From Irian Jaya to Papua

I refer to the article in The Jakarta Post, Jan. 2, 2000 entitled President changes Irian Jaya's name to Papua.

Prior to 2000, President Abdurrahman Wahid announced that the name of the Irian Jaya province would be Papua. Many people expressed disagreement with that decision. To change the name of a province is constitutionally under the authority of the House of Representatives (DPR). Hence, the President should have first consulted the DPR before making the decision.

I also regret the decision because the name Irian Jaya is known by international communities and is entered in many world bibliographies and current dictionaries and, more importantly, has become our pride. Also, world organizations do not make changes to established documents very easily, as proposed by a certain country.

For example, I wrote to the Oxford University Press in the United Kingdom to revise a sentence in the Oxford English Dictionary which goes "... Indonesia formerly belonging to the Netherlands; independence since 1949 ..." to "... independence since 1945 ..." They refused to do so giving certain arguments.

H.M. HADI S.

Cimahi, West Java