Kaisiepo's appointment gets muted reaction in Maluku

AMBON, Maluku (JP): Reaction in Maluku province to the appointment of a junior minister for the acceleration of development in Eastern Indonesia has been muted, with many of the region's leaders saying they will take a wait-and-see attitude.

Maluku's civil emergency administrator Governor Saleh Latuconsina said on Friday President Abdurrahman Wahid's decision to appoint the minister was part of the government's strategy to curb widespread calls for separatism that are threatening the country's integrity.

"The core of the disintegration problem lies in the long- standing inequality in the distribution of the fruits of development that has been going on since the country's independence 55-years ago," Latuconsina said.

"All the natural resources exploited have been pooled in the center. The regions have only received a small part of the cake," he said, citing the numerous policies and plans for eastern Indonesia made during the Soeharto and Habibie administrations that were left unobserved.

"What we need is concrete steps in realizing the policies, and that's what people expect from the new junior minister," he said.

Among the schemes that were started and abandoned in Maluku province was the ambitious integrated economic zone (Kapet) on Seram island, he said.

During the Habibie era 13 technical departments dealing with the development of the Eastern Indonesia Region (KTI) were set up but they, too, just faded away, he said.

"There are many other projects which never really took off. Well, we're glad that now Gus Dur is making serious efforts in the eastern region, but I think the key to this complex problem is to speed up regional autonomy," Latuconsina said.

Separately, North Maluku's Bacan Sultan of Ternate Gahral Sjah said that the junior minister's development processes must be adjusted with the region's actual conditions.

"We don't want false promises. What does acceleration mean if the regions are in fact underdeveloped? I believe the new minister has a strong and realistic platform to develop agriculture, and fishing and mining industries in the regions," he said as quoted by Antara.

"There are too many KTI concepts without realization. Among them are the informal Iramasuka caucus (Irian, Maluku, Sulawesi, Kalimantan), Kapet (integrated economic zone) and Intim (Eastern Indonesia). It's all talk," he said.

Meanwhile, West Nusa Tenggara Governor Harun Al Rasyid expressed similar concerns, expressing hope that the new junior minister Manuel Kaisiepo would soon visit the region in a bid to collect first-hand information.

"He has to be able to consolidate these abundant aspirations in an integrated scheme. Let's just hope he can do that," Harun said as quoted by the news agency. (49/edt)