PAPUA GOVERNOR OUTLINES DEVELOPMENT PLAN, WELCOMES

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 JAKARTA 000852 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/23/2017 TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM EAID ID SUBJECT: PAPUA GOVERNOR OUTLINES DEVELOPMENT PLAN, WELCOMES USAID PROGRAMS REF: JAKARTA 291 (AMBASSADOR STRESSES AID AND INVESTMENT IN PAPUA) JAKARTA 00000852 001.2 OF 002 Classified By: John A. Heffern, Charge d'affaires. Reason: 1.4 (b, d) ¶1. (SBU) Summary. In a March 16 meeting with Charge and USAID and Embassy officials, Governor Barnabas Suebu explained that his development strategy for Papua focuses on four areas: good governance, village-based development, infrastructure improvements, and law and order. Suebu said that his signature program to channel small development grants to 4,300 villages in both Papua and West Irian Jaya was nearing the implementation phase, and had been approved by Papua's provincial legislature. He expressed appreciation for current USAID programs in Papua, and said that he would welcome new initiatives, possibly including a public-private partnership with Freeport. With regard to President Yudhoyono's long-delayed Presidential Instruction on the Acceleration of Development in Papua, Suebu said he had demanded changes that would create a greater role for himself in implementing the plan. End summary. Moving Forward On Development -------------- 2.(SBU) On March 16, Charge met with Papua Governor Barnabas "Bas" Suebu in Jakarta. Suebu explained that his efforts to develop Papua were concentrated in four areas: good governance, village-based development, infrastructure improvements, and law and order. Echoing themes we have heard in Papua before (reftel),Suebu stressed that funding shortfalls were not an issue: under the Special Autonomy Law, well over a billion dollars were flowing into a province with just over 2 million people. The problem, he said, was that these monies were distributed in a top-heavy "inverted pyramid" pattern, with too much being spent on bureaucracy and administration and not enough meeting Papuans' basic needs. Correcting this, he said, was a focus of his administrative reform plan. In particular, the province's budget and procurement processes must be reformed. Administration at the provincial, regency, and district levels remains plagued by poor capacity, inefficiency, and corruption, Suebu said. These problems were potentially compounded by the newly-introduced direct election of local leaders, Suebu noted. In backwards areas of Papua, Suebu said, people might very well elect "the wrong leaders" for reasons of clan or ethnic affiliation rather than competence. ¶3. (SBU) Suebu then turned to his plan for village-based development, a centerpiece of his election campaign. He said that following a February 20 meeting with West Irian Jaya Governor Bram Atururi on Mansinam island (near Manokwari, West Irian Jaya),he had finalized his plan to send allocations of 100 million rupiah (roughly USD 1,100) for small community projects to 4,300 villages in both Papua and West Irian Jaya provinces. This money would be taken from Special Autonomy funds and had already been included in the 2007 budget approved earlier in March by the Papuan Provincial Parliament (DPRP). The funds would be channeled to the villages by the state-owned Papua Bank, Suebu said. Individual projects would be selected by the villagers themselves, he said, with the aid of facilitators who had already been trained by World Bank advisers. The projects to be funded, he said, should be related to basic infrastructure, health, or education. Suebu said he hoped that the exercise of selecting and implementing projects would increase capacity and inculcate a sense of accountability at the community level. He conceded that the program faces significant challenges, but said that if it succeeds, it would be repeated annually in the coming years. ¶4. (SBU) Suebu said that isolation was an important factor in Papuan communities' poverty and backwardness. (Note: An estimated 80 percent of indigenous Papuans live in small, remote settlements.) Sixty percent of Papua's villages, he said, can only be reached by foreign missionary planes using the province's 400-plus grass landing strips. This makes basic necessities scarce and expensive. Suebu said that he therefore wants to expand Papua's meager network of roads and bridges so that interior settlements have land links to major towns on the coast. ¶5. (SBU) On law and order, Suebu said that police posted in Papua need further training and greater professionalism. He said that the police need to do more to stop illegal logging, which is rampant in the province. JAKARTA 00000852 002.2 OF 002 Suebu Welcomes USAID Programs -------------- ¶6. (SBU) The Charge noted that USAID already has health, education, and local governance programs in Papua (reftel), and said that the U.S. wants to do more. He noted that the U.S. had funded a technical advisor position for the governor of Aceh, and that this model had been a success. He asked whether Suebu would welcome such a position on his staff. Suebu replied that he was open to foreign expertise, and already had three international experts assisting him in the areas of service delivery, infrastructure, and public finance. Suebu went on to say that he welcomed USAID's participation in the donor conference he organized in September 2006, and that he valued USAID's expertise and hoped it would increase its assistance to Papua. ¶7. (SBU) Charge said that a USAID team had recently returned from Timika to assess the possibility for a public-private community development partnership with the Freeport mining company. Suebu, recalling that he had served as one of the company's commissioners and had recently met with CEO Richard Adkerson, said he would strongly support such a partnership. Freeport, he says, pours major tax revenues into national and provincial coffers, but still needs greater expertise and better planning in implementing its community development programs. Presidential Directive On Papua On Hold -------------- ¶8. (SBU) Charge asked when President Yudhoyono was likely to finalize the long-delayed Presidential Instruction (Inpres) on the Acceleration of Development in Papua. Suebu said that he and West Irian Jaya Governor Atururi had participated in a Cabinet meeting in mid-February to discuss the initiative. Suebu said he had requested two major changes to the plan. First, rather than emphasizing programs run by the central government, the Inpres should build capacity on the part of the provincial administration. Secondly, Suebu said that he himself should oversee implementation of the Inpres instead of Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie. Suebu said that the Cabinet had agreed to incorporate these changes, and that he hoped President Yudhoyono would sign the Inpres "in the next few weeks," possibly in time for his visit to Papua planned for the end of March. Comment -------------- ¶9. (C) In terms of vision, initiative, and competence, Suebu is head and shoulders above any other Papuan leader in memory. This makes him a threat to those elements of the central government (Home Affairs, BIN, and possibly the military) who distrust all Papuans and prefer Papuan politicians to be weak and dependent on Jakarta. These same elements are likely to object to the governor's proposed changes to the Presidential Instruction, which would empower Suebu at the expense of the central government. There is sure to be a behind-the-scenes fight over the final form of the program, and there is a possibility that it could be quietly scuttled. We will continue to push for issuance of the instruction. ¶10. (C) Eight months after Governor Suebu's swearing-in, his own development strategy for Papua remains more plan than reality, but this is to be expected given the magnitude of the tasks at hand, the weakness and resistance of Papua's provincial administration, and the attitudes of President Yudhoyono and Vice President Kalla, who have been generally supportive but only intermittently focused on Papuan issues. Nevertheless, if Suebu can stay the course, he represents Papua's best hope in many years. End comment. HEFFERN