Govt postpones establishing MRP indefinitely

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government has delayed indefinitely the establishment of the much-awaited Papuan People's Assembly (MRP), blaming a dispute among local religious leaders and local authorities over the composition of the assembly.

The government earlier promised to complete the selection process of 42 assembly members last week and to install them on Oct. 15. The inauguration was earlier scheduled for Oct. 3 and 8, but was postponed again later.

However, the director general of national integrity at the Ministry of Home Affairs, Sudarsono Hardjosoekarto, said the MRP's composition was still problematic as the Protestants and Catholics had yet to decide on their representation.

"The Papua authorities are, meanwhile, still debating whether the Protestant groups should be given nine seats out of the total assembly members, while the remaining three seats and two seats respectively will be allotted to the Catholic and Muslim groups," he said.

"Another suggestion is that the Protestant group be represented with seven seats, while the Catholic and Muslim groups get four and two seats respectively."

The Special Autonomy Law No. 21/2001 for Papua mandates the central government and the Papuan administration set up the MRP as a powerful political body to represent community groups, including tribes, religions and women's groups.

However, the law does not specify the composition of each grouping in the assembly.

Under the law, the MRP is authorized to deal with problems in the troubled province, from human rights abuses to developing the province.

Sudarsono said the central government and the Papuan authorities were intensifying their coordination to complete the process next week.

"I heard the Papuan authorities would complete the selection process by this week, and the central government would provide any assistance to support them," he said.

Critics have said that the government was buying time setting up the MRP as it appeared reluctant to give the body wide-ranging powers as mandated by the autonomy law.

To confuse the situation, the Megawati government had earlier moved to separate Papua into three smaller provinces: Papua, West Irian Jaya and Central Irian Jaya. After protests that the move was against the special autonomy law, the Constitutional Court later ruled that only Papua and West Irian Jaya were legitimate provinces.

Sudarsono said the central government and the Papuan authorities were intensifying their efforts to adjust the assembly's role, so "the presence of MRP would be in line with the function of the Papuan administration within the framework of the special autonomy law".

However, he did not elaborate as to how the central government was moving to restrict the MRP's political role in Papua.