Plan on East Sumatra province sparks debate

Plan on East 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.