West Java councillors say no to Cirebon

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

The proposed formation of Cirebon province has met with opposition from local political leaders in West Java who say it is an unpopular idea raised by certain groups for vested interests.

Rudi Harsa Tanaya, secretary of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) chapter in West Java, confirmed that his party had not received any proposal on the formation of Cirebon province and had not discussed the issue.

"Besides, PDI Perjuangan, a major faction in the West Java provincial legislative council, will never put its political weight behind the proposal because socioeconomic conditions in the province's northern areas are relatively better than the south," he told The Jakarta Post here on Thursday.

The Cirebon and Indramayu legislatures have supported the formation of Cirebon province, initially proposed by the Cirebon Sultanate. They assert that the Cirebon, Indramayu, Karawang, Kuningan, Sumedang and Ciamis regencies are culturally different to the predominantly Sundanese West Java and have their own economic potentials.

Rudi, also chairman of the PDI Perjuangan faction in the provincial legislature, said he suspected the idea was raised by certain party members in Cirebon for political interests because the issue had been discussed by party branches in Cirebon, Karawang, Kuningan, Sumedang, Kuningan and Majalengka.

He called on local leaders in the region to rethink the political and cultural motives involved in the issue. He said the local political leaders should focus not on their own political interests but on the problems of the common people.

He said that seen from the cultural, economic and historical point of view, Cirebon was extremely different from Banten that separated from the West Java province last year.

"The formation of Banten province was widely accepted because the Banten Sultanate was independent and separate from West Java during the colonial era," he said.

Besides, he said, the proposal could set a bad precedent should it be accepted because the Priangan Timur region would follow suit and propose to be separated from the province.

Yomanius Untung, chairman of the Golkar Party chapter in the province, concurred saying that he was not sure that the majority of people in Cirebon, Karawang, Kuningan, Majalengka and Sumedang supported the proposal.

"The Golkar chapter in that region has not received a proposal on the formation of a new province and our party will not support it," he said.

Meanwhile, Suherwan, chief of the national unity affairs department at the provincial administration, acknowledged that a number of leaders in Cirebon had proposed the formation of Cirebon province after political leaders in West Java proposed a change in the province's name from West Java to Pasundan following Banten's separation from the province in 2000.

"Political and community leaders in Cirebon then threatened to form a new province should the West Java province's name be changed to Pasundan," he said.

According to him, Cirebon should avoid making a hasty decision to form a new province because many aspects needed to be taken into consideration.

"Cirebon should learn from the experience of Banten which is facing many difficulties in electing its new governor as many interest groups have allegedly used money politics to win the gubernatorial election," he said.