West Java councillors say no to Cirebon

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.