Jakarta - The cost of building infrastructure facilities in the new district of Southwest Maluku (MBD) is estimated to reach hundreds of billions of rupiah, the chairman of the MBD district formation team, Oyang Orlando Petrus, said here on Monday.
The House of Representatives (DPR) at a plenary meeting recently officially approved the creation of Southwest Maluku and South Buru districts along with 10 new other districts and municipalities across the country.
Orlando said hundreds of billions or even trillions of rupiah in funds would be needed to develop the infrastructure in MBD district which had so far been one of Maluku province`s least-developed regions.
He made the remark to comment on a statement made by East Southwest Maluku District (MTB) vice district chief Barnabas Orno in Ambon on Friday that the MTB district administration had allocated some Rp15 billion to support the formation of MBD district which was previously part of MTB district.
Barnabas Orno said the Rp15 billion would be spent on the construction of the MBD district chief`s office, regional legislative assembly office, and other infrastructure facilities in Moa Island which , he said, would be the location of the new district`s capital.
"There is no need for us to engage in polemics about the capital of Southwest Maluku district because Moa Island is slated to be the center of the new district`s administration," Barnabas Orno said, adding that the local people were ready to use the funds for the new district`s development.
However, Orlando Petrus said the Rp15 billion was far from sufficient to develop Moa as MBD district`s capital because the island was sparsely populated and its infrastructure facilities were inadequate so that everything had to be built from the very beginning.
"Moa Island has no roads, no airport, no seaport, no electricity, no drinking water facility and therefore infrastructure development there will need hundreds of billion, even trillions of rupiah in funding," Orlando said.
He said Barnabas Orno`s statement that Moa was slated to be the capital of MBD district contradicted the results of a study which was conducted earlier in Wonreli, Kisar, by a team from Ambon`s Pattimura University (Unpatti).
Orlando said that according to Unpatti team`s study, Wonreli town in Kisar was well-suited to be the capital of the new district because of its adequate infrastructure facilities such as airport, seaports, roads, and electricity.
"The big question is why the East Southwest Maluku (MTB) district administration continues to project Moa as the capital of the newly-formed district while the infrastructure facilities there are inadequate?", Orlando asked.
Meanwhile, Barnabas Orno admitted that Southwest Maluku which is made up of a number of outlying islands which have been locally known as "Pulau-pulau Selatan Daya" (Suidwesterilanden) since the Dutch colonial era were strategically located and could be rapidly developed for the local people`s welfare.
"We are not going to turn a blind eye to the need to develop transportation and communication in MBD with its 12 outlying islands," Barnabas Orno said.
He added the efforts to make Southwest Maluku islands a new district were also to anticipate various illegal logging, illegal fishing, illegal oil drilling activities there.
Source: http://www.antara.co.id (June 30, 2008)