Peter Alford, Jakarta – After months of delay during which the Papuan situation has sharply deteriorated, the Yudhoyono administration's last shot at bridging the chasm between Jakarta and its troublesome eastern-most region is finally about to be fired.
The Unit to Accelerate Development in Papua and West Papua (UP4B) might be Jakarta's final chance not just Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's to peacefully resolve Papua's political future "within the unitary Indonesian state". UP4B, under retired Lieutenant General Bambang Darmono, is establishing offices and staff in the two Papuan provinces and will begin working on the ground early next year.
With a mandate to co-ordinate all government development activities towards "improving people's welfare" through "socio-economic" and "socio-political and cultural development", UP4B also has as-yet vaguely defined responsibilities for improving conditions of security and justice.
Stiff resistance to UP4B's involvement in security and political affairs, even within Mr Yudhoyono's cabinet, delayed the unit's establishment from May until September 20 when he finally signed the decree.
The concern was that political dialogue under the aegis of improving material conditions for Papuans in their homelands would aggravate the unhealed wounds of Indonesia's forced incorporation of the territory between 1962 and 1969.
General Darmono and Farid Husain, now the President's special envoy for Papuan dialogue, were key players in the 2005 Aceh peace agreement and argued that economic development without political settlement was doomed to fail.
Meanwhile, events had galloped ahead: escalating security forces-versus-separatist clashes; a violent strike at the giant Grasberg copper and goldmine now in its fourth month; three protesters killed at the Third Papuan People's Congress; and big rallies and illegal flag-raisings on "Free Papua" day, December 1.
Conviction is rapidly spreading among politically active Papuans that "special autonomy" has so failed them that only an independence referendum will satisfy.
"Papuan people have rejected special autonomy status. Now they have offered UP4B. What on earth is that?" said Saul Bomay, a community representative at a meeting on Wednesday with General Darmono.