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Natuna will not be a province just yet, home minister says
Minister Tito Karnavian has turned down a proposal by Natuna Regent Wan Siswandi "for the time being" because the Home Ministry is inundated with proposals for regional administrative upgrades.
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Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD and Home Minister Tito Karnavian visit the North Natuna Sea aboard the KRI Semarang-594 naval hospital ship on Nov. 23. (JP/Dian Septiari)
T
he government ruled out on Wednesday the possibility of making the Natuna island chain into its own autonomous province – at least until the COVID-19 pandemic subsides and more resources become available again.
The 270 or so islands that are home to approximately 80,000 residents make up the Natuna regency, part of the Riau Islands province that is located in the outermost region in the country’s north, very close to a major flashpoint in Southeast Asia. The regency not only borders the hotly contested South China Sea but also Vietnam and Cambodia.
The proposal to make the region its own province was tabled by local authorities more than a year ago, based on the suggestion that it was an outlying yet strategic location that suffers from massive underdevelopment.
The 2014 Law on regional administrations currently does not afford regency and city administrations the authority to oversee territorial seas and economic waters, thus preventing regencies like Natuna from securing areas from foreign encroachment.
Home Minister Tito Karnavian acknowledged these factors when he visited Laut Island, Natuna’s northernmost inhabitable island where some 2,200 people live, and which lies six hours away from the regency capital of Ranai.
But he turned down the proposal by Regent Wan Siswandi and his predecessors for the time being because the ministry was inundated with more than 300 applications for regional administrative upgrades.
“The most important implication of making a new province is the [new] budget. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our projected earnings are not on target at both the national and regional levels, so this has affected our budgetary capacity to [take on more proposals],” he told reporters after meeting with Laut Island residents.
