Papua is one of the most underdeveloped regions in this country. And my question is who is actually responsible for creating that poverty? I spent more than four months this year teaching in Fakfak, West Papua. Before I went to Papua I knew how bad the situation in the region was from watching the news. There is a lot of information about Papua, including information about the levels of poverty and illiteracy in the region. In Papua, the rate of education is very low and people have been known to die from starvation.
The reality of poverty and misery in Papua has captured my attention for many years. I have devoted much time to thinking about the problems and how to overcome them. When I was in Papua, I started to form a real and complete picture of this problem. I began to ask myself how such a rich island could become so poor. The forest and sea looked like it was abundant and able to sustain people's