After splitting with Anambas Islands in 2008, Natuna regency was recently divided further ' into three autonomous regions ' with the establishment of West Natuna regency and South Natuna regency in December last year.

The rationale for that was that Natuna was too big to manage and it should be divided so that the new administrations could collect more money, mainly from oil and gas revenue sharing with Jakarta.

West Natuna took over five sub-districts and 30 villages under its administration, with Bunguran Barat as its capital. It borders with Vietnam and Cambodia in the north; parent Natuna regency in the east; Bintan and the Anambas Islands Regencies in the south; and Malaysia in the west.

Meanwhile, South Natuna took over four sub-districts and 20 villages with Serasan as its capital.

The new autonomous region borders with Natuna Regency in the north; Malaysia in the east; and West Kalimantan and Anambas Islands Regency in the south and west respectively.

'Splitting into different autonomous regions will be an effective way to accelerate development because separation will bring additional funds,' chairman of Natuna Regional Legislative Council (DPRD) Hadi Chandra said.

'Anambas Islands Regency, for example, can have at least Rp 1.2 trillion [US$101.82 million] a year for itself while we used to have only Rp 1.5 trillion to cover the whole area when it was still part of the Natuna administration. Thus, the more autonomous regions we have, the more money we get,' the Golkar politician added.

Hadi's argument was also backed by his counterparts at the House of Representatives.

Whenever asked about the matter, chairman of the House's Commission II on regional administrations, Agun Gunandjar Sudarsa, repeatedly argued that lawmakers' approval for the establishment of any new autonomous regions was only meant to cater to local aspirations.

West Natuna and South Natuna will each earn at least Rp 1 trillion for their regional budget after the formulation of definitive local administration in two years time.

However, analyst Siti Zuhro of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said that like other new autonomous regions, both West and South Natuna would also hardly achieve the ideal goal of accelerating development.

'Ideally, a thorough feasibility study should be conducted before the approval of a proposal to establish a new autonomous region. This study will consider areas such as the potential of the region and the availability of human resources,' Siti said. 'We are obviously lacking this feasibility study because many of established new autonomous regions don't have quality human resources. If not, those new regions would not be struggling to provide basic infrastructure even after years of autonomy,' Siti said.

She emphasized that the establishment of West Natuna and South Natuna Regencies, as well as other 65 other new regions on the process, was deeply regretful as the country was still implementing a moratorium as the government and the House were currently discussing a revision to Law No. 32/2004 on regional administrations.

The revision is due to a great number of disadvantaged regions in Indonesia, which are often rich with natural resources. The discussion of the revision also includes the possibility of reuniting regions, particularly those that have failed to improve after years of autonomy.

Other than Natuna and Anambas, the list also includes regencies in Aceh, North Sumatra, West Sumatra, South Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, East Nusa Tenggara (NTB) and Papua.

The majority of the country's disadvantaged regions are in Papua, with 38 of the recorded 183 located in the resource rich eastern province of Indonesia.

Natuna Regency recorded that 2,978 of its total population of 76,305 were civil servants. The regency apparently must share the civil servants with its two newly established neighbors, West Natuna and South Natuna Regencies.

Meanwhile, 1,800 of the 41,388 population in Anambas Islands Regency worked for the local administration.

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