`Papua division create more tension'

`Papua division create more tension'

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A presidential instruction (Inpres) issued in January 2003 to
divide Papua province into three parts has done more to create
tension and turmoil there than any government action in years, a
nongovernmental organization warned.

In its overview of the government's controversial policy, the
International Crisis Group said the instruction was against the
spirit of the 2001 Special Autonomy Law for Papua that assumed
the natural resource-rich province to be a single territorial
unit, and it has thrown Papua's administrative status into legal
limbo.

"The ruling undermines moderate intellectuals who saw special
autonomy as a way of strengthening Papuan institutions and
encouraging independence supporters to work within the Indonesian
state," the Brussels-based NGO said in its report released on
Wednesday.

The instruction has further infuriated many Papuans, pro-
independence and pro-autonomy alike, who have a deep attachment
to Papua as a single political unit with a distinct history and
who see the decree as a divide-and-rule tactic by Jakarta, it
said.

All major religious leaders in the province have come out
against the presidential instruction.

At the same time, ICG said, the decree has generated intense
acrimony within the governing elite in Papua between those who
stand to gain from the division and those who benefit more from
the status quo.

The division of Papua has major political ramifications as the
2004 elections nears.

The former ruling party, Golkar, still dominates the
provincial government and legislature, and supporters of its main
rival, President Megawati Soekarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic
Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), have accused the governor of
using special autonomy revenues for Golkar's 2004 war chest.

Golkar members suggest that the division into three provinces
would benefit its rival party and enable the new governors to
divert funds to the local PDI Perjuangan campaigns.

"The overriding motivation behind the decree appears to have
been the weakening of the Papuan independence movement, but far
from lessening the possibility of conflict, the decree may
actually increase it," ICG said.

The possibilities include increased resentment and distrust of
the central government by Papuans and mobilization of grassroots
support (including through strategically distributed payments) by
the leaders of pro- and anti-division positions respectively,
leading to physical clashes, according to the report.

ICG predicted that pre-election Golkar and PDI Perjuangan
rivalries could easily add to the tension and so could the
interest of the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) and the Army
in portraying any tensions in the province as an inter-Papuan
conflict.

Other consequences could include: emergence of different and
competing demands for new provinces from those who support
division but do not agree with how Jakarta has drawn the dividing
lines; increased competition over resources and business
contracts; and unwillingness of pro-autonomy moderates to work
with the central government.

With elections looming and an increasingly nationalist mood in
Jakarta, the government has three options to undo the damage by
revoking the decree, implementing it over massive objections and
dealing with the consequences and deliberate bureaucratic
inertia, so that for all practical purposes, special autonomy
remains in effect.

"The best one can hope for is inertia, with implementation
postponed at least until after the 2004 elections and perhaps
beyond," ICG said.

Unfortunately, it added, the expectations created by the
decree, particularly in the western part of the province, could
make this position untenable, unless Jakarta could offer some
attractive consolation prizes to the would-be beneficiaries.