and refers to the RPJM document of the Poso district. But that does not mean the participation of the public is excluded; the RPJM is simply a reference for the community to map the potential and the problems in their village and to enable them to propose some plans that may be integrated into the local development plans. The condition in Poso post-2010 elections remains safe to this day and there are no more issues of disputes and conflicts. Governmental activities have run smoothly and many activities involving the participation of the community in many fields have taken place such as sport competitions, religious and cultural art festivals etc. These are done to improve the social integration in the communitys grassroots and to prove that Poso is safe, stable and peaceful.

However, in 2011, several events occurred that had the potential to disturb the stable condition of Poso. Namely the discovery of home made bombs in a church4 , the burning of a market in Poso5 and Palu, shootings targeting the police where the perpetrators fled to Poso 6 . Fortunately, none of the events were able to provoke the people who have grown tired of conflicts and prefer instead to focus on their work such as cocoa gardening and other jobs. In addition, local institutional preparedness (local government and community groups) should be appreciated for their conduct of holding direct meeting with fire victims in order to dispel negative speculations spreading within the community. However, there are several issues that are of concern and need to be addressed. These include the problems of law enforcement, corruption, segregation, lack of transparency, and the tendency of the Regent of Poso to spend more time outside the regency he represents rather than inside. This is apparent during the openings of formal activities where most of the events are opened by the Vice Regent reading a written speech in the name of the Regent of Poso rather than the Regent delivering the speech himself. The Role of the Civil Society The existence of civil society organizations contributed to the advancement of democracy and participatory development planning in the district of Poso. Some of them are the Institute for Strengthening Civil Society (LPMS), Wahana Visi Indonesia, Institut Mosintuwu, and Community Care for Women & Children (KPPA)-Central Sulawesi. These four non-governmental organizations actively empower grassroots communities in areas of peace, democracy, regional development planning, the basic rights of citizens and economic empowerment. In addition, the issue of gender equality is also a key topic for socialization, with the people being reminded to address the fact that not a single woman was elected as a member of the legislature in the Poso district. In relation to participatory in local development planning, NGOs in Poso provide training to the community through direct training and socialization on local radio stations. The training provided addresses concepts of good development planning meeting (Musrenbang), legal rules & applicability, and how to facilitate Musrenbang. Communities are trained to map the potential and problems that exist in their area. After that, the proposals suggested as priority in Musrenbang Forum are those which are urgent, have direct benefit to peoples lives, related to the natural resource and human capital in the community, and that would affect the environment of the society if not immediately solved. Another role for civil societies is in enlightening the public about social issues, politics, corruption and democracy. This is done by the civil society forum in Poso which consists of various elements of the religious leaders, scholars, community leaders, NGOs, journalists and even local governments and legislators. Their present activities include a discussion forum to address current issues related to the fulfillment of basic rights of the people in Poso. On December 2011, the forum commemorated 10 years of the Malino Declaration7 and discussed points that have been met and those which have not been met. Another role for civil societies is in enlightening the public about social issues, politics, corruption and democracy. This is done by the civil society forum in Poso which consists of various elements of the

religious leaders, scholars, community leaders, NGOs, journalists and even local governments and legislators. Their present activities include a discussion forum to address current issues related to the fulfillment of basic rights of the people in Poso. On December 2011, the forum commemorated 10 years of the Malino Declaration 7 and discussed points that have been met and those which have not been met. Musrenbang in Poso One of the goals of Musrenbang is community participation. This is mainly because they are the ones who know clearly the problems in their villages and can identify the villagers dreams for a future of better conditions. From the results of these discussions with the people in the villages, it was found that the people held many hopes and dreams for their area. These include a desire for their area to be better equipped with education facilities, health, religious places and village offices. In addition, to extend rice fields so that they cover more land than their original narrow field locations. There is also the dream to become successful farmers supported by adequate infrastructure facilities for agricultural success. There is also the envisioning of road construction so that farmers can sell their crops directly to the market and obtain the best prices for their products. And no less important is the desire for peace, safety and prosperity The dream of a prosperous future in the region can be realized by participating in the implementation of the Musrenbang. Therefore, every village sends a delegation to attend Musrenbang at the district level. In their assistances in the rural community, NGOs sometimes receive complaints from the people who feel fed up with Musrenbang because very little of the communitys many proposals are met by the government. Despite this, people are still willing to be involved in the Musrenbang activities. In February 2012, the author followed the activities of the sub-district Musrenbang in North Pamona and Pamona Pusulemba with the goal of observing its activities which started at 9 in the morning. Both Musrenbang were attended by the Heads of Department in Poso district. The Musrenbang activities were opened by the local subdistrict head and the Bappeda (the Regional Development Agency) provided an explanation of the Musrenbang concept. Then, they would listen to the village leaders proposal presentation where each presentation is allowed to last 5 minute. From the two Musrenbang activities the author followed, the Regents took too large a portion (more than 4 hours) to speak and conduct question and answers with the public. The Regent would on the spot, sometimes make a decision on whether to accept or reject a proposal from the public. This makes the implementation of Musrenbang to be non-compliant with the formal legal rules that determine proposed developments should be discussed in a participatory manner. At the Musrenbang in North Pamona area, held at the home of the Regent, one participant who was a representative from an NGO took a video recording of the Regents speech. This was met by a rebuke from the Regent who said that the meeting was secret. This incident proves that Regents do not fully understand the rules regarding the implementation of Musrenbang such as the fact all stakeholders in the region are permitted to participate. Also when a Regent went against those rules by issuing a

reprimand for example, no one dared to point out this transgression, either from other components of local government, legislators or the people. Nevertheless, the overall regional development planning in the district of Poso continues to proceed well. For the implementation of the Musrenbang at district level, all components are present at the time, including the Regional Leadership Forum Coordination Poso regency, Rector of the University Sintuwu Maroso Poso, officials of the government, religious leaders, youth leaders, women leaders, the press, NGOs and other meeting attendees. Concluding Note In the Description Accountability Report 2011 Poso Regency, the local governments have made it clear that the realization of government spending was 95%. Compared to the fiscal year of 2010, actual expenditures increased by 8.38%. From these reports it can be concluded that the absorption of state budget in Poso district was quite well. However, are good budget absorptions actually followed by the fulfillment of peoples basic rights such as education facilities, health, economic empowerment and the construction of roads? If we look at the implementation of the Musrenbang, there is still the feeling that its implementation is merely ceremonial or a formality. Complaints in the community about the fulfillment of proposals still exist. Indeed some feel that their basic rights are not evenly fulfilled. While in Poso, as a post-conflict area, it is expected to use the perspective of fairness in the implementation of regional development and fulfillment of basic public services. This needs to be done by the government in order to not cause jealousy with other areas over unmet basic services, resulting in prolonged segregation that could lead to greater problems. In post-conflict areas, the government should have a conflict-sensitive development paradigm. Economic empowerment through the agricultural sector, farming, trade and services should come first while building roads bag production throughout the district of Poso. Division of labor between the regent and the vice-regent is essential in running a government. In the context of Poso Regency, it has been shown that the Regents perform more activities externally rather than in his district, while the Vice-Regents oversee many internal activities in Poso. Going forward, the Regents of Poso are expected to spend more time in the district of Poso, especially in appearing in public during the opening of the formal activities of government, religious activities, cultural, arts and other large events. This will make the people to feel more integrated as a symbol of the unity of regional leaders who reflect the community.