Health Services for Poor People
The Bupati of Gianyar, Agung Bharata headed a “safari” for public health services for villages. Thousands of local people received free health services. In addition, the Bupati delivered “sembako” packages to tuberculosis disease sufferers.79
Based on the discussion above, it can be concluded that business associations in Gianyar had not yet become pressure groups and most of the business people are not involved in these association. They also had not yet played an important role as
75Interview with Mr. A.W., head of Kelian Dinas and Kelian Adat, Banjar of Bonjaka, 23 May 2009. 76Interview with Mr. K.K., head of Kelian Dinas, Banjar of Sapat, 14 May 2009.
77 Interview with N.S, Head of Kelian Dinas and Kelian Adat, Banjar of Pujung Kaja, 23 May 2009. 78Sembako is human basic foods such as: rice, sugar, cooking oil, etc.
mediators between local government and business people. In other words, business association had no power to make a bargaining with district government.
Further, Bendesa and head of Banjar was the customary organisation at village level, but they played an important role as mediator between local politicians and local communities. Local politicians approached Bendesa and the head of Banjar to influence local communities in the election for local parliament members and the district head.
3.7. Conclusion
Demographically, the population of Gianyar is small. Culturally, the population is homogeneous with Hindu culture. It is postulated that the small population and homogeneous culture contributes to the implemention of decentralisation policies because there is a little conflict among the population. However, many individuals below the poverty line implicate a financial burden for district government because the district government needs to allocate funds to help the poor people.
Gianyar is not rich in natural resources such as minerals and forests. Further, the district government has only a small income from natural resources and tax revenue. As a result, the district government has difficulty in implementing administrative decentralisation such as providing public services, financial assistance and training programs for small business. The administrative decentralisation thus has only a minimal impact on the relationship between local government and small business.
In 2008, the sector of trade, hotel and restaurant accounted for the most part of gross regional domestic product of Gianyar (30 percent), whereas the agricultural sector was only 18 percent. This means that economic structure of Gianyar was not dependent on the agricultural sector. This differed with Bantul, which depended on the agricultural sector as the basis of its economy. As in the case of Bantul, locally derived revenue of Gianyar was not sufficient to support the district government’s expenditure. As a result Gianyar was financially dependent on the central government’s grants. Gianyar had limited fiscal decentralisation to increase financial capacity. I suggest that without central government grants, financially the local bureaucrats of Gianyar faced constraints to implement the decentralisation policies.
Decentralisation policy provides discretionary power to the district government in terms of using local tax incomes, levy incomes and general grants because the central government does not determine how to use such incomes. The central government also gives authority to local government to develop types of levies and determines charge of each levy. Therefore, the district government can give financial assistance to small businessmen by using incomes from taxes, levies and general grants.
Based on the political institutional discussion, we understand that both the behaviour of political parties and local legislature members did not change during decentralisation era. Following decentralisation policy, many political parties emerged and they competed intensively in pursuing public resources and official position in executive government and legislature at local level. However, their competitiveness was accompanied by money politics. As a result, many local legislature members were not qualified and not able to carry out their functions. While political parties were not able to articulate the preferences of local small business owners. It can be concluded that political institutions such as local legislature and political parties had difficulty in improving their roles because they were involved in money politics.
Local bureaucrats and district heads have not dramatically changed in providing public services during decentralisation era. Although most of local legislature members and district heads came from business background, they were less responsive to the interests of the business sector. However, by comparison the district head of Bantul is more responsive to help small business sector than the district of Gianyar.
Kadinda as a business association was not involved in the process of decision making at district level because the district government and local legislature did not provide access to participate in the process of decision making. As a result, the role of business associations in promoting small businesses’ interests was limited. The business association had no power to influence local policy. In the other words, political decentralisation did not increase participation of business associations in the
process of decision making. As a result, business association had no power to make a bargain with district government.
Political decentralisation caused local politicians to approach the heads of Desa Pakraman (Bedesa) and the heads of Banjars (Kelian) to obtain political support by providing funds and materials. In return, they expected that the head of Desa Pakraman and head of Banjar could influence voter behaviour in elections for the district head and legislature members. However, the Banjars have no power of negotiation with local politicians to get benefits for local small businesses and citizens. In fact some politicians directly provided money to individuals with the aim to buy votes.
The next two Chapters will analyse the implication of decentralisation on small business in Bantul and Gianyar. The objective is to provide insights into how decentralisation influences the relationship between local government and small business and to analyse what kind of benefits are obtained by small business as result of decentralisation policy.