Suara Pembaruan, 21 March 2008
Abridged in translation

The government has announced its intention to introduce a Perppu (Presidential Regulation in Lieu of Law) to provide the legal framework for the Province of West Papua within the Special Autonomy Law No 21.2001 (Otsus Papua). According to the government,  this would provide the legal umbrella that will resolve this  problem.

It is very clear that  a Perppu for the Province of West Papua would create a precedent. If the government does indeed introduce this regulation, West Papua would become a very special province indeed, because it would be the only province in Indonesia that is created not by law but by a presidential regulation (Perppu).

This would convey the message to Indonesians, especially those living in the Land of Papua, that a new province can be created by the Central Government, if need be, by force, although the basis in law has not been established. It would mean that a law will no longer be necessary to create a province.

Further consequences could ensue from this move. Although the President has announced a moratorium on the creation of new provinces, the enactment of a Perppu for the Province of West Papua would raise expectations and reinforce the determination of those who are campaigning to bring about the creation of other new provinces in the Land of Papua as well as in other parts of Indonesia. They would no longer need to go to all the trouble of providing the status in law for creating new provinces.

These people would draw the conclusion that, by using the Perppu for West Papua as the model,  they can go ahead and declare the creation of new provinces such as South-west Papua, Central Papua and South Papua simply by means of a Perppu.

Those who want new provinces to be created would demand the same treatment from the central government. If the government were to refuse, they would accuse it of discrimination.. They would say, what is so special about people living in one part of the country if their own wishes were not heeded. This opens up the possibility  that people anywhere could get together and demand that their regions should also become a new province..The political elite and bureaucrats in Papua  and in other places  could demand that the government can simply produce a Perppu to create the province for which they are campaigning.  They could try to get
Parliament (DPR)  to pass a resolution or, if not, get the President to issue a Perppu. If this happens, the Perppu for the Province of West Papua will create a very bad precedent indeed.

The creation of new provinces in Papua cannot be equated with other parts of the country because Papua enjoys a special status, namely that it has special status because of the Special Autonomy Law 21. 2001 which was introduced  for the Province of Papua.   The existence of the special province  is protected within the 1945 Constitution, in particular Article 18 (b) which states that special governments are permissible. This means that if the government  approves the Perppu for West Papua, the President is acting in violation of the Constitution.

In my opinion, this inconsistency from the government will have fatal consequences. The confidence of the Papuan people in the government will suffer drastically.and could reach the lowest point ever.  They would come to the conclusion that if the country's Constitution can be violated, then other government regulations can also be ignored by the government. How can the Papuan people be expected to hope that the Special Autonomy Law can be properly implemented  if the government itself violates the country's Constitution?

For this reason, the government should consider these matters very seriously indeed before going ahead with the Perppu for the Creation of West Papua.

The writer is a lecturer at the Fajar Timor College of Philosophy and Theology, Abepura, Papua.