Soeharto to pay closer attention to eastern provinces
KUPANG, East Nusa Tenggara (JP): President Soeharto pledged yesterday to pay closer attention to the development of the country's eastern provinces.
The government is to develop more communication facilities and infrastructure to speed up development in eastern Indonesia, the President said.
"The government has also been encouraging businesses to invest more in the area," he said when inaugurating seven projects worth Rp 126 billion (US$56 million) in East Nusa Tenggara.
To support its development programs, the government has formed the Council for Development of Eastern Indonesia, which is in charge of formulating policies.
The government has come under criticism for overly focusing its development activities on the western part of Indonesia, where most of the 195 million population live.
Soeharto acknowledged that there is disparity in the development, resulting in some provinces growing faster than others.
"We realize that development brings problems with it. Some of the problems are the old, unresolved ones and the others include the unwanted excess of the rapid development," he said.
In a dialog with farmers, craftsmen and fishery families, Soeharto explained that western Indonesia has grown faster than the eastern part because the west has better communications, infrastructure, human resources and natural resources.
"It is absolutely wrong to charge that the government is neglecting eastern provinces," the President noted.
Eastern Indonesia includes East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara, East Timor, Maluku and Irian Jaya.
Soeharto pointed out that the government has offered various incentives to eastern provinces to develop, such as the presidential aid for impoverished villages.
He raised the issue of the government-people partnership in the lucrative sandalwood business, in which the government takes 80 percent of the profit.
Soeharto suggested that the proportion should be reversed, with the farmers getting 80 percent and the government 20 percent of the profit.
The seven projects the President inaugurated were an irrigation system; a road connecting Ende, Ngada and Sikka on Flores; a port stadium; a small-scale handicraft estate; an ostrich breeding farm; a bottled water plant and a reservoir.
The President is due to visit neighboring East Timor today, where he is scheduled to inaugurate several development projects, including a statue of Jesus Christ.
He will officially be bestowed with the title of "Father of Integration" for his role in integrating the former Portuguese colony into Indonesia in 1976.
The president is scheduled to meet with East Timor Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo, winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, and Governor Abilio Jose Osorio Soares.
Expected also to attend the inauguration of the statue are seven bishops, including Belo, and Vatican Ambassador to Indonesia Monsignor Pietro Sambi as well as Monsignor Julius Cardinal Darmaatmadja SJ.
Soeharto will dedicate eight projects worth a total of Rp 90 billion (US$3,8 million), including a 4.2-kilometer street named after the late Mrs. Tien Soeharto.
The 27-meter tall statue of Jesus Christ is located about eight kilometers east of Dili. It is the second tallest in the world after the statue of Christ in Concovardo, Brazil.
On July 17, 1976, President Soeharto signed into law legislation enacted by the House of Representatives a day earlier which accepted an East Timorese petition to join the republic.
The petition itself was signed by tribal leaders representing the majority of East Timorese in December 1975 at the height of a bloody civil war which erupted in the wake of the hasty withdrawal of the Portuguese colonial administration.
Since then Indonesia has poured billions of rupiah into East Timor to develop infrastructure which was virtually nonexistent at the time of integration, such as the construction of roads, schools, hospitals, places of worship and other facilities.
Despite the progress, however, social, ethnic and religious unrest has persisted. (03/ste/yac)