After
the declaration of Indonesian independence in 1945, the eastern part of Indonesia declared the
State of East Indonesia. The state was further included in the
United States of Indonesia as part of the agreement with the
Dutch contained in the
transfer of sovereignty to Indonesia in 1949. In 1950, United States of Indonesia dissolved itself into a
unitary state and began to divide its component area into provinces. In 1958, by Indonesian law (
Undang-Undang) No. 64/1958, three provinces were established in the
Lesser Sunda Islands:
Bali,
West Nusa Tenggara and East Nusa Tenggara. The area of East Nusa Tenggara province included the western part of
Timor island, Flores, Sumba and many smaller islands in the region. The province was originally (from 1958) sub-divided into twelve
regencies, but on 11 April 1996, the City of
Kupang, was separated from Kupang Regency and given regency-level status. Then, following the fall of the
Suharto regime in 1998 and the passage of a new regional autonomy law, there was a dramatic subdividing (known as
pemekaran) of regional governments across Indonesia, at both provincial and regency level. Between 1999 and 2012, nine new regencies were created in East Nusa Tenggara by the division of existing regencies: • On 4 October 1999, a new
Lembata Regency (Regional code 53.13) was formed by the division of the
East Flores Regency. • On 10 April 2002,
Rote Island and adjacent islands were split off from
Kupang Regency, to form a new
Rote Ndao Regency (53.14). • On 25 February 2003,
Manggarai Regency was split into two and a new
West Manggarai Regency (53.15) was established. • On 2 January 2007, the administration of East Nusa Tenggara province was expanded by the establishment of three new regencies –
Nagekeo (53.16) was cut out of
Ngada Regency, and
Central Sumba (53.17) and
Southwest Sumba (53.18) were both cut out of
West Sumba Regency. • On 17 July 2007 a new regency of
East Manggarai (53.19) was cut out of
Manggarai Regency. • On 29 October 2008 a further regency –
Sabu Raijua (53.20) (comprising the Savu Islands group) – was formed from part of the remaining
Kupang Regency. • On 14 December 2012 yet another regency –
Malaka (53.21) – was created out of the southern half of
Belu Regency. Therefore, as from early 2013, there are twenty-one regencies plus the one
autonomous city (
Kupang) in the province. == Government and administrative divisions ==