Plan for E. Sumatra province sparks debate

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

The planned formation of an East Sumatra province that will be developed from the existing North Sumatra province, has raised debate among the people in the province.

North Sumatra Governor T. Rizal Nurdin commended the idea but said it was not the right time to implement it as it would likely raise serious problems for remaining regencies which were accelerating their development program under regional autonomy.

"The idea of developing North Sumatra into two provinces is good in principle but we cannot do it now because it will not improve the welfare of the local people," he said during the celebration of North Sumatra's 54th anniversary here on Monday.

Based on Law No. 10, issued on April 15, 1948, Sumatra was developed into three provinces comprising North Sumatra, including Aceh, Central Sumatra (West Sumatra, Riau and Jambi) and South Sumatra (Bengkulu, Palembang, Lampung and Bangka- Belitung). During the Dutch colonial era, Sumatra was administered by a governor.

In 1956, Aceh was developed into a separate province from North Sumatra.

A number of local politicians have set up a committee to prepare the new province's formation and are conducting an in depth study on it.

The new province will comprise Langkat regency, Binjai municipality, Medan municipality, Deli Serdang, Tebing Tinggi municipality, Simalungun regency, Pematang Siantar municipality, Asahan regency, Labuhan Batu regency, Karo Regency and Tanjung Balai municipality.

Nurdin acknowledged that the 71,680-square-kilometer province with a population of some 12 million was too large to govern and to provide public services to the people but he said there were social and economic problems that still hindered the formation of the new province at present.

"Let them propose the development of the province into eleven or 12 new provinces but they must comply with the legal and political procedures according to the law," he said.

The governor called on the local political elite who were involved in the planned formation of the new province, to stick to the recent agreement by the Association of Provincial Administrations in Semarang, Central Java on April 10, 2002 in which governors agreed to postpone planned proposals for the formation of new provinces, regencies and municipalities for the time being because of the unconducive political and economic conditions.

"North Sumatra should learn from the new provinces of Bangka- Belitung and Gorontalo which are facing financial difficulties in financing their new provincial administrations," he said.

Former governor Radja Inal Siregar concurred and said the province was not ready to be developed into two new provinces.

"The local political elite should be rational in taking over all social, political and economic aspects before serious problems resulting from the move, surface."

According to him, it would be better for all regencies and municipalities to focus on the appropriate implementation of regional autonomy to allow them to develop while making better preparations for the proposed separation.

"We should not think of the new positions resulting from the creation of a new province but of the people's social, economic and political interests," he said.

Siregar warned that the planned formation of the new province would bring new social and economic problems to remaining least- developed regencies -- North, Central and South Tapanuli, Toba- Samosir, Dairi, Natal-Mandiling, Sibolga municipality and Nias.

He said all developed regencies included in East Sumatra should not be self-serving, "but show their solidarity with the poor regencies."

The eleven regencies and municipalities included in East Sumatra has great potential and prospects in plantations, agriculture, industrial and mining.

Serta Ginting, deputy chairman of the provincial legislature, said the provincial legislative council and administration should examine whether the idea of the proposed formation of the new province came from a majority of the people.

"There will be no reason for the legislature to turn down the proposal if the majority of the people support it," he said.

Bungaran Antonius Simanjuntak, a sociologist from state-run Medan University, hailed the proposal, saying it would spur the development program in the province's west coast.

"All regencies in the west coast will develop rapidly if they form a new province. The west coast has not received attention because the province is too large," he said.

During the celebration, dozens of community leaders from Simalungun regency, locally known as Partuha Maujana, met with Budi Mulia Bangun, chairman of the committee for the new province's formation, to express their political support for the new province.

"All people grouped in Partuha Maujana in Simalungun regency, fully support the planned formation of East Sumatra province and we want it to be implemented immediately," Valentino Girsang, chairman of the Simalungun sub-ethnic society, said in the meeting.

Bangun said the feasibility study on the planned new province was near completion and its results would be submitted to the House of Representatives to be discussed further.

"It will depend on the House whether it will use its legislative right to propose a bill on the new province or it will ask the central government to do it," he said.

He also said that the committee would hold a meeting that would be attended by all coordinators from the eleven regencies and municipalities, to discuss further steps to be taken in making preparations for the bill on the new province.

The proposal can be followed up only if it wins support from the local administrations and legislatures on one side and from the Regional Autonomy Advisory Board (DPOD). According to Law No. 22/1999 on regional autonomy, the proposal for the formation of the new province should gain political support from the regencies' legislatures, North Sumatra Provincial Legislative Council and the provincial administration.