Riau Asks For Special Autonomy
Tuesday, 02 May, 2006 | 12:19 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Some individuals from Riau who are on the Riau Special Autonomy Movement Committee asked that the province be named an area of special autonomy.

“Our fate is actually not any different from Aceh and Papua. So it isn't going too far if we demand the same thing,” committee chairman, Alfitra Salam told reporters in a café in Jakarta yesterday.

According to Alfitra, the province which is rich in crude oil has been exploited without transmitting the benefit for the local society's welfare. “We indeed gained a balance of oil and gas of 15 percent. But out of how much rupiah? We never know how much oil has been taken from Riau,” he said.

Responding to the request, the Director General for Regional Autonomy, Kausar Ali Saleh believed that the suggestion is not realistic. “What is the regional characteristic?” he asked the reporters at his office.

One of the requirements for a province to have specific characteristics, said Kausar, is that it must have a greater historic quality than other provinces'.

Raden Rachmadi