Bali Governor Scraps 86 Regional Laws

Jakarta Globe, I Nyoman Mardika, June 17, 2016

Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika, left, has scrapped as many as 86 local
government regulations from nine districts or cities on the island because they
either contradicted provincial or national laws, or were no longer considered to be
in the public interest. (Antara Photo/Nyoman Budhiana) 

Jakarta. Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika has scrapped as many as 86 local government regulations from nine districts or cities on the island because they either contradicted provincial or national laws, or were no longer considered to be in the public interest.

"There are three benchmarks for deciding which local regulations to scrap: those that conflict with higher laws; those that are not in the public interest and those that don't conform with social norms," Bali provincial administration spokesperson I Dewa Gede Mahendra said in Denpasar on Friday (17/06).

Mahendra added that the decision to scrap the regional laws was based on article 251 of the Law No. 23/2014 on regional administrations, which gives governors the right to scrap any regulations based on those three criteria.

The second legal basis for the regulations' scrapping is Ministry of Home Affairs regulation No. 80/2015 on regional laws, as well as the home affairs minister's decree No. 582/1107/SJ on the affirmation of scrapping regulations involving bureaucratic processes and investment licensing.

According to I Wayan Sugiada, who heads the Bali provincial government's legal office, the 86 scrapped regulations consisted of 70 regional regulations, 11 regional head regulations and five processed regulations.

However, the legal products of the scrapped regulations will still be applied, as the regulations' registration numbers are still kept in the data, based on the home ministry regulation. The term refers to scrapped regulations that have been amended or altered by newer laws, such as Karangasem regulation No. 10/2011 on the rental of telecommunication towers, which was amended according to a Constitutional Court decision.

"So the scrapping does not mean a void of law, as the legal product numbers still exist," Sugiada said. He added that none of the regulations that were phased out were related to public decency or social norms.