The Jakarta Post, February 07, 2003
Government to go ahead with dividing of Papua
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Nethy Dhara Somba, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Jayapura
Despite strong objections from Papuan officials and religious leaders, the government
will go ahead with its decision to divide Papua province into three smaller provinces in
an effort to speed up the development program in the country's easternmost region.
Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno announced on Thursday that the government
was about to enforce Presidential Instruction No. 1/2003 on the formation of the
provinces of West Irian Jaya and Central Irian Jaya as stipulated in Law No. 45/1999.
"It seems almost impossible at present to manage the large island with 28 regencies
under one province...," he said after a Cabinet meeting presided by President
Megawati Soekarnoputri.
In Manokwari, local officials and informal leaders held a ceremony to officiate the
province of West Irian Jaya with Brig. Gen. (Marine) Oktavianus Atururi as acting
governor.
Papua, with a population of 2.4 million, is three-and-a-half times bigger than Java,
which is divided into four provinces plus Jakarta. The large region is home to a giant
copper and gold mine in Timika, a liquefied gas mine in Tangguh, Manokwari, and
several oil fields, but 60 percent of its population are still uneducated and follow a life
of basic survival in remote areas.
Hari insisted that Papua had already been legally divided into three provinces since
1999, when the law was endorsed during former president B.J. Habibie's term.
"Even acting governors for the two new provinces have been already appointed, but the
enforcement of the law was delayed because of the presidential succession from
Habibie to his successor Abdurrahman Wahid," he said.
The minister added he had delivered an official letter to Papua governor Jaap Salossa
and all regents in the province to inform them about the government's decision.
The issuance of the presidential instruction has sparked strong protests from both
Papuan authorities and religious leaders, who said it was against Law No. 21/2001 on
Papua special autonomy. This law stipulates that the formation of new provinces
should gain approval from the Papuan consultative assembly, which has yet to be
established.
Five religious leaders in Papua representing the Catholic, Protestant and Islamic
religions issued a joint statement opposing the central government's decision and the
presidential instruction, saying it was against the special autonomy law.
Jayapura Archbishop Mgr. Leo Laba Ladjar OFM Cap, who read the joint statement,
called on the central government to review its decision because it could raise unrest
among the people and the local political elite.
"The government's decision and the presidential instruction is against Law No.
21/2001 on special autonomy because the formation of new provinces gain no
approval from the Papuan consultative assembly," he said.
Governor Jaap Salossa said it was not the right time to develop Papua into three
provinces, because they were running short of human resources to run the new
provinces.
"I have met with all regents to take an inventory of human resources, and we came to
the conclusion that we are not yet ready for the proposed formation of two new
provinces," he said, adding that he was still waiting for guidance from the home
minister on the matter.
He said establishing new provinces was not an appropriate solution to the
complicated problems in the province.
Yan Ayomi, deputy chairman of the local chapter of the Golkar Party, concurred and
said it would make the Papuan people remain as slaves on their own land.
The Golkar-dominated bureaucracy and Salossa, also a Golkar cadre, have opposed
the formation of the new provinces for fear of losing access to the copper and gold
mining company PT Freeport in Timika, Central Irian Jaya, and the Tangguh gas
project in Manokwari, West Irian Jaya. Papua is to gain Rp 6.1 trillion in revenue from
Freeport this year, and is to receive 70 percent of the government's income from the
gas project.
The military has fully supported the formation of the new two provinces in order to
weaken the separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM), which has long been fighting for
the territory's independence from Indonesia.
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