The province of Banten
The province of Banten
Without fanfare and practically unnoticed by many Indonesians,
Banten, a former regency on Java's western tip, became this
country's youngest province earlier this month.
That should have been reason for celebration. Instead, the
elevation of Banten's status from regency to province has
triggered a debate on who will actually benefit from the move.
Critics of the move argue that the step is a maneuver by local
officials wanting to enrich themselves by gaining control over
the area's resources.
Members of the local bureaucracy, on the other hand, argue
that it will benefit the general population since with the
expected granting of regional autonomy, the new province will be
master of its own regional resources.
This argument would be difficult to refute if the area
possessed more than enough resources to provide for its needs. On
the other hand, if resources should prove to be insufficient or
if they are inefficiently managed, economic and social problems
could arise.
In itself, there is of course nothing wrong with an
economically self-sufficient area becoming a province. Indonesia,
after all, is not only huge in size, it is a country of
staggering diversity. With regional autonomy in sight, elevating
regencies into provinces could make the country easier to manage.
Regions would have control over their resources so they can be
better used for the benefit of the population.
One danger specific to Indonesia that such a policy could
pose, though, is that it could encourage the already growing
provincial sentiments in the regions and eventually lead toward
disintegration.
In Banten's case, for instance, an argument raised in some
quarters of the population was that the area deserved to be
excluded from the province of West Java, of which it had been a
part until this month, because it was different in terms of
ethnic makeup, culture and language.
Whereas the rest of West Java (with the exclusion of Cirebon)
is inhabited by ethnic Sundanese, Banten, like Cirebon, has a
population that is related more to the Javanese in terms of
culture, ethnicity and language. Obviously, to base the creation
of autonomous areas -- provinces -- solely on such arguments
would be senseless and can only stir up potentially divisive
regional sentiments.
Even at present, the growth of such sentiments in a number of
areas -- Riau, Bangka-Belitung, Maluku and Irian Jaya come to
mind -- is presenting the government with more problems than it
can effectively handle.
Not that regional pride or chauvinism is always a bad thing.
As early as in the 1970s, then Jakarta governor Ali Sadikin
campaigned to make Jakarta's mixed population more "Jakartan" in
order to promote development. A sense of regional pride, he
argued, was necessary to motivate people to take care of their
region's interests.
The danger is in giving those sentiments too free a reign so
as to endanger the cohesion and unity of the nation -- an
important factor for the maintenance of stability in the country
and the region.
The problem here seems to be that no clear criteria exist to
define a province in this country. For example, should size of
population be a consideration? Or land area, or annual revenue?
And so forth.
The government and national legislature would be well advised
to be careful in granting an area the status of province. If well
planned and thought through, such a step could indeed raise the
level of the people's welfare. Carelessly done, on the other
hand, it could lead to mismanagement, increased poverty and
problems that are as yet difficult to foresee.
Hopefully, in the case of Banten, it is truly the people who
will reap the benefits of the area's new status as a province.
Banten in the old days thrived as a trading center. It is at
present an important center of industrial development as well as
a producer of gold and other products. Hopefully, by becoming
Indonesia's youngest province, Banten will regain some of its
lost glory.