From Irian Jaya to Papua

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