The House of Representatives asked the government to issue long-awaited regulations immediately to allow Papua and West Papua implement their special autonomy in an endeavor to improve the social welfare of the four million people in the country’s two easternmost provinces.
“The home minister and the finance minister have neither excuses nor reasons not to issue necessary government regulations, they have been long awaited in the implementation of Law No. 21 /2001 on Papua’s special autonomy as part of the solution to the Papua issue,” Deputy House Speaker Priyo Budi Santoso said here on Friday.
The House’s supervisory team for Papua’s special autonomy blamed the stagnant special autonomy on the government which has not yet issued the necessary regulations for unspecified reasons. According to the monitoring team, the demand for secession in the two provinces had a lot to do with what they said was the lack of will by the central government to implement the special autonomy.
Papua and West Papua have long awaited the issuance of at least two government regulations on distribution of special autonomy funds to all regencies and municipalities in the two provinces.
So far, the two provinces have received a total of Rp 237 trillion in special autonomy funds since 2001 but no significant progress has been made and a large part of the funds was believed to have been kept in local officials’ pockets because the draft provincial and special regulations on special autonomy funds’ distribution and accelerated development programs had not been endorsed.
So far, the central government has issued only Government Regulation No. 54/2004 on the Papuan people’s assembly (MRP).
Priyo said The Unit for the Acceleration of Development in Papua and West Papua (UP4B) led by Bambang Darmono, had to give a top priority to the issuance of relevant government regulations and encourage the two provinces to accelerate the development program to allow the people enjoy special autonomy.
The House also appreciated the way security authorities handled the celebration of the Papuan Culture Day on Dec. 1 despite a violent clash with Papuan students leaving one dead. “The police’s action is quite measured,” he said.
He said the House hoped there would be no tensions on the eve of the Dec. 1 celebration in the two resource-rich provinces in years to come.