By Marah Halim*
My eyes was about to close last night when I immediately remembered a well-known region (kabupaten) in Bali, Jembrana. The region was famous due to its success story in implementing what is called as good governance, a new paradigm in governance which spreaded by European countries. The region was Jembrana.
Jembrana was located in western of the island of deities, Bali, about one hundreds kilometres from capital Den Pasar. The ephitet of the region is Bumi Makepung. Unlike other regions in Bali which commonly popular as tourism destinations, Jembrana is well-known for its public services in all sectors.
For example, in Jembrana, all public services have used online system, for example in government officers system, health service system, permit, all applied in one stop service system. All Jembrana peoples have only one card for all service. The multifunction card called Jembrana Smart Card or J-Smart. J-Smart is not only for government officers in Jembrana, but also for students. Using the card, students can saving in their account, paying food in school canteen, used as discount card, and also as student card. Shortly speaking, J-Smart is all integrated service card.
Perhaps, what had been done by the region is a new breakthrough in public service in Indonesia. This region truly get benefits from the application of information technology (IT). They use IT to make public service faster, easier, cheaper, and any other benefits which only gotten from using IT. Such the card may be not applied yet in another regions in Bali or maybe in other provinces.
Beside the facts mentioned, nowadays Jembrana also wellknown with its agricultural management. As stated before, the core income of Jembranaâs peoples is not tourism, but agriculture like us in Gayo. The region really want to develop based on their original resources, namely natural resources.
It must be there âthe man behind the gunâ is. The figure behind the success story of Jembrana is a professor in medic, I Gede Winasa. He became the regent (bupati) of Jembrana from 2000 to 2010. The man graduated from University of Hiroshima dan University Tokushim (Japan). He confessed that his experience in Japan gave a new horison about how to manage government using IT widely.
I Gede Winasa have succeeded in raising Jembrana to high level region in Indonesia. Only a few regents could do like what he has done, most of them even not achieved a satisfaying performance when they were in duty. Like our regents (bupati) in Gayo, especially ini Middle Aceh and Bener Meriah, who only continueing what have been made by their predecessors, almost nothing to be noted as a special achievements either in public service or infrastructure.
Gayoâs nature is much similar with Jembrana, especially in agriculture in widen meaning. We are bestowed fertile land which not found everywhere in Aceh. Our pledge product is coffee which has become an export product for a long time. Beside coffee, actually we can develop a great number of vegetables and fruits varieties, but until now this sector still underdeveloped yet. Compared to Brastagi in North Sumatra which has made agricultural products as their pledge, we are still far behind.
We are like proverb says, âa chicken dead in mowâ. Panbers, the  old famous band, says âeven a stick could be a cropâ. So, whatâs wrong with our homeland Gayo? Its peoples or its leaders?
Jembrana is not as lucky as our homeland Gayo, but how can I Gede Winasa managed a region which previously supposed as one of the poorest regions in Bali? Itâs no doubt that good management as the key success. I believe that our Gayo homeland will be able to be a prominent land if managed well, provided that its leaders have a strong characters like I Gede Winasa has.
 We need a leader with a strong characters like I Gede Winasa. The leader with wide experience and knowledge locally and globally. Looking the existing candidates, we are faced with a big hasitation, which one of the candidates who has a strong characters like I Gede Winasa.
*Governance Observer, Banda Aceh.
