After more than three decades under a centralized national government, Indonesia decided to implement a new policy of regional autonomy that became effective on January 1, 2001. This paper examines both the preparations for and the initial implementation of autonomy in the regions, as well as some of the conducted in fourteen districts across eleven provinces over to the last two years. This presentation has two areas of focus: first, the internal processes used by local governments to manage their new powers and responsibilities; and second, the extent to which the process of creating public policies under regional autonomy for the regions reflects the spirit of transparency good governance and democracy.