Govt postpones establishing MRP indefinitely

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.