Ministers in Flying Visit to Audit State of Restless Papua
Camelia Pasandaran & Nivell Rayda | September 29, 2010
Jakarta. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has dispatched his three coordinating ministers and their officials on a quick trip to Papua as part of his promised audit of conditions in the troubled province.
He told them to use their two-day trip to evaluate the implementation of his 2007 instruction to accelerate development and improve people’s welfare in Papua.
Yudhoyono said the central government had to ensure that the necessary programs and policies were being implemented by the governor and the regional governments.
“The evaluation will enable us to see which programs are running well and which are not,” he said. “If they are not being run well we must find out who is responsible so that we can tell them they must do better.”
Several international and local human rights organizations have charged that development in Papua is slow and uneven and that human rights violations are continuing in the province.
Some local organizations have also demanded a referendum on self-determination for Papua, or even independence, and these demands have been transmitted to the government in Jakarta by the Papuan People’s Assembly.
Officials have pointed out that Papua already receives the lion’s share of the regional budget. But local organizations say the money is not being used to improve conditions.
They say the central government needs to tackle the issues of rampant corruption and the ever-widening gap between natives and migrants.
Yudhoyono said the three ministers would evaluate the implementation of the special autonomy status that was meant to lead to security, justice and welfare for Papua and West Papua.
“We have chosen the welfare approach to solve problems in Papua and West Papua,” the president said. ‘But welfare should be backed up by the economy, security and law enforcement in the region.”
Yudhoyono has expressed concern about overseas criticism of Papua’s development.
“So, once more, we want to ensure that the people’s welfare and economic development are running well,” he said.
“I will receive a complete report on the evaluation to ensure that the future steps of both the central and local governments will be more effective in solving the problems and enhancing our brothers’ welfare in Papua.”
Leaders in Papua remain skeptical that the evaluation will lead to real action in empowering the people politically and economically, which in turn would help suppress the growing resentment toward Jakarta.
“There have been visits by high-level officials to Papua before but they only ever talk to local government officials and not Papuan elders, academics and nongovernmental groups,” Benny Giay, a member of the Papua Presidium Council, told the Jakarta Globe.
He said local officials had not provided these visitors with correct and comprehensive views about the situation in Papua.
Benny said Jakarta must talk to every element of society and conduct visits to remote villages.
“People in the mountains and jungles are malnourished, poor, unemployed and have no real access to education,” he said. “They are plagued with diseases, while the environment they live in has been destroyed by mining and logging companies.”
A report published by the University of Sydney’s Center for Peace and Conflict Studies in July said that trillions of rupiah channeled to Papua as part of the special autonomy program was being used to finance the operations of government offices and not on programs to develop social welfare.
Ikrar Nusa Bhakti, a senior researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said that migrants coming to Papua from Java and elsewhere had better work opportunities and wider access to education than natives, which created social and economic disparities.
But he also said that dialogue with the government may be difficult because of the nature of Papua’s decentralized population.
“Finding a figure who can be accepted collectively to speak for most Papuans is difficult,” Ikrar said.
Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/ministers-in-flying-visit-to-audit-state-of-restless-papua/398813
It is very funny that President SBY had to send 3 of his coordinating ministers to Papua to evaluate government's program in the land of Papua and thinking that only by using welfare approach to solve the long-standing problem in Papua will cure the situation in Papua. West Papua are not having "stomachache", but "headache". Whatever approach the government thinks of solving the problems in Papua won't clear any way, unless it opens its mind to have a proper and just dialogue as it was with GAM in the past. What is it that the government so concern about, that makes it so difficult to have dialogue with West Papua Representatives? I think for bro Ikrar, representation is not a big deal as Papuan are fully understanding who are real freedom fighters that can represent them to negotiate their demands than those traveling back and forth to Jakarta and still claiming themselves as leaders, but eating from Jakarta. The question now is whether Jakarta would open space for that or not. Claiming of government that representation is the problem of GoI for dialogue in my view is only a fault consideration with no basis.
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