Papua governor sees 'room' for change in new autonomy
Papua governor sees 'room' for change in new autonomy
Agence France-Presse, Jakarta
The governor of Indonesia's newly autonomous province of Papua
on Thursday greeted the remote region's new freedoms as a chance
to change the disadvantaged lives of its people.
"It's an opportunity," a cautiously optimistic governor
Yacobus Salossa said in a telephone interview from the capital
Jayapura.
"If it is enacted well, it will change the life of the people
in terms of education, health care, government services, the
economy and law enforcement."
Generous autonomy laws took effect in Indonesia's neglected
easternmost province, on the western half of New Guinea island,
on January 1.
Jakarta granted the special autonomy last year in an effort to
appease widespread agitation for independence, after more than
three decades of harsh military-enforced rule.
New laws allow Papua to keep up to 80 percent of revenue from
the exploitation of rich local resources, authorize changing its
name from Irian Jaya to Papua, and allow the adoption of a
provincial flag in addition to the national flag.
Salossa dismissed claims by independence advocates that the
majority of indigenous Papuans -- mostly Christian Melanesians
who make up some 58 percent of the 2.1 million inhabitants --
reject autonomy in favor of full independence.
"The majority of people are rational thinkers so they can see
that the 'special autonomy' law is an opportunity, to develop the
region. If we can explain it effectively to the people, many will
agree," the governor told AFP.
"It is slowly crystallizing in the minds of the people. They
will see first and they will judge."
Salossa said the new autonomy was also an opportunity for
Jakarta to win back the "hearts and minds" of the people.
"People everywhere are waiting to see how it will operate. In
the churches, they're offering prayers that it will work," he
said.
"They want to see proof of its effectiveness, so if it works
well, if the results are good, people will be more sympathetic
towards the central government."
Independence demands have been fanned by Jakarta's perceived
exploitation of Papua's rich resources and decades of unaddressed
abuses against indigenous Papuans by the security forces, in the
form of arbitrary killings, detention and torture.
Pro-independence leader Theys Hiyo Eluay was murdered in
November after leaving a military-hosted ceremony.
The governor has promised Eluay's killers would be found this
year.
"All the data points to the involvement of Kopassus (the
army's special forces)," Salossa said.
"An army team is here conducting their own inquiry. They are
investigating the seven Kopassus agents who've already been
questioned by police," he said.
"If they find enough evidence the Kopassus agents will be
brought to a military court."
Rage over Eluay's killing prompted President Megawati
Soekarnoputri to cancel a scheduled visit to Papua on December 22
to symbolically hand over the new autonomy provisions.
Salossa said Megawati was still planning to visit.
"Her visit is definitely still scheduled. It's just the date
we're not certain of. We're still waiting for indications from
Jakarta."
The former Dutch colonizers had begun preparing Papua, then
known as the Dutch East Indies, for independence ahead of their
departure in 1961, but in 1963 Indonesian troops moved in.
Jakarta's sovereignty was affirmed in a UN-sponsored
plebiscite in 1969 which was disputed by pro-independence
advocates.
Each year independence sympathizers commemorate an
unrecognized 1961 declaration of independence on December 1.
Authorities have stepped up crackdowns such celebrations and last
month they were extremely muted.