The premature declaration of Central Irian Jaya province by six regents together with the speaker of the regional parliament on Saturday has given rise to suspicion that the division of Papua is driven by the desire to dominate the natural resources and political allegiances of the area.
Papua is a sparsely populated but economically important part of Indonesia. It is the site of world's largest gold and copper mining operation and has large gas and oil deposits.
The new, already inaugurated province of West Irian is rich in LNG, while Central Irian Jaya's economic strength would rely on the gold and copper of PT Freeport Indonesia.
Irian Jaya, later re-named Papua, was a source of wealth for the inner circle of former President Suharto. The economic exploitation of the New Order naturally caused resentment and anger on the part of the provincial political elite.
In a society where, as the announcement of the new province of Central Irian proved, violence is often seen as an appropriate response to perceived injustice, Papua has long held the capacity to explode.
The prospect of Papuan separatism was one of the most serious problems faced by B.J. Habibie when he took over the presidency from Suharto. Habibie's rise to the presidency in July 1998 was the first time that pro-separatists had the chance to their demands. Supporters of the tribal-based Free Papua Organization (OPM) movement took to the streets, raising the "Morning Star" flag of an independent West Papua.
The low-intensity insurgency of the OPM was driven largely by dissatisfaction with Jakarta's rule, including the domination of the provincial administration by those coming from Jakarta and the other provinces, with their disregard for local cultures, and exploitation of the province's vast natural resources under terms that did little to benefit the local population.
The degree of vested interest of the Jakarta political elite in Papua surfaced for the first time when Northwestern University political scientist Jeffrey A. Winters uncovered the involvement of Ginanjar Kartasasmita in grabbing 9.4% of PT Freeport Indonesia shares for Indocopper Investama, a company controlled by Aburizal Bakrie.
Ginanjar allegedly organized the deal while he was Minister of Mines and Energy at the time of the renewal of the contract between the Indonesian government and PT Freeport Indonesia in 1991.
Winters' account of the deal surfaced when Ginandjar was in one of the most strategic positions in the Habibie cabinet, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs. The report had serious repercussion not only on his personal reputation, but on Golkar and its network as a whole.
Bakrie, chairman of Bakrie brothers, was implicated as a major partner in the alliance between senior indigenous business, Golkar, and the power center around Ginandjar and former Vice President Sudharmono, who in 1991 still ran the State Secretariat, Suharto's most reliable political and economic bastion.
Facing such strength, the local elites in Papua had no choice but to close ranks with the OPM as a means of strengthening their bargaining position with the central government in Jakarta over the distribution of resources and business access.
The existence of OPM was not considered a threat to Jakarta's governing circle in terms of military power and scale. The OPM reportedly had a core of about 200 fighters in bands dispersed throughout the immense province, but mostly along the border with Papua New Guinea.
Given the background of OPM as the reflection of dissatisfaction rather than a true ideological struggle for an independent Papua, the OPM commitment to independence was always halfhearted.
Facing such a situation, President Habibie initially pushed for a national dialogue on Papua in the hope of creating a degree of justice between the central government and the local elites. This move was suspended when the province's leaders demanded independence at a meeting with Habibie in Jakarta.
The Wahid government went much further by agreeing to change the province's name from Irian Jaya, the name it was given after the Indonesian takeover, to Papua. This provoked the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) to reject the change at its August 2000 session. The name was finally bestowed with the start of regional autonomy.
Wahid also apologized for past human rights abuses and replaced hard-line military and police commanders, but as in Aceh, he ruled out any prospect of Independence.
Wahid seemed to have gone too far when he provided state funds for a provincial assembly called the Great Consultation (Musyawarah Besar), which brought together about 400 regional representatives in February 2000 to discuss common concerns.
As a result of the meeting, the Papuan Council Presidium was established to lead the independence movement. The presidium organized the Papuan Congress, an even larger gathering, involving some 500 official delegates and thousands of supporters from every part of the province, as well as from exiled communities in Papua New Guinea, the Pacific islands, and Europe.
In terms of goals, the Papuan Council Presidium (PDP) and OPM are the same thing. The differences rest on method rather than principle. OPM takes up armed resistance, whereas PDP fights through peaceful means like political statements questioning the legitimacy of the integration of Papua into the unitary republic of Indonesia.
The delegates adopted a resolution stating that the province's incorporation into Indonesia was illegal, and therefore null and void, and that West Papua, the delegates' name for the province, had been an independent state since 1961.
Deliberately or not, Wahid's move to support the Papuan Council Presidium (PDP) also uncovered the reality that PDP was not a genuine independence movement
Research conducted by Muridan S. Wijoyo from the Social-Economic Research and Education Institute (LP3ES) entitled Between the Necessity of Democracy and the Victory of Violence, a Transition to Democracy in Papua, showed that the leadership composition of PDP had been closely connected with Golkar.
According to Muridan, the head of the Papuan Congress, the late Theys Eluay was well known as a traditional chief who had served as a Golkar member of the provincial parliament and had voted for incorporation into Indonesia in the 1969 Act of Free Choice.
Even in late 1996, Theys was quoted as calling the idea of an independent Papuan state "rubbish". Theys was also associated with the task force Papua militia, which was headed by one of his sons and was believed to be funded by an associate in the Papuan Council Presidium, Yorrys Raweyai.
Yorrys, of ethnic Chinese and Papuan background, was well known as deputy leader of Pemuda Pancasila, the New Order youth organization and subordinate wing of Golkar.
This finding indicated the close connection of the Papuan political elites, even among the pro-independence movement, and Suharto, the Cendana family and Golkar. Muridan also noted the involvement of several PDP leaders as commissioners of Freeport or as brokers for several big projects at Freeport.
In the 1999 general election, Golkar continued to dominate the provincial government and parliament. Several analysts saw that the proposed division of Papua would have serious political repercussions for the 2004 elections, including aggravating tension between the ruling Struggle Democratic Party (PDI-P) and Golkar.
The analysts believed that the division into three provinces would benefit PDI-P and enable the new governors to divert funds to the local PDI-P campaigns. On many occasions, the party of President Megawati Sukarnoputri has accused governors of using special autonomy revenue for Golkar.
The Papua Police chief confirmed in the wake of the recent clash at Timika that his officers were searching for five people believed to have masterminded the clash. He suggested that they may come from the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) and the Home Affairs Ministry.
This report was later denied by national police spokesman Basyir Ahmad Barmawi on Saturday (30/8/03). The disagreement demonstrated that suspicion of involvement of the Jakarta political elites in instigating the riot in Papua is strong.