W

e cannot help but feel skeptical about the 17 large infrastructure development projects worth US$21.5 billion launched by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono with major fanfare at a ceremony attended by his ministers, provincial governors and business leaders at the Jakarta Convention Center on Friday.

There is simply no new evidence to show that the government really feels a sense of urgency and is determined to execute all the projects that are part of the government’s goals under its 2011-2025 Economic Master Plan to increase the nation’s per capita income to over $16,000 from about $3,000 at present.

The President mentioned big numbers, projecting $465 billion in new investments during the plan’s 14-year period to develop Indonesia to become one of the world’s 10 largest economies, with a gross domestic product of $4.5 trillion.

But, set against all the huge constraints the economy is now encountering, all these numbers seem to be a dream.

The government has always been quite slow in disbursing its investment (development) budget. For example, during the first five months of this year, the Public Works Ministry has spent only about 11 percent of the budget for its infrastructure projects due to land acquisition problems and bureaucratic inertia.

It was a strategic decision to begin the realization of the master plan with the President’s launching of the infrastructure projects in provinces in Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Bali, Nusa Tenggara and Maluku because infrastructure deficiency has been the biggest barrier to economic expansion.

But, none of the projects will materialize if the procedures for land acquisition remain as arduous and punitively costly as they are now.

In fact, the problem of land acquisition has now become the main obstacle to infrastructure development. More than two dozen toll road and bridge projects have stalled for years due to land appropriation problems.

Land problems have also made the completion of the new international airport in Medan, North Sumatra, two years behind schedule.

Likewise, the traffic gridlock on the Jakarta toll road has been blamed on the long delay of the completion of the capital city’s outer ring road, which forces trucks and trailers to pass through the city’s freeways.

The government has been fully aware of this land acquisition problem, as can be seen in the President’s plan during the first 100 days of his second-term beginning in October 2009 to issue a regulation in lieu of a law designed to expedite land acquisition for public interests, notably basic infrastructure.

But, nothing happened.

The government finally proposed a land-acquisition bill a few months ago to the House of Representatives. But, we haven’t seen any significant progress in the legislative deliberation of the draft legislation.

Even if the bill is approved later this year, its enforcement may only begin later in 2012 given the time needed to prepare all the regulations for its implementation and the bureaucratic coordination with regional administrations.

So, when the land acquisition law and its supporting regulations are in place for full-fledged enforcement in 2012 or early 2013, there is really not much time anymore to complete the 17 infrastructure projects because the political parties that are members of the coalition government will be focusing their attention on the 2014 election.