This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS  JAKARTA 001144 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
AIDAC 
 
DEPARTMENT PASS USTR KATZ 
DEPARTMENT FOR R, EAP/MTS, EB/IFD/ODF, DS/IP/EAP, DS/DSS, 
DSERCC, INR/EAP and INL 
DEPARTMENT PLEASE PASS AID 
Treasury for IA -- Anna Jewell 
USDA FOR FAS/EC/MCHAMBLISS 
Singapore for DEA 
NSC for Holly Morrow and Jed Meline 
USAID FOR ANE/EAA 
From American Consulate Medan # 06, 2006 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PINR PINS PREL EAID ECON SOCI ID
SUBJECT: Bengkulu's Young Governor Tries To Reform Sumatra's 
Most Backward Province 
 
Reftels:  (A) 06 Jakarta 000346 
          (B) 05 Jakarta 015331 
          (C) 05 Jakarta 009576 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary. Elected as a reformer in a poverty- 
stricken province more accustomed to corruption, political 
hacks and time-servers, new Governor Agusrin Najamudin 
represents a break with Bengkulu's past. Only devout Muslim 
PKS supported Najamudin's candidacy against candidates from 
larger and better-funded parties, a tribute to its 
organizing skill.  At 35 Indonesia's youngest governor, he 
appears strong-willed and outspoken, but has difficulty 
getting action out of older section heads and political 
colleagues; in Indonesia, the young must defer to those 
older regardless of respective ranks. As priorities he has 
improving education and developing the province's natural 
resources.  Until now, it has proven almost impossible to 
exploit reserves of coal, geothermal energy and gold because 
of dilapidated or nonexistent infrastructure.  We discussed 
the possibility of Bengkulu using its own or private 
resources for education activities and materials, benefiting 
from USAID project assistance in other provinces.  End 
summary. 
 
Bengkulu: A Pocket Of Poverty In Sumatra 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Sumatra's ten provinces sit on vast resources of 
energy and minerals.  Booming palm oil and rubber 
plantations add to their economic prosperity.  Its dominant 
ethnic groups appear more direct and practical-minded than 
Indonesia's majority Javanese.  For the most part Sumatra's 
provinces enjoy economic growth rates slightly or 
significantly above the Indonesian average, along with 
higher levels of education and longer life expectancies. 
 
¶3. (SBU) As Sumatra's poorest province and a backwater in 
every way, Bengkulu provides an exception to Sumatra's 
relative prosperity. Most Sumatra provinces have large 
lowland areas facing the east suitable for large palm oil or 
rubber plantations.  Bengkulu has only a small strip of 
lowland located between its Indian Ocean coastline and the 
mountains of the Bukit Barisan range which flank its eastern 
border.  The potholed and ill-maintained Trans Sumatra 
Highway or a spur connects every other mainland Sumatra 
province, but Bengkulu lies far off major highways and has 
no railway.  Its airport offers a few daily connections to 
Jakarta but almost nowhere else.  Every other Sumatra 
province has major mines or wells extracting oil, coal, tin, 
gas or gold, but Bengkulu's energy and mineral reserves, 
mainly coal, gold and geothermal, have remain untapped.  Its 
 
 
1.6 million residents have Sumatra's lowest income, lowest 
levels of education (36 percent of adult residents have not 
finished grade school), and lowest growth rates, all often 
below national averages. 
 
A Reformer Emerges From A Political Backwater 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) A political backwater, dominated until recently by 
a lackluster set of Golkar and Indonesian Democratic Party 
of Struggle (PDI-P) politicians little known outside the 
province's borders (ref A), it cast a plurality of its votes 
for failed Golkar candidate General Wiranto in the 2004 
first-round presidential elections, the only Sumatra 
province to do so.  A top local Golkar official, Deputy 
Speaker of the Bengkulu Assembly (DPRD) Rabihil Kana, got 
convicted of trafficking in tiger skins in 2004 (ref B). 
Former Governor Hasan Zen, 62, an amiable but unambitious 
leader, had as his main plan for assisting the province's 
economy a seaside industrial park/tourist area located far 
from existing transportation.  It died for lack of funding. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Bengkulu recently emerged a bit from its obscurity 
by electing 35-year-old Agusrin Najamudin as Governor, 
making him the youngest Governor in Indonesia.  Still more 
surprising, he got elected with primary backing from the 
devoutly Muslim Prosperous Justice Party (PKS.)  PKS gets 
most of its support from young, well-educated Muslims in 
large urban centers, not from poor rural areas like 
Bengkulu.  (Najamudin does not belong to PKS, but his Deputy 
Governor Syamlan does.)  A Bengkulu native who spent years 
in Jakarta as a businessman, Najamudin won over 23 percent 
of the vote in a five way gubernatorial race June 27. 
Runner-up Muslihan, supported by the Democratic Party (PD) 
of President Yudhoyono, earned 21 percent.  The two went 
head-to-head in a September runoff which Najamudin won 
handily with 55 percent. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Elected as a reformer, someone who would break with 
business as usual and fight official corruption, he cannot 
run a province without some of the old guard. Since he won 
without personal party affiliation, he joined PD after the 
election to enlarge his backing in the DPRD, thereby not 
only gaining the support of its members but also Golkar, 
allied with the President's party in Bengkulu as in Jakarta. 
Golkar has 13 DPRD members, by far the largest delegation. 
The move ruffled some PKS feathers, but most PKS DPRD 
members understood his need for additional votes; their 
delegation counts only five members. 
 
