Regent of District of Tolikara (Jubi)
Jayapura, 23/1 (Jubi) – Related to the dismissal of 546 Village Chiefs from 46 sub-districts in Tolikara District, the Regent of Tolikara District, “Usman G. Wanimbo, stated it was not an unilateral dismissal.
“First of all, it’s concerned to the people’s right. That’s right those village chiefs received my office memo. And if we looked back to the past and refer to the regulation, it was a rotation of village chief and it was appropriate with the government regulation. If I was not mistaken, it was four or five years ago. That’s the reality in Papua. Thus last time I did my office memo to the village chiefs, but it was based on their own commitment,” Usaman Wanimbo said via his cellular phone, Thursday (23/1).
According to him, there are some village chiefs that have held the same position for 15 to 20 years in Tolikara District. “So there is no rotation of village chief for about 15 to 20 years, it must be a change. Generally there is no rotation or election of chief village in Papua. They were usually appointed by the regent or mayor through Decree,” he said.
There are some village chiefs who stand to support the former regent, the incumbent, further the Regent said, but there are also the village chiefs who support him. The dismissal was happened referring to their commitment that the village chiefs should be in place or in their village.
“Those who support the incumbent were leaving Tolikara. How can we serve the village chiefs who lived in Wamena or in Jayapura,” he revealed.
Further Usaman Wanimbo said that the current village chiefs who are currently in Tolikara are those who implement his office memo to run their duty as the Village Chief, so that they are accepted.
“The group of village chief who named itself as the Team on the Rehabilitation Government of Village Development is those who do not live in Tolikara but they live in Wamena or in Jayapura. How can we serve their rights, subsidized rice and etcetera,” he said.
In the near future, further the Regent said that he has been preparing the Decree for the village chief who will be appointed by him. “We will renew the Decree, and for who are not living in Tolikara, they would be replaced,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Village Chief of Rubepaga of Tolikara District, Sepernus Jikwa only got the verbal information from the District Government of Tolikara. “There is no official letter from the Regent that stated that we were fired,” Sepernus said, Thursday afternoon (23/1) after visiting the Governor Office of Papua Province.
As previously reported by tabloidjub.com, Ronal Jikwa as the Chairperson of Team on the Rehabilitation Government of Village Development of Tolikara District, asked the Governor of Papua Province to immediately resolve the issue on the dismissal of 543 village chiefs from 46 sub-districts in Tolikara District.
“We asked the Governor of Papua Province to urgently address the issue in Tolikara District, and this is not about the firing issue, but there are another six important issues,” he said.
There are another issues that have challenged by the district government of Tolikara, further he said, including the fees for the villages government staffs of 8 million rupiah as per quarterly and since July 2012 to December 2013 has not yet been paid. Secondly, the Village Grant (Bantuan Desa/Bandes) of 71 million rupiah that never distributed for two years. And the third, the grant of PNPM Mandiri Respek for fiscal year 2012 and 2013 that was not transparent. Fourth, the funding for the subsidized rice (Raskin) for the poor residents that not fully received by the residents.
“And also there is an Official, who served in two district government. BW is his initial name. He worked in Mamberamo for the mid of 2012 and in Tolikara as the Head Division of Village Government. This is made the situation of village government not efficiency well running. This created a conflict, so that the governor must be handle it immediately,” he said. (Jubi/Indrayadi TH/P. Maizier)
