Jayapura, Jubi – In June, the Melanesia Spearhead Group (MSG) accepted Indonesia an associate member, on the ground that it represents five provinces that are home to 11 million Melanesians. Those provinces are Papua, West Papua, Maluku, North Maluke and East Nusa Tenggara.
Two of five provinces, Papua and West Papua, have become a hot issue ahead of the meeting of the leaders of MSG countries. In fact, before the summit has been taken in Honiara in the end of last June, the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Peter O’Neill, expressed he wanted both governors of Papua and West Papua, Lukas Enembe and Abraham Atururi to come representing the people of West Papua in the MSG forums. O’Neill expressed this expectation at Lowly Institute, Sydney in the middle of May 2015. He emphasized those who legitimate to represent the people of West Papua are the current elected leaders that are the governors of Papua and West Papua provinces.
“We want to state one voice in the MSG concerning to West Papua. But, there are many groups representing many of interests. The only person who legitimate in representing the people of West Papua are the current elected leader, and it’s the governor of province,” O’Neill said in Lowy Institute forum.
But his expectation did not materialize. Two governors of Papua were not participating in the MSG Summit. There are no representatives of these both eastern provinces of Indonesia, as well as the representatives of other claimed Melanesian provinces of Maluku, North Maluku and East Nusa Tenggara.
Last week, in an interview with Jubi and TV Maori at the Papua Governor Office, Jayapura, the Papua Regional Secretary, Herry Dosinaen asserted that the issue of Papua could only be answered with the revised Law on Special Autonomy. “We shouldn’t have exaggerated thought in this country. Just do the simple thing. The Papua Provincial Government considers in addressing the Papua issue is how to revise the regulation (Special Autonomy Law) in total. We could accommodate it,” Dosinaen said.
“However, if it’s concerning to the foreign affairs, I think we just continue to perform the task of governance and development. We are still being in that corridor. So, about the issue of bearing supports (to MSG), the provincial government and the governor keep doing our duty, as we should. The foreign affairs (MSG) is the authority of Jakarta (Central Government),” he said. (Victor Mambor/rom)
