Provinces asked to give govt jobs to Timorese youth
Provinces asked to give govt jobs to Timorese youth
JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto asked regional
administrations across the country yesterday to consider
recruiting university graduates from East Timor to help
Indonesia's youngest province out of its unemployment
predicament.
The chairman of the State Administration Institute, J.B.
Kristiadi, told reporters that Soeharto wanted young East
Timorese to be given the chance to serve the government outside
of their home province.
Soeharto asked the institute to draw up a list of the
personnel requirements of regional administrations across the
country, Kristiadi said. It is expected that some of the
available jobs could be filled by East Timorese graduates.
East Timor is facing a major unemployment problem because
there aren't enough employment opportunities to absorb the rising
number of educated East Timorese, Kristiadi said.
He said the government is now paying more attention to the
economic development of the eastern part of the country. East
Timor is regarded as a special case because of the conditions
there.
In the 19 years since East Timor became part of Indonesia, the
government has succeeded in introducing education for all East
Timorese. Many of them even gone on to study at universities.
The problem is that there aren't enough jobs in the territory
to absorb the educated younger generation, Kristiadi said.
Local East Timorese leaders have long warned about the gravity
of the unemployment problem in their area. They say many of the
unemployed educated youths are highly critical of Jakarta.
In the most recent statistics available on unemployment in
East Timor, the local manpower office reported that 800
university graduates were registered as unemployed in February
1994. In addition, there were 7,411 high school graduates, 795
junior high school graduates and 394 people with primary school
educations registered as job seekers at the office.
Kristiadi said the state agencies active in East Timor are
expected to encourage young East Timorese to look for jobs
outside the province.
Autonomy
The unemployment problem in East Timor is not solely the
problem of East Timor, it is the problem of the nation, he said.
Kristiadi said he and the President also discussed the
government's plan to give greater autonomy to the regional
administrations down to the regency level.
The President said the key to decentralization is the ability
of local administrations to absorb greater responsibility in
serving the needs of the people, Kristiadi reported.
Kristiadi added that greater autonomy should not be construed
to mean that the central government is handing over complete
control to the local administrations.
Some forms of control and coordination are still necessary, he
said.
Civil servants from the central administration will be
assigned to work in the regions to help with the decentralization
program. These officials will be assigned as aides to the
regents, he said. (emb)