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)