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Makassar, Jubi – Dr Yusak Reba from Cenderawasih University declared there was an issue to to constraint the Provincial Government of Papua to optimise the implementation of the Special Autonomy policy in Papua, Reba told Jubi by phone on Wednesday (29/7/2020).
Further, Reba who is a lecturer of state administration law in the Law Faculty of Uncen said “There is a gap between the implementation and legal norms of the policy. Therefore, it needs some revisions.”
According to him, everyone has their perspectives and indicators in assessing the implementation of the Special Autonomy Law in Papua. In this sense, his opinion was based on his expertise as a lecturer. As such, he thought that well-defined legal norms of regulations are an indicator of the effectiveness of a legislation.
For example, in the Special Autonomy Law, the provincial government was not fully able to stipulate local regulations as it overlapped with other regulations of other sectors which later created confusions for local governments in Papua. They also cannot claim this specialty to stipulate special regulations that might be against the Law.
“There is no theory or principle of the Special Autonomy in the field of law. No matter what the reason is, we still cannot implement such special regulations if they were against the law. That’s our issue in terms of the Special Autonomy Law,” he said.
Moreover, Reba said there are no other options rather than to reorganise the provincial government’s authority in terms of this issue. In addition, both regional and municipal governments in Papua have no special authority regarding the implementation of the Special Autonomy Law because it has not been included in the policy. In this sense, the regional and municipal governments in Papua have implemented the Local Autonomy, but not the Special Autonomy. Therefore, according to Reba, it becomes another issue in terms of the legal norms. As such, it needs to be reviewed to avoid confusions among local governments regarding the implementation of the Special Autonomy Law.
In an interview with Jubi, Dr Agus Sumule who was involved in the preparation of the Special Autonomy Bill declared that the implementation of the Special Autonomy Law is still not well achieved. According to him, sometimes the central government has thought that the Special Autonomy Law has been well implemented because Papua and Papua Barat provinces have received some amount of funds. However, people in both provinces thought money was not everything. It does not guarantee that people in Papua will have similar claims as Jakarta. Because if leaders in Papua have not optimised the funds, in particular in the level of bureaucracy, therefore the goal of Special Autonomy was not achieved.
“In terms of the central government’s claim that indigenous Papuans have taken a strategic position in the government and legislative, but I think it’s too simplified. Because there is a substantial instrument that has not been implemented by the central government,” said Sumule.
For example, he said that some bills stipulated by the provincial government have not been approved by the central government.
“The local regulations in Papua should be regarded as special regulations. Therefore, the central government should respect this,” he said. (*)
Reporter: Arjuna Pademme
Editor: Pipit Maizier
