Elizabeth Pisani Quotes
13 years after Indonesia began devolving power from the federal government to hundreds of sub provincial units, the link between local and national political interests have become extremely tenuous… although locally elected politicians may be delivering things that people want in their own back yards, they are not, collectively meeting the nation’s needs.
There was huge pressure on the central government to decentralize as they held all the power in Indonesian society. However, if they devolved power to the Provinces (States), many of them could be large enough and independent enough to secede and become an independent country as East Timor had done. So the Indonesian power structure bypassed the Provincial governments and devolved power directly to the local governments, none of which was independent enough to go it alone. The desired objective was met—no more secessions. However, there was no one to worry about regional and national issues and problems as the politicians who had power were all local. The country was becoming non-functional in many ways.
Elizabeth Pisani, Epidemiologist, Health Scientist, Journalist, & Writer, “Indonesia in Pieces: The Downside of Decentralization”, Foreign Affairs, July/August 2014
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
There was huge pressure on the central government to decentralize as they held all the power in Indonesian society. However, if they devolved power to the Provinces (States), many of them could be large enough and independent enough to secede and become an independent country as East Timor had done. So the Indonesian power structure bypassed the Provincial governments and devolved power directly to the local governments, none of which was independent enough to go it alone. The desired objective was met—no more secessions. However, there was no one to worry about regional and national issues and problems as the politicians who had power were all local. The country was becoming non-functional in many ways.
In addition, most state and local corrupt officials are detected, and prosecuted by Federal law enforcement officials as local and sometimes state corruption involves the local and state law enforcement officials as well as others so local authorities often turn a blind eye towards corruption.
Even in the 21st century, French Ministry of Education boasted that on any given day, they know what Algebra problems students throughout the country will be doing for homework that evening. The national government can control any aspect of French society.
Ironically, many Republican leaders give lip service to decentralized government but they fight hard for centralized national government making. Many want Congress to make laws governing abortion and other family planning techniques. Some want the state to decide, but almost no Republicans want to leave these personal decisions to the local government much less the family and women involved. In business regulation as well, republican fight tooth and nail to have Federal legislation prempt state and local government about tort liability for defective products, and they always prefer that the Federal SEC make all the rules and regulations about selling stocks and bonds and do not want state or local government to “interfere”. Likewise, they have emasculated the state governments when it comes to authority over the state militias where virtually all the controls and promotions are decided by Congress and the Department of Defense and not by Governors or local politicians. Ther are many other examples. In most of the solid Republican Southern States, the local school boards cannot even select the textbooks that schools will use and the Republicans centralize this with the State government and state legislatures which they control. Democrats also are generally opposed to decentralization except for large cities having control along with the Federal government but otherwise they too do not want decentralization. For national political parties, what is the point of winning national elections of the big decisions are made locally?
Elizabeth Pisani (born 1964) is an academic researcher and the director of Ternyata Ltd., a public health consultancy based in London, UK. An epidemiologist by training, her research investigates the ways in which politics, economics and culture influence public health. She currently focuses on the forces that drive the markets for substandard and falsified medicines and has in the past worked extensively on HIV. Together with many academic publications, she is known for her books about Indonesia, and about HIV. Indonesia Etc.: Exploring the Improbable Nation, is regularly cited as one of the best books about that country. The Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels and the Business of AIDS, and her TED Talk "Sex, drugs, and HIV - let's get rational" describe the ways in which politics, religion and culture can outweigh scientific evidence in decision-making about HIV prevention.
