Government to go ahead with dividing of Papua

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Nethy Dhara Somba, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Jayapura

Despite strong objections from Papuan officials and religious leaders, the government will go ahead with its decision to divide Papua province into three smaller provinces in an effort to speed up the development program in the country's easternmost region.

Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno announced on Thursday that the government was about to enforce Presidential Instruction No. 1/2003 on the formation of the provinces of West Irian Jaya and Central Irian Jaya as stipulated in Law No. 45/1999.

"It seems almost impossible at present to manage the large island with 28 regencies under one province...," he said after a Cabinet meeting presided by President Megawati Soekarnoputri.

In Manokwari, local officials and informal leaders held a ceremony to officiate the province of West Irian Jaya with Brig. Gen. (Marine) Oktavianus Atururi as acting governor.

Papua, with a population of 2.4 million, is three-and-a-half times bigger than Java, which is divided into four provinces plus Jakarta. The large region is home to a giant copper and gold mine in Timika, a liquefied gas mine in Tangguh, Manokwari, and several oil fields, but 60 percent of its population are still uneducated and follow a life of basic survival in remote areas.

Hari insisted that Papua had already been legally divided into three provinces since 1999, when the law was endorsed during former president B.J. Habibie's term.

"Even acting governors for the two new provinces have been already appointed, but the enforcement of the law was delayed because of the presidential succession from Habibie to his successor Abdurrahman Wahid," he said.

The minister added he had delivered an official letter to Papua governor Jaap Salossa and all regents in the province to inform them about the government's decision.

The issuance of the presidential instruction has sparked strong protests from both Papuan authorities and religious leaders, who said it was against Law No. 21/2001 on Papua special autonomy. This law stipulates that the formation of new provinces should gain approval from the Papuan consultative assembly, which has yet to be established.

Five religious leaders in Papua representing the Catholic, Protestant and Islamic religions issued a joint statement opposing the central government's decision and the presidential instruction, saying it was against the special autonomy law.

Jayapura Archbishop Mgr. Leo Laba Ladjar OFM Cap, who read the joint statement, called on the central government to review its decision because it could raise unrest among the people and the local political elite.

"The government's decision and the presidential instruction is against Law No. 21/2001 on special autonomy because the formation of new provinces gain no approval from the Papuan consultative assembly," he said.

Governor Jaap Salossa said it was not the right time to develop Papua into three provinces, because they were running short of human resources to run the new provinces.

"I have met with all regents to take an inventory of human resources, and we came to the conclusion that we are not yet ready for the proposed formation of two new provinces," he said, adding that he was still waiting for guidance from the home minister on the matter.

He said establishing new provinces was not an appropriate solution to the complicated problems in the province.

Yan Ayomi, deputy chairman of the local chapter of the Golkar Party, concurred and said it would make the Papuan people remain as slaves on their own land.

The Golkar-dominated bureaucracy and Salossa, also a Golkar cadre, have opposed the formation of the new provinces for fear of losing access to the copper and gold mining company PT Freeport in Timika, Central Irian Jaya, and the Tangguh gas project in Manokwari, West Irian Jaya. Papua is to gain Rp 6.1 trillion in revenue from Freeport this year, and is to receive 70 percent of the government's income from the gas project.

The military has fully supported the formation of the new two provinces in order to weaken the separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM), which has long been fighting for the territory's independence from Indonesia.