The Bupati only controls so much. The police/army once were...

The Bupati only controls so much. The police/army once were tipped to be in control (the economic benefactors) of the illegal miners. If this is true I would imagine that they will not be in a hurry to do the Bupati's bidding.

After Suharto Indonesia developed a regional autonomy structure. In theory this was to create less central control and less central corruption and to allow more regional say in their own development. Nice theory.

What this actually did do was to create regional 'fiefdoms' run by: local 'aristocracy', local military commanders, local police chiefs etc - and the de-centralisation of all this meant that the central Indonesian Gov' now has much less control of these regional fiefdoms.

Still, I do believe they will get there eventually. Just that there are no smooth highways in these countries. Our management has given me some confidence that they can negotiate the potholes to move forward. We just have to be a little more patient in these places. (sorry for the analogy).