Residents ready to face jail to thwart regent

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan, North Sumatra

Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno is facing another obstacle to the swearing in of the unpopular Hengky Yusuf Wau as the new regent of South Nias.

Representatives of the people of South Nias went to the North Sumatra gubernatorial office in Medan on Friday to stop the inauguration of Hengky, who they accuse of being a "government puppet".

The representatives threatened to deploy thousands of people from South Nias to prevent the swearing in, scheduled for next Monday.

Hadirat Manao, secretary-general of the Consultative Forum for South Nias People's Struggle, warned the government not to "plant a time bomb" among the people.

If the government swears in Hengky as the new regent, the wheels of his administration will be at standstill, he said.

Hadirat also said he could not guarantee the personal safety of Hengky in the regency.

"If Hengky Yusuf Wau is sworn in by Minister Hari Sabarno, people in South Nias are ready to face prison for killing him," he told The Jakarta Post after a meeting with North Sumatra Governor Tengku Rizal Nurdin.

Sidi Adil Arita, a South Nias resident who was among the representatives to go to the governor's office, said he was willing to be jailed for the struggle to "realize the local people's wishes" to get rid of Hengky.

Hengky was one of those opposed to the creation of South Nias as a new regency in the province.

Hadirat questioned Hengky's commitment to developing the regency, given that he opposed the creation of the South Nias regency.

"We will accept anyone from any ethnic group as regent, if his or her motive is to develop South Nias," he said.

The plan to swear in Hengky comes despite Governor Rizal's decision to appoint Nabari Ginting, head of the North Sumatra administration bureau, as acting regent of South Nias.

Nabari's appointment followed earlier protests against Hengky.

Locals were surprised when they heard that the central government planned to install Hengky next week.

Rizal said he did not know anything about the planned inauguration of Hengky, and had not received official notification of the appointment.

Besides Hengky, Minister Hari will install two other regents for the two new regencies of Humbang Hasundutan and West Pakpak during the same ceremony.

The three new regencies were created from the Nias, North Tapanuli and Dairi administrations.