Adriana Elisabeth of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and Vidhyandika Djati Perkasa of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said the creation of new provinces could trigger social conflicts if it failed to engage native Papuans in economic and development activities in the easternmost region.

Any failures could only widen the financial gap between native and non-native Papuans, who had long “dominated” Papua’s economy as a result of the government’s transmigration program that initially aimed to equalize economic and human resource gaps between different areas in the country.

It would also result in further segregation in Papua, the experts warned.

Adriana said on Thursday the establishment of two more provinces in Papua should not only focus on the development of public infrastructure and such.

Rather, the creation of new provinces should focus on addressing numerous chronic problems in Papua, including financial gaps between locals and migrants, people’s limited access to public services and unaddressed human rights violations against native Papuans allegedly committed by security forces.

Talk of the plan to create new provinces in Papua was revived by Home Minister Tito Karnavian, who said recently Indonesia was ready to establish two new provinces called South Papua — comprising Merauke, Mappi, Boven Digoel and Asmat regencies — and Pegunungan Tengah Papua, which would consist of the Mepago and Lapago areas of Papua’s highlands. The creation of the new provinces, the minister said, would be “for the welfare of local residents”.

Adriana argued that Papua’s economy, particularly in big cities such as Jayapura, Merauke and Sorong, had long been dominated by “migrants who have a typical strong fighting spirit that apparently makes them more successful than locals”. The government, therefore, should find a way to integrate the marginalized native Papuans into the region’s economic circle to avoid potential envy and social conflicts.

“I sense potential social conflicts in the future if problems such as the financial gap in Papua are not well addressed by the government,” said Adriana, who also serves as the coordinator of the Papua Peace Network.

She further mentioned that the recent deadly riot in Wamena was also rooted in a similar problem.Dozens of native Papuans, reportedly from outside Wamena, set public facilities, shops and houses in Wamena on fire last September during what appeared to be a protest against a racial slur by a non-native teacher against a Papuan student. At least 33 people were killed in the riot — many of whom were non-Papuans.

“Actually, such social conflicts have long existed in Papua, but it was clearly manifested in the recent incident.”

Vidhyandika, who heads the politics and international relations department at CSIS, also expressed concern over a “potential financial gap” emerging from the new provinces, by saying the policy would probably benefit political elites only as they would be the ones who took control of the new administrations’ budgets.

He further said there was a possibility that the plan to create new provinces in Papua was the result of “transactional politics between the central government and local political elites to tone down demands for justice for human rights violations in Papua”, given that only some “Papuan figures” supported the idea.

The Papuan People’s Assembly has reportedly issued a maklumat (announcement) rejecting the creation of new provinces.

A member of the assembly, Robert Wanggai, projected that “the development would only benefit the migrants instead of the native Papuans” as had always been the case.

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