2,000 Irianese to enter bureaucracy<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The government this year plans to recruit 2,000
\npeople from remote Irian Jaya as civil servants, Minister of
\nAdministrative Reforms T.B. Silalahi says.<\/p>\n
\"We will recruit 2,000 Irianese to become civil servants. We
\nwill place 1,000 people in Irian Jaya and post another 1,000 to
\nother areas in Indonesia,\" Silalahi told reporters after meeting
\nPresident Soeharto on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Silalahi quoted Soeharto as saying that the decision was made
\nin order to prepare the local people for competition.<\/p>\n
\"We'll accept them even if they fall a little below our
\nstandards,\" Silalahi said.<\/p>\n
Silalahi said that usually, when the government had job
\nopenings for civil servants to be placed in Irian Jaya, the
\nnatives of Irian often lose out in competition with people from
\nother provinces.<\/p>\n
\"The province has been part of Indonesia for 32 years, but the
\neffort to develop it is still inadequate,\" Silalahi was quoted by
\nAntara as saying.<\/p>\n
\"This is why we need a new approach to recruiting civil
\nservants there....even in the Armed Forces (ABRI) special
\ntreatment exists,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Irianese residing in other provinces may also apply, he said.<\/p>\n
There are currently about 32,000 civil servants working in
\nIrian Jaya; most of them came from outside the province. \"We
\nnoted that only 15 percent in the lower ranks are Irianese. They
\nare even fewer in the higher ranks,\" Silalahi said.<\/p>\n
He said the government also plans to train Irianese civil
\nservants in the province, 4,000 km east of Jakarta, so they can
\nfill higher positions.<\/p>\n
Silalahi said the move to increase the number of Irianese in
\nthe bureaucracy was not related to the rioting which rocked the
\nprovince last month. Some experts have blamed the unrest on the
\nprovince's development deficit.<\/p>\n
\"The program has been in the pipeline all along,\" he claimed.<\/p>\n
Four people, including a soldier, were killed in the riots in
\nJayapura, the capital of Irian Jaya, on March 18. The riots
\nstarted when the body of separatist leader Thomas Wainggai, who
\ndied in a Jakarta prison, arrived in Jayapura for burial.<\/p>\n
Wainggai was sentenced to 20 years in jail after a 1988 flag-
\nraising ceremony in Jayapura where he proclaimed the state of
\nWest Melanesia in Irian Jaya. (swe)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/2000-irianese-to-enter-bureaucracy-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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