Federal state best answer: Riau leader
Federal state best answer: Riau leader
JAKARTA (JP): A federal state is the best option to resolve
the row over unfair revenue sharing between the central
government and Riau province, a prominent local figure insisted
on Friday.
Tabrani Rab, a lung disease specialist better known as a
cultural figure, said here that a federal state would give people
in the province more opportunities to manage their resources
without dispensing with Jakarta's authority.
"There is no other way but a federal state, unless what is now
going on in Aceh will happen in Riau or other provinces which for
a long time have been under the heel of the central government,"
Tabrani told The Jakarta Post.
He was here to address a seminar on empowering U.S. oil
company Caltex, which operates in Riau, for the welfare of its
local workers.
Separatist movements have been on the rise in Aceh and Irian
Jaya, due in large part to disappointment over the government's
failure to allocate adequate shares of revenue gained from
exploitation of natural resources in the provinces.
Tabrani, who has declared himself the president of a sovereign
Riau, said the province did not inherit a warring culture which
was why it was not the site of clashes despite growing public
resentment against Jakarta.
The government has decided to reserve Riau 15 percent of the
country's share of oil revenue, 5 percent higher than that
demanded by Tabrani. The country receives 76 percent of gross
revenue from the new concession granted to Caltex, which will
expire in 2002.
Tabrani was doubtful of the government's offer, saying that
the government was not prepared to lose millions of dollars it
was used to earning. Jakarta also badly needs money to pay its
whopping foreign debts. Oil exploitation in Riau generates
800,000 barrels of crude oil per day, more than half of national
daily oil product.
Tabrani said he lost his trust in the government due to
rampant corruption, citing state oil company Pertamina as the
most recent example of the graft rife in government institutions.
A group of Riau people filed suit against President B.J.
Habibie, representing the government, demanding US$22 billion in
compensation from two decades of oil exploitation in the
province. The court refused to hear the suit, but Tabrani made an
appeal to the higher court.
He said he would consider appealing to the International Court
if his case faltered in the local courts. (amd)