REGIONAL DIVISION OF PAPUA PROVINCE
HAS POSITIVE VALUES FOR THE PEOPLE OF PAPUA
by JRG Djopari*)
1. INTRODUCTION
The aim of this article is to
inform readers about why the province of Papua (formerly
known as lrian Jaya) needs to be divided into more than
one province. Apart from pros and cons toward the policy
of regional division of Papua into three provinces, the
writer, through this article is trying to discuss the
issue briefly, particularly on the reasoning process
developed chronologically before the idea of the
division became a national as well provincial issue. It
is hoped that this writing may give a clear picture to
the readers so that they can understand what has
happened thus far and what were the issues and concerns
behind the regional division policy of Papua Province.
Above all, the issue will return to the people of Papua
themselves, whether they understand well and are aware
of the advantage and disadvantage of the policy in
question.
a. The process of regional
division
The Polemic of the regional
division of Papua Province into three government
administrations and the establishment of new regencies
or districts, however, had already been introduced since
1983 and was discussed in a seminar on 'the Development
of Local Government' conducted in the occasion of
commemorating the-l6th anniversary of the Institute for
Government Administration (lIP) at Campus IIP Pasar
Minggu, South Jakarta on 3 May 1983. At that time, two
opinions were put forward regarding the issues of
regional division. The writer's opinion, on the one
hand, was that the division or rather the expansion of
local government has to be done at the Regency level
(bottom-up policy) while the opinion of Papuan
representatives at National Parliament (DPR-RI), among
others are MC Da Lopez and lzaac Hindom on the other
hand, was that the expansion of the local government had
to be done at provincial level (up-bottom policy) (see
daily newspaper 'Sinar Harapan' on 3 May 1983 and other
newspapers issued in different cities throughout
Indonesia at that time).
In relation to that matter,
the former Governor for Papua, the late Mr.Busyiri
Suryowinoto, invited the writer with three other IIP
students (Michael Menufandu, Obednego Rumkorem and
Martinus Howay) to his residence at Jalan Kertanegara (Kertanegara
street) No. 19, where nine members of National
Parliament and House of Assembly (DPR/MPR-RI), (MC Da
Lopez, Izaac Hindom, lzaac Saujay, Mohammad Wasaraka and
Sudarko) were already present in order to discuss the
scheme of the regional division for Papua Province. We
were then requested to submit written input to the
Governor on what we have achieved in that informal
discussion.
The issue and polemic about
the division of the Papua Province later exposed by the
National Journalist Association (PWI), sponsored by Mr.
Jacob Utama. General Manager of 'Kompas Newspaper' in a
National Seminar on 'the Acceleration of the development
process of lrian Jaya', conducted at Horizon Hotel,
Ancol, Jakarta on 12 - 14 February 1984. The topic on
the division of Papua Province was also discussed in
that Seminar. The result of the Seminar then recommended
to the National Government. After reviewing the paper,
the Minister for Home Affairs, Supardjo Rustam, assigned
Board of Research and Development of the Department of
Home Affairs to conduct a feasibility study in lrian
Jaya for six months on the possibility of dividing the
region into three provinces. The research findings were
later submitted to the Government and President Soeharto
seemed to agree with the idea and therefore advised that
if the country's economic condition allowed and if the
process of cadres forming to the native Papuans who were
government officials considered sufficient for minimal
structure of government bureaucrats at the provincial
level, then the Government can proceed with the
implementation of regional division. The regional
division can be initially started with three, and later
be expanded into six provinces, similar to six
residencies ('karesidenan') as practiced during the
Dutch administration in Irian Jaya.
In 1999, fifteen years later,
former Governor of Irian Jaya, Freddy Numbery, suggested
that it was about time for the Papua province to be
divided into three separate provinces, after studying
data and information obtained from feasibility study
conducted by a Team of the Department of Home Affairs in
1984. However, when the Government Act No. 45, 1999, was
issued, the Regional Parliament of Papua Province (DPRD)
through its Decree -No. 11/DPRD/1999 issued on 16
October 1999 rejected the idea of the division plan due
to the pressure of the people of Papua. Considering the
social political situation at that time, the National
Government through a letter of Minister for Home
Affairs, Surjadi Sudirdja, therefore postponed the
implementation of the division until a conducive moment
for its implementation arrived.
The main objective of the
regional division is to accelerate and evenly implement
the development in lrian Jaya, which is relatively far
from the National Government control, so that it can
improve living standard of the people that can free them
from poverty, lack of knowledge, backwardness and poor
condition of health (4K)
Later, toward the end of
2001, the Government issued Act No. 21-2001 about
Special Autonomy for Papua Province. The Act was a
manifestation of an MPR Decree No. IV, 2001. The very
Act was also a concept developed by a Special Team
formed by the Government of Papua Province that also
aimed at accelerating and evenly implementing
development in Irian Jaya for the sake of improving
living standard of the people.
