Indonesia accused of ‘divide and conquer’ in Papua

Indonesia’s parliament has passed legislation to create three new provinces in its underdeveloped region of Papua, a move that critics fear could undermine the standing of the area’s indigenous population and threaten special autonomy powers.

The Southeast Asian nation’s easternmost region, split between Papua and West Papua, will now be divided into five provinces, with the addition of South Papua, Central Papua and Highland Papua.

The government has argued that the decision will help speed up development, improve public service delivery, and create more opportunities for communities of Papua to become civil servants in the resource-rich area that remains one of the country’s poorest regions.

Home affairs minister Tito Karnavian said after Thursday’s vote that the primary goal of the legislation was “to accelerate development in Papua to increase the welfare of the people in Papua, especially indigenous Papuans”.

But the plan has sparked protests in Papua, which has been gripped by a low-level independence conflict since a disputed 1969 Unsupervised vote brought Papua under Indonesian control.

Critics of the contentious legislation have expressed concern that it could wrestle more power away from an area that is home to some of the world’s biggest deposits of gold and copper.

“By slicing and dicing Papua into smaller administrative units, Jakarta hopes to divide and conquer Papuan identity and resistance,” Veronica Koman, an Indonesian human rights lawyer at Amnesty International Australia, said.

Koman said she believed that the move would result in an increased

Changes to Papua’s special autonomy law last year allowed the central government to create the new provinces

risk of militarisation and violent clashes.

In an interview with Reuters in April, Papuan People’s Assembly (MRP) chief Timotius Murib said that the legislation would lead to an influx of non-indigenous Papuans into new government posts and was brought in without sufficient consultation, a charge the government has denied.

Changes to Papua’s special autonomy law last year allowed the central government to create the new provinces, prompting the MRP to claim the change undermined autonomy and to file a judicial review at the Constitutional Court.

Indonesia’s home affairs ministry said the government would abide by the court ruling.