Preparations for Cirebon province continue apace

Nana Rukmana, The Jakarta Post, Cirebon, West Java

The pressure to turn Cirebon and the surrounding area into a separate province is mounting following a decision by local public figures on Monday to set up a preparatory committee.

"We agreed on the need to form a committee that will prepare for the formation of Cirebon province, starting from the general concept to the operational details," said Cirebon's City Council Speaker Suryana, who initiated the meeting on Monday.

Attending the gathering were several local council speakers from the neighboring regencies of Indramayu, Kuningan, Majalengka and Cirebon. Other notable participants included Cirebon's Sultan Maulana Pakuningrat XIII, cultural scholar Ki Abdul Ajib, and the local head of the Indonesian Council of Ulemas (MUI) Ayip Muhammad.

The proposed province consists of the territory formerly held by Cirebon during the Dutch colonial days.

Suryana said that the participants had further agreed to hold a Cirebon people's congress to legitimize the call for the establishment of a province, he said.

"The Cirebon people's congress will result in a concept that will combine cultural legitimation and politico-structural legitimation," he said, adding that the venue and timing of the congress had yet to be decided on.

The calls for a separate province first emerged in November last year. They grew louder amid criticism of the West Java administration's slow handling of the drought crisis in Cirebon and surrounding regencies.

Suryana also charged that the West Java administration, which has its seat in Bandung, was discriminative and arrogant.

According to Suryana, Bandung pays little attention to developing Cirebon's abundant natural resources and its harbor.

Chairman of the Cirebon Council Speakers' Association Iwan Hendrawan said West Java province should call itself the province of Bandung.

West Java has already lost Banten, which became a separate province in 2000.

According to Law No. 22/1999, a plan to form a separate province requires approval from both the governor and the legislative council of the province concerned.