North Sulawesi elites request three new provinces

Jongker Rumteh and Rizal Harahap ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Manado, Pekanbaru   |  Mon, 06/22/2009 11:27 AM  |  The Archipelago

At least 100 noted North Sulawesi figures have suggested the establishment of three new provinces, separated from North Sulawesi.

Gathered at a seminar in Manado on Friday, the elites, including former governors and mayors, members of House of Representatives, academicians and NGO activists as well as customary leaders, proposed the new provinces: Bolaang Mongondow, Minahasa and Nusa Utara (Sangihe, Talaud and Sitaro).

The initiators agreed the new provinces should keep the pluralism demonstrated in North Sulawesi.

"Strong brotherhood and plurality of the province should be kept in the new provinces," one of the initiators, B.A. Supit said.

Supit, who is also chairman of Minahasa Customary Society, admitted the proposal of the establishment of the new provinces could not be realized this year as the central government and the House of Representatives had earlier agreed not to establish new provinces until the end of this year.

"The proposal is for new members of the House of Representatives and Regional Representatives Council from North Sulawesi to be discussed next year."

He said North Sulawesi communities should be ready to further discuss the establishment of the new provinces when the government opened the chance to propose new provinces next year.

Another initiator of the provinces, Pitres Sombowadile, said the communities would vote for presidential candidates who supported the establishment of the new provinces.

"We would note vote presidential candidates who closed the chance to establish new provinces," said Sombowadile, who claimed to represent Sangihe-Talaud-Sitaro communities.

A representative from Bolaang Mongondow regency Djainuddin Damopolii claimed the regency was ready to become a new province.

"There are five regencies which would support Bolaang Mongondow province," Djainuddin said, without mentioning the names of the regencies.

The participants of the meeting agreed Bolaang Mongondow would be first proposed for the new province before the other two provinces.

The elites also agreed to set up a working group to promote the establishment of the provinces.

Meanwhile, Home Minister Mardiyanto said his ministry would evaluate 148 new autonomous regions, that had showed decreasing performances in term of their public services after they were established four years ago.

"The euphoria on establishing new regions is still dominating. But most of the new regions failed to show efficient and effective administrations. The evaluation should be conducted since the failure of the new regions could trigger people's distrust of the administrations," Mardiyanto said in Pekanbaru on Thursday.

However, he said the failed new regions would not be liquidated and remerged with their original regions.

"We gave them a chance to repair their performances."

He revealed as many as 205 new autonomous regions had been established since the beginning of the reform era ten years ago, including seven provinces, 165 regencies and 33 municipalities.

With the additional autono-mous regions, Mardiyanto said Indonesia currently had 524 autonomous regions consisting of 33 provinces, 398 regencies and 93 municipalities.

"We have currently received proposals of the establishment of 20 new extension regions."

He said many initiators proposed the new regions could be established soon without considering the capability of the original regions, such as finance, economic and income potential.

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