After the social-political
situation in Papua was conducive, a Presidential
Instruction No.1, 2003 dated 27 February 2003 was
therefore issued in order to implement Act No.45, 1999.
However, the Instruction was firmly rejected by various
parties, particularly by non-Papuans who did not
thoroughly understand the problems in Papua, and later,
the Papuans themselves who, to a certain extend, did not
understand quite well the significance of the regional
division into three provinces also rejected it.
b. Background of the problems
and consideration
There are several points of
discussion constituting the background of the problems
and consideration in this article:
1) The main problem faced by the
majority of the people of Papua is that though the
Province is rich in natural resources, the people are
suffering from poverty, lack of knowledge, backwardness
and poor condition of health.
2) Through Special Autonomy Act
No. 21, 2001 (UU Otsus), the basic rights of the people
of Papua are recognized and guaranteed and can be
developed to the capacity where they can manage to take
care of themselves.
3) Through the Special Autonomy
Act, it is hoped that the acceleration and the evenly
implemented development in Papua can reach as many
people as possible in order to improve their living
standard from time to time so that gradually they can
share the welfare of their lives, as individuals,
families, or as a community.
4) In regard to the 'UU Otsus',
the National Government provided 1,8 trillion rupiahs
(US$202.247.191) as the 2002 budget to Papua Province.
However, this budget in fact does not have any effect on
the majority of the people. On the contrary, some of the
elite bureaucrats and their legislative members enrich
themselves at provincial and district level. Out of this
budget, only 20 per cent was given to low level
government (districts and towns), while the other 80 per
cent was used at the provincial level with 600 physical
projects, mostly fictitious for districts and towns.
5) There was a conflict in budget
distribution between the Governor and the 'Bupati'
(Regent/District Heads and Town Majors) due to the
unfairness of the provincial government.
6) The Governor was not able to
coordinate government administration and the development
in the province due to the wide-range of the region.
7) The Presidential Instruction
No.1, 2003, was not meant to eliminate Otsus Act (No.21,
2001), but to implement Act No.45, 1999 regarding the
establishment of Provinces and Regencies in Indonesia,
including lrian Jaya (Papua) where its region was to be
divided into three provinces (East, Central, and West).
8) The land of Papua Province,
almost similar in size to the Independent State of Papua
New Guinea, consists of three provinces with the
population of 2.5 million people. Papua New Guinea has
20 provinces with 5,2 million people. The ratio of
population is around 700.000, compared to 210.000 for
one province.
9) The regional division of Papua
province is meant for the distribution of administrative
regions for better government services, and does not
necessarily mean to break up or disintegrate the unity
of the people, as most people might think.
10) Nowadays certain elite Papuans
and their cronies to firmly maintain Papua as one
province and reject the idea of regional division into
three provinces are fooling many of our people,
especially younger generation and public figures. Since
they are under provocation, such group of people would
no longer think critically and reasonably because they
were deceived for momentary happiness and therefore join
the elites to build an ivory tower' for the benefit of
the elites and their cronies while neglecting many
people in rural areas and villages who are really in
need of help.
11) An interesting polemic is
therefore created in regard to pro and cons toward the
regional division that need a thorough study for the
sake of mutual comprehension.
In the end, the question is
'what are the advantages and disadvantages of the
regional division of Papua Province?'
2. STUDYING THE PROBLEM
In order to get a rational
and comprehensive picture about the issue, we need to
study it from various different aspects, among others
are, government administration, political, law,
economic, social-cultural, and defence & security.
a. Government Administration
Aspect
Whether we like it or not, we
have to honestly concede that the control span of the
government administration in Papua Province is too
far-reaching and consequently a Governor cannot manage
to control all his government administrative regions,
neither can he make working visits throughout the whole
region, where dialogues with the people can be held in
order to know better the real condition of the people.
In fact most of the time during his term as the Governor
of Papua, he tends to spend in Jakarta, sometimes for
two or three weeks in a month, or make a trip out of the
Province for various reasons, rather than staying in the
region. Currently there are 14 regions at the level of
regency that are difficult for one Governor to control
and coordinate, let alone the size of the region is four
times bigger than the island of Java. To make it worst,
just recently in 2003, another 14 new regencies were
established to add up the number that becomes 28
regencies all together. It is a fact that there is a
conflict between the Province (Governor) and Regency (Bupati),
Municipality and Administrative towns (Towns Major) in
Papua in 2002, which needs a careful study. The conflict
occurred due to the unfair distribution of 1,8 trillion
rupiahs, part of the Special Autonomy budget, where only
20 per cent of the budget was distributed to 14
Regencies (including 2 towns), while the other 80 per
cent was kept and used by the provincial government. Six
hundred projects at the provincial level were neglected
or not properly completed and yet the budget for the
projects was finished. Special aids for Veterans were
not delivered to those who were supposed to receive.
There was a rumour that the money had been used by
Department of Works of the Province. Since the budget
was so big that it was difficult to plan how to spend it
wisely, officials and elite politicians in Papua
Province (executive and legislative) therefore make
official trips out of Papua Province and this tendency
therefore becomes a trend. From a reliable source in
Jayapura I learned that Regional Budget (RAPBD) for
Papua Province submitted to the Regional Parliament (DPR
Propinsi) for approval, was unfair and not balance,
because the allocated budget for Sorong and Jayapura
Regencies was too big compared to 12 other Regencies.
Furthermore, the source from DPR also mentioned that
there was an indication of inside collusion and
nepotism. The impact of the budget allocation policy
caused the development cannot reach many people in
regencies, sub-districts and rural areas or villages,
but provide enjoyment to elite bureaucrats in the
government, their business cronies and the people's
representatives at provincial level. All these showed
that the government leadership is weak and the
government administration cannot run well. Therefore we
need to divide the government administration of Papua
Province into three regions, that is, Eastern Papua
Province, Central Papua Province, and Western Papua
Province.
b. Political Aspect
From the political aspect,
the regional division of Papua province into three
provinces will give the opportunity to three qualified
natives of Papua to become Governors after the process
of election by the people. If we observe thus far, at
the time of hand over-take over of the Governor post in
Papua, it appeared that tens of candidates were
nominated. For the office term of 2000 - 2005, for
example, 150 governor candidates with their partners as
deputy governors were nominated in order to get one
seat. However, now the opportunity is open for three
seats. From political communication and education point
of view, if the region becomes smaller in size, the
government and political parties will have easy access
to rural areas or villages to do their obligation,
because the program of opening isolation will become the
main priority for the sake of development.
c. Law Aspect
From the hierarchy order and
normal practice of legislation, the decree of lrian Jaya
Provincial Parliament No.11, 1999, cannot eliminate the
Government Act No.45, 1999 regarding the Establishment
of New Provinces in Indonesia, including the Regional
Division of Papua into three provinces, that is, East,
Central and West. Act No. 21. 2001 in regard to Special
Autonomy for Papua Province, also cannot abolish
sections concerning the regional division of PaDua based
on Act No.45, 1999. Therefore. Presidential Instruction
No.1, 2003 dated 27 January 2003 in the eyes of law is
correct and right for that. The Presidential Instruction
does not eliminate and is impossible to abolish Special
Autonomy Act, but on the contrary the 'Otsus' Act will
be valid for three provinces in Papua.
This can be done by revising 'Otsus'
Act or by issuing Presidential Decree to substitute the
Act.
d. Economic Aspect
From the economic aspect, the
three prospective regions have similar potential of
natural resources of mining. If Central Region has PT
Freeport, Western Region has 'Pertamina' and Tangguh-BP
project, and Eastern Region has copper/gold mining at
Oksibil (PT Inggold) and oil (PT Connoco) at Kouh -
Tanah Merah. Eastern Region has not been exploited yet
due to security disturbances reason. It is estimated
that the Government will make a policy so that the three
regions will still in accordance with Act No.21, 2001
concerning Special Autonomy, and thus, there won't be
any region suffer loss. The estimated 'Otsus' budget of
more than 6 trillion rupiahs (USD...) will be divided
into three so that the development in Papua will be more
effective compared to present situation. The three
regions will open more opportunities for domestic as
well as foreign capital investment.
From the view point of
development strategy, the vertically divided of the
three regions of Papua has the objective of breaking
through the isolation of the region which has been
difficult to do until now, because the highlands region
cannot be neglected like now and continually be treated
as marginal region. As a comparison we can see the
island of Java and also can be compared to Sumatra. The
development in Sumatra used to be relatively slower than
in Java. However, after the Trans Sumatra railroad was
completed, they speed up the development throughout the
island. If there is a road from north to south (Semarang
to Jogyakarta) and from east to west (Banyuwangi to
Merak) in the island of Java, in Papua we need to build
land road from Jayapura to Merauke, Nabire to Timika and
Wamena to Sorong. When a Trans Papua land road is
completed, it will trigger the acceleration and evenly
implemented development in Papua. Each of the three
provinces will compete to open its region from isolation
and not like today.
From living environment
aspect, its damage is not a good thing, because it has a
big impact toward human life, such as landslide
disaster, flood, scarce of flora and fauna, fish, etc.
These types of damages are due to the logging thefts in
protected forest, burning of forest for gardening,
catching fish by using bombs and poisonous substance.
All these have created difficulties for human lives. The
fact that with one province it is very difficult to
control. Therefore, it is appropriate to divide the
region into three provinces for the welfare of the
people.
e. Social-cultural Aspect
By having three new
provinces, we can build and develop culture and
tradition more effectively, because the distance to
reach the people in each region becomes relatively close
range where the government can support the people who
have the ability and the priority becomes clear if
compared to present condition. Social services such as
education and religion, facilities and infrastructure
can be improved. Assistance to social institutions,
community self-supporting and religious and education
(private agencies) will be more effective, compared to
present condition.
f. Defense and Security Aspect
From the defence, security,
and law and order perspectives, there is no strong
reason to add up military personnel through the
establishment of Regional Military Command and Regional
Police for the new provinces, because the present
personnel are sufficient in numbers to take care of the
situation this far. Law and order and security matters
in Papua Province are gradually improving, particularly
when both Government of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea
have established and enhanced mutual respect and
understanding by giving priority to find solutions to
common land border matters for the benefit of bilateral
relations, so that in turns people of the two countries
can exchange visits for various purposes, either for
social visit, trade visit, tourism, or simply for
cultural and traditional purposes as how neighbours
should live.
Furthermore, if any parties
intend to push that the regional division of Papua into
three provinces will have impact on horizontal conflict
among Papuan community, I assure that it is wrong and it
is impossible to happen if we want to explain honestly
to the people positive values of the division policy as
what has been discussed in this article. Don't use the
horizontal conflict as an excuse to obtain momentary
benefit for a group of people by sacrificing the
majority of the people of Papua.
3. THE RESULT OF DISCUSSION
The discussion above shows
the advantages and disadvantages that can be seen as
follows:
a. Possible Advantages
The province of Papua is
divided into three regional provinces with the following
benefits:
1) The control span of the government becomes
narrow, and government services will certainly reach
people in rural areas or villages quickly, properly, and
transparently.
2) The region will become small
for regional security and law and order handling which
is crucial for development activities in all aspects.
3) There are three opportunities
for Governor nominees that can be contested by three
best-qualified Papuans.
4) Jobs opportunities will be
opened, at private sectors and the government, so that
unemployment problems in Papua that shows increasing
figures every year can be minimized or even completely
be overcome. Priority in this case is always given to
the natives of Papua.
5) Big opportunity for both
domestic and foreign investors to invest their capital,
since the bureaucratic procedures in the government
become simple and short and the authority becomes clear
and transparent.
6) There will be competition in
the development activities among the three provinces to
improve living standard of the people.
7) Due to the competition in the
development activities, the control toward the
development done by the people will be more effective
because everything will become transparent for the
people.
8) Regional isolation will be
opened immediately because of the geographical position
of the regional division is supportive. There won't be
any marginal region in highlands that is difficult to
reach like today.
9) The use of 'Otsus' budget will
be more effective and right on target if compared to the
present reality with its various fictitious projects.
10) More people will be reached by
the development as a result of the good services from
the government, because the development can be fast and
evenly implemented and not only enjoyed by elite
bureaucrats and legislative and their cronies like the
reality today in Papua.
11) Various development policies
will be more open and transparent to be discussed,
criticized in order to get better solutions. Clear
explanation will be provided and therefore the people
will be free from lack of knowledge or foolishness that
is deliberately created as a realization of not being
morally responsible, but benefit their own groups.
12) Each province in the region in
accordance with all the ease obtained will immediately
overcome the problem of poverty, lack of knowledge,
backwardness, and poor health.
b. Possible Disadvantages
It is clear that the regional
division of Papua into three provinces will certainly
give disadvantages to the supporters who want to
maintain status quo of the region. This is because
various opportunities and happiness will become less,
particularly among the elite government bureaucrats,
legislatives with their cronies. They will never make a
fool out of the people, because the performance of "one
man show" in developing the people in Papua Province
thus far has changed and becomes "transparent, control
and competitive three men show" with various different
consequences in the future.
4. CLOSURE
From the earlier discussion
on different aspects, we have listed advantages and
disadvantages of the idea of regional division of Papua
into three provinces. The result of the discussion shows
that the advantages of the regional division are
positive values that will be gained in the future by
putting into effect the 'Otsus' Act in the three
prospective provinces in question.
The result of the discussion
also shows that when Papua still remains as one province
with a performance of one Governor (one man show), the
government can only manage to improve living standard of
elite government bureaucrats, legislatives and their
cronies. Thus, the development has only reached a small
group of people, while the majority is still under the
condition of poverty, lack of knowledge, backwardness,
and poor condition of health.
Therefore, it is reasonable
to welcome the policy of the regional division of Papua
into three provinces by improving its stipulations of
law. We now need three Governors who are "transparent,
control and competitive three men show."
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