Broken promises in Papua

Broken promises in Papua

The opinion section (page 7) of The Jakarta Post, on Aug. 28,
carried an illustration by its cartoonist (TS) depicting the
disappointment of the population of West Irian or Papua about
empty promises made by government officials in Jakarta to bring
justice and prosperity to the region. They decided to establish a
third controversial province, which almost led to a tribal war,
causing five people to be killed unnecessarily. When and how the
issue will be resolved in the long term is something that
everybody anxiously awaits.

But the cartoon has for me a special significance,
coincidentally. Readers of the Post may still remember that
about two years ago a comment appeared in the letters column on
the formation of a watchdog for broken promises by leading
politicians and government officials. One of them even
congratulated the initiators of the movement, wishing them luck.
His name was D. Chandramouli, himself a prolific letter writer.

Perhaps many at that time were still frowning at the
objectives of such a moral organization calling itself the
Barisan Penagih Janji or Watchdog For Broken Promises. Now that
so many people are running for high government office in the next
general elections such a watchdog may turn out to be a useful
organization. The number of people getting disillusioned because
of broken promises has indeed increased. The latest example has
been the formation of new provinces within West Irian as a means
of giving greater autonomy to the regional administrations. There
were arguments for and against the formation of a new Central
Irian province, which led to two people dying and many being
wounded.

The central government in Jakarta has said that those
against the formation and those in favor should settle
their affairs through consultations and not resort to
directly proclaiming the new province, without the
approval of the central administration. But those in
favor of proclaiming the new Central Irian province
argued that they had waited for too long to get the
promises implemented and that they did not want to
listen any longer to broken promises.
In a sense it was through a small bloody revolt that
the central administration was reminded of its promise
to broaden the autonomy.

GANDHI SUKARDI
Jakarta