West Irian Jaya Renamed as West Papua

Indonesians are renowned for taking their time in doing things, but, at last the government has issued a regulation officially renaming West Irian Jaya province to West Papua province, a political decision that may not automatically settle the prolonged dispute over the new province’s existence.

The director general for public administration at the Home Ministry, Sojuangon Situmorang, said the regulation, issued on April 18, gave the Papua and West Papua provincial administrations one year to conduct a public awareness campaign on the new name.

“While publicizing the new provincial name, anyone and any side can use both names until the new name is used permanently as of April 18, 2008. The new name, proposed by the residents of West Irian Jaya, is aimed at identifying the social entity and ethnic group of Papua,” he told a media conference.

He said that West Papua, previously part of Papua province, had been granted special autonomy in 2001 and was declared a new province in 2003.

“The presence of West Irian Jaya was acknowledged by the Constitutional Court when the latter was reviewing Law No. 45/1999 on the province’s establishment. Despite the prolonged argument, both provincial administrations have embarked on coordination meetings to speed up the development program in the two provinces,” he said.

Despite its establishment in 2003 and subsequent provincial legislature in 2004, West Papua has yet to be financed by special autonomy funds and to establish a Papuan People’s Assembly like that in Papua province. West Papua has not received financial benefits from the copper and gold mining industry in Timika and gas mining in Merauke.

“But all regencies and municipalities in West Papua have received special autonomy funds (under Papua province) since the special autonomy law was enacted in 2001,” Sojuangon added.

He asked the government to revise the special autonomy law and the subsequent Presidential Instruction in order to synchronize the two and provide a permanent solution to the row over the new province.

Papua has received a total of Rp 12.53 trillion (US$1.37 billion) since special autonomy was implemented in the province in 2001, but a large part of the funds have reportedly been embezzled by local officials.

Local administrations in Papua and West Papua have come under fire recently from residents who say that despite the implementation of special autonomy, the social welfare of the 2.4 million who live in the region is yet to improve.

Affordable education and health care are hard to come by, while those who live in remote mountain areas remain isolated because of the limited and expensive transportation facilities. Aircraft are still the only form of transportation that can reach the remote parts of the two provinces, whose combined size is three and a half times that of Java.

Special autonomy was introduced as a peaceful solution to Papua’s poor human development index ranking, unresolved human rights abuses and demands for the resource rich region’s secession from Indonesia.

Ridwan Max Sijabat