Young Governor Must Deal With The Old Dogs 
 
 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶7. (SBU) Various Bengkulu politicians we met commented 
discreetly on another handicap: his youth.  In Indonesia, 
respect and deference go with age as much as position or 
social status.  With most of the politicians and section 
heads Najimudin must lead significantly older than he, they 
expect deference from the man who has to give them orders. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Najamudin told us his greatest difficulty has 
proven working with the province's government bureaucracy. 
He said section heads left over from the previous Governor 
did not seem eager to do their work.  Once he assigns them a 
project, he has to make follow up phone calls and even then 
cannot rest assured they will do the job.  He stressed his 
personal belief in an ethic of self-reliance and self- 
confidence; he does not see these qualities in many of his 
provincial government colleagues.  (Comment: Najimudin has a 
forceful personality; we have little doubt he will 
eventually manage to overcome the lethargy of his elders -- 
but it will take considerable effort.  End comment.) 
 
PKS Is Jubilant 
--------------- 
 
¶9. (SBU) The five members of the DPRD PKS delegation were 
understandably upbeat about the new Governor when we met, 
although realistic in their expectations of what he could 
achieve.  They said they would like to see Najimudin 
consult more closely with DPRD, but do not seem overly 
concerned about it because they view him as a friend and 
ally.  PKS Provincial Chief Basuki Ali Subag said Najimudin 
won because PKS made a major "door-to-door"-type effort 
throughout the 97 percent Muslim province.  PKS's DPRD 
members, the same age as Najimudin or younger, consist 
largely of small businessmen and professionals with 
university degrees in such areas as engineering, accounting 
and business administration.  Two have studied in Saudi 
Arabia, but none in the U.S. 
 
¶10. (SBU) Golkar PKS Sumatra Coordinator Syahrir Bahri told 
us Najimudin represents the sort of top-of-the-ticket 
candidate the party might look for in other provinces like 
Bengkulu in which it does not feel strong enough to field 
its own candidate.  Najimudin, a strong nationalist, has 
little about him that seems overtly Muslim.  He does not 
wear Muslim garb or sprinkle his conversation with Muslim 
pieties.  In fact, he told us unbidden that he opposes a 
syariah regime in Bengkulu.  "We don't want to become like 
Aceh," he said, stressing the importance of religious and 
ethnic diversity and tolerance. 
 
 
Rough Spots Dealing With A Defeated Golkar 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶11. (SBU) Najamudin's relations with Bengkulu's legislature 
have had rough spots.  Bengkulu Golkar Party leader Kurnia 
Utama, who came in a poor fourth against Najamudin as his 
party's candidate in June first round gubernatorial 
elections, said the new governor does not consult often 
enough with DPRD.  We met Utama along with several other 
Golkar members of the provincial legislature.  They 
attributed their loss to an inter-generational conflict in 
the provincial party; chastened, Bengkulu's Golkar seeks new 
directions.  They expect to support Najimudin, but the pain 
of their loss tempers their support. 
 
The Big Challenges: Education And The Economy 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶12. (SBU) Najamudin sees his two biggest challenges as 
improving the quality of Bengkulu's primary and secondary 
education, starting with reconstruction of deteriorating 
schools, and development of its still-primitive economy.  He 
hopes to encourage palm oil plantations in the province's 
limited lowlands areas, a source of great wealth elsewhere 
in Sumatra.  Like his predecessor he hopes to attract 
tourists to the province's unspoiled beaches.  He said the 
province's natural resources offer great promise for 
economic growth, but the lack of adequate transportation has 
hindered exploitation.   He said a Singapore corporation has 
had a contract for oil exploration in central Bengkulu for 
two years but has not begun operations.  He said seven 
companies hold a total of 23 permits for coal exploration, 
but only four have begun exploration.  Since Bengkulu's coal 
deposits lie mostly in remote areas, his first 
infrastructure concerns consist of improving highways to 
coal mines and raising the quality of the City of Bengkulu's 
port. 
 
¶13. (SBU) We met the Deputy Chief of the Office of Mining 
and Energy Zulkifli Abdullah and his section heads.  They 
agreed that exploiting the province's energy and mineral 
resources will prove difficult.  Abdullah told us the 
province boasts proven reserves of 122,913,000 tons of coal, 
most of it sub-bituminous, with probable reserves of 
169,295,783 tons more, but like our other interlocutors 
pointed out the lack of connecting roads or railways to 
transport the coal and an inadequate port.  He said the City 
of Bengkulu's port has only a four-meter depth.  A short 
breakwater does little to prevent sedimentation; conditions 
go from bad to worse, he said, as no program of regular 
 
 
dredging exists.  Only barges can ply the harbor.  The 
province has not located funding for port improvements. 
 
¶14. (SBU) Abdullah also said the province offers a potential 
1,100,000 megawatts of geothermal energy.  A Canadian 
company, Barrick, has explored for gold in three regencies, 
Silumas, South Bengkulu and Kaur, but with inconclusive 
results to date.  He said his office had offered investors 
the possibility of constructing a 100-megawatt coal-fired 
electric power generator at Ketahun, in the regency of North 
Bengkulu, but no takers yet. 
 
Comment: Only A Dedicated Leader Stands A Chance 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶15. (SBU) While Bengkulu's underdevelopment stems largely 
from isolation, a fact of geography rather than of politics, 
corrupt or lackadaisical politicians exacerbated the 
backwardness. Only a dedicated and energetic leader such as 
Najimudin can overcome some of the province's shortcomings. 
An Embassy USAID Education Officer visited Bengkulu to 
explore the possibility of the province using its own or 
private resources to have USAID project-trained staff from 
other provinces assist him in raising  educational 
standards. Pascoe