Indra Harsaputra and Ridwan M. Sijabat, Surabaya – Home Minister Mardiyanto urged new East Java Governor Soekarwo to address a number of pressing problems in the province, including the Lapindo mudflow disaster.
"With the numerous crucial problems of poverty, education, healthcare and unemployment, and the pending issue of the Lapindo mudflow, the new governor and vice governor no longer have time to rest," Mardiyanto, speaking on behalf of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said in his address at Thursday's swearing-in ceremony in Surabaya.
"Starting here and now, they must work hard in close cooperation with regents and mayors, the bureaucracy, the private sector and the public to address the problems and improve the people's social welfare,"
The minister said the governor should bear in mind the mudflow was only one of several pressing issues weighing on the public, and had to be addressed immediately.
Following the disaster that began on May 29, 2007, the police have shown little progress in their investigations into the case. Lapindo has not yet paid yet the remaining 20 percent of compensation owed to residents of four villages in the disaster site, and the government has not yet paid any compensation to residents of five other affected villages outside the disaster radius.
With hot mud continuing to gush from the leak sites, the government has yet to relocate damaged infrastructure.
In the latest in a litany of rallies and protests over the past three years, some 2,000 mudflow victims staged a rally at the office of the Lapindo Mudflow Handling Agency in Sidoarjo on Wednesday, demanding energy corporation PT Lapindo Brantas Inc. and the government pay the full compensation to some 16,000 victims whose properties were damaged in the disaster.
PT Minarak Lapindo Jaya, a subsidiary of Lapindo, has several times pledged to pay the remaining compensation with an appeal for the victims to exercise patience.
None of the gubernatorial candidates, including Soekarwo, took a tough stance on the Lapindo issue during their campaigns.
Besides the Lapindo mudflow, the new governor will also have to deal with the daunting statistics of 7.1 million people living in poverty and 1.5 million jobless, as well as mass layoffs in industrial sectors, a high illiteracy rate and limited access to healthcare services for most people.
The minister also asked the governor to introduce a transparent and accountable pro-poor budget to allow the provincial government to alleviate poverty, generate more jobs and cope with the healthcare and education problems.
Asked to comment on the recent gubernatorial election, Mardiyanto said it would be a reference for rising demands for a review of the 2008 law on regional administrations. "The democratic election of a governor can be also conducted by the provincial legislature," he said.
Soekarwo said that in the short term, he would set up a crisis team to deal with the floods and landslides that have ravaged the province over the past two weeks.
"The team, including myself and the vice governor, must go down to areas affected by and prone to disasters to implement the pro-poor budget," he said.
He declined to say how he would address the mudflow issue, but, he pledged to set up a special P.O. box address to take in public complaints and comments in handling numerous the problems his administration faces over the next five years.