goodmorningpapua.com – A member of Commission II DPR RI from the National Mandate Party (PAN) faction Guspardi Gaus emphasized that up to now the moratorium on regional division or new autonomous regions is still prevailing in all regions of Indonesia, except for Papua.
Although Guspardi acknowledged that there were many demands, hopes and aspirations conveyed by the community for division from various regions. “Until now the moratorium on regional expansion is still prevailing in all regions of Indonesia, except in Papua,” Guspardi told reporters, Tuesday (29/11/2022).
Guspardi said Papua had been divided into 4 new provinces, namely Southwest Papua, South Papua, Central Papua and Mountain Papua. Thus, there are 6 provinces in the land of Papua because previously 2 provinces had been formed, namely Papua and West Papua.
“Why can Papua be divided? Because it is based on Law Number 2 of 2021 concerning Special Autonomy for Papua where the law is ‘lex specialis’ so special attention is paid to Papua,” he said.
“Based on the Papua Special Autonomy Law, the Government and DPR were given the mandate to be able to carry out division. Now, the 4 newly divided provinces in Papua are initiative rights from Commission II of the DPR RI. Even though it has actually been conveyed for a long time regarding the plan to form a new province in Papua, he added.
Guspardi said, from the results of Commission II’s visit to areas to be expanded in Papua, it appeared that they were very ready and had been planning for expansion since 20 years ago. Moreover, he said, Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian had and would prepare governors, then governors would form regional secretaries, OPD, regional budgets and so on.
“The regional division aims to make public services better, closer and easier. Likewise the health sector and it is hoped that it can spur economic development, where so far they (Papua) feel far behind other regions. With these 4 new provinces, of course there will be hope and there will be accelerated development and equality with other regions in terms of education, human resources, health, economic growth and infrastructure,” said Guspardi.
With regard to the existence of newly created regions which have been difficult to develop to this day, Guspardi reminded the central government to evaluate these areas. With this evaluation, he hopes that the central government can find the factors causing the new autonomous regions to not develop and find solutions to overcome them.
“We ask for the people in various regions to remain wise in responding to the moratorium policy for all regencies/cities and provinces. However, once people want their regions to be divided, they should continue to prepare their respective regions from an early age, completing all the principal and technical requirements for regional expansion, even though the moratorium on expansion It hasn’t been repealed yet,” concluded Guspardi.