Papuan council to begin work soon

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Papuan People's Council will begin work on Sept. 2, when the 42 people recently selected to the council are sworn in.

The special committee selecting the council members announced on Friday the names of the 42 council members, who represent religious, tribal and women groups. The new members will take part in a week-long training course from Friday to next Thursday in the provincial capital Jayapura.

The chairman of the selection committee, Abdul Hakim Ahmad, said the council would oversee both Papua and West Irian Jaya provinces.

Set up under Law No. 21/2001 on special autonomy for Papua, the council has the power to promote the basic rights of Papuans and to consult with the provincial legislature on the gubernatorial election.

However, the council is little more than a symbolic institution with none of the power it was originally promised. The central government had originally said it would give the council the power to endorse crucial policies, including the partitioning of Papua into smaller provinces, before backing away from this pledge.

This allowed the government of president Megawati Soekarnoputri to reinstate the decision to divide Papua into three provinces: Papua, West Irian Jaya and Central Irian Jaya.

The Constitutional Court, however, only upheld the establishment of West Irian Jaya province as a separate region from Papua.

Papuan legislature member Jan L. Ayomi said he expected the immediate inauguration of the Papuan council members now that the province was preparing for a direct gubernatorial election.

In the absence of the council, the provincial legislature would scrutinize the gubernatorial candidates and their running mates.

The local election commission declared five pairs of candidates had passed the preliminary screening for the election, scheduled for Oct. 5. They are JP Solossa and Paskalis Kossay (Golkar Party and the Indonesian Unity and Justice Party), Constan Karma and Donatus Mote (United Papua Parties Alliance), Lukas Enembe and M.Mus'Sad (Across Archipelago Parties Coalition), Barnabas Suebu and Komarudin Watubun (New Papua Parties), and Dirk Henk Wabiser and SP Inaury (Prosperous Papua Coalition).

The provincial legislature must complete the administrative screening of the candidates by next Thursday, before the Papuan People's Council can endorse them.