Minister Of Home Affairs: South Papua, Papua Mountains And Central Papua Inaugurated At The End Of October

JAKARTA - Minister of Home Affairs (Mendagri) Tito Karnavian said three new autonomous regions (DOB) in Papua were immediately inaugurated at the end of October 2022. The three were the provinces of South Papua, Papua Mountains, and Central Papua.

"We will form a possibility at the end of October or early November. The law already exists de jure. De facto is not yet operational. The youngest who is already operational is North Kalimantan," said the Minister of Home Affairs in Tanjung Selor, quoted from Antara, Tuesday, October 25.

Tito said that the expansion of the three DOBs in Papua was a priority, without " looking near the eye" of the proposed DOB from other regions in the country.

"For Papua, we know that there is a security instability and development lag. The distribution of the area there is very high. So the welfare problem of the Papuan people is very important. That's why the expansion is accelerated there," he said.

Currently, he said, there are 324 lists of proposed DOBs that are included in the Ministry of Home Affairs. Both provincial and district and city DOB proposals.

To note, the government has officially declared Papua into three provinces, namely Central Papua, Mountains Papua, and South Papua. This was after the DPR ratified the Draft Law on the Papua New Autonomy Region on June 30, 2022.

The law states that President Joko Widodo must appoint governor officials until the definitive regional head election within six months of the law being passed.