Minister Of Home Affairs Inaugurates Jokowi's Choice For Papua Regional Secretary

Papua Deputy Governor Klemen Tinal inaugurates Papua Regional Secretary Doren Wakerkwa (ANTARA)

JAYAPURA - Two Papua regional secretaries were sworn in on the same day by different officials. Deputy Governor of Papua Klemen Tinal emphasized that the inauguration of the regional secretary was aimed at filling vacancies by applicable regulations.

"From the direction of the Governor of Papua, the official was appointed. The decree is in place because there should not be a vacancy in the government. We do not know what happened in Jakarta and have not followed suit. But what has happened here is legal", Klemen said in Jayapura after inaugurating Doren Wakerkwa as Acting Regional Secretary for Papua quoted by Antara, Monday, March 1.

According to Klemen, Papua has Special Autonomy Law Number 21 which is a special or "lex specialis" regional authority.

"So we urge all parties to respect this, the reason is, this is sometimes forgotten a lot", he said.

Klemen explained that with the existence of this lex specialis, all laws must be inferior to Law Number 21 except regarding foreign policy, defense, security, justice, monetary and national fiscal as well as religion.

Meanwhile, in a separate location, the Minister of Home Affairs, Tito Karnavian, appointed Dance Yulian Flassy as the definitive Regional Secretary of Papua based on Presidential Decree 159/TPA/2020 concerning the Appointment of High-Level Executive Officers in the Papua Provincial Government.

Head of the Information Center of the Ministry of Home Affairs Benny Irwan confirmed that the definitive regional secretary was inaugurated in Jakarta.

"We already know about it, but are still waiting for an official report", he said after being asked for information regarding the inauguration of the Papua Provincial Secretary in Jayapura.