East Kalimantan 'might rebel'

East Kalimantan 'might rebel'

JAKARTA (JP): The natural resource-rich province of East Kalimantan could turn rebellious like Aceh and Irian Jaya if the central government continues to neglect development in the area, a local legislator warned.

Deputy speaker of the East Kalimantan provincial legislative council Khairul Fuad said that, so far, local people had acted politely in demanding a larger share from locally-generated revenues.

Khairul reckoned that every year, East Kalimantan contributes Rp 70 trillion to the state coffers. This year, he said, the province will only receive Rp 6.7 trillion from the state budget.

East Kalimantan is rich in mining resources. Major multinational companies operating there include state-owned oil company Pertamina's profit-sharing partners Expan, Vico, Total Indonesie and Unocal; gold-mining company PT Kelian Equatorial Mining, liquefied natural gas firm Badak LNG and fertilizer producer PT Pupuk Kaltim.

"East Kalimantan wants a bigger portion of the cake. The financial balance between the central and local government must be improved for the sake of fairness," he said, as quoted by Antara news agency.

"It would make sense if East Kalimantan could receive 60 percent, or about Rp 42 trillion, of locally generated revenues. And the rest could go to other provinces as development funds."

Only with that share could East Kalimantan catch up in terms of development, especially involving infrastructure, human resources and agriculture, in more affluent provinces, he added.

Perceived injustice has given rise to separatist rebellions in natural resource-rich Aceh and Irian Jaya. Some activists in Riau have also voiced their demand for independence.

"We have been left in a state of neglect for years, even though we are the second largest foreign exchange earner after Riau," Khairul said.

The present government, he said, also means to sideline East Kalimantan as is obvious in its policy, in which densely populated provinces receive more from the budget than less populated areas.

"This means that the bulk of the budget from the central government will still go to Java," Khairul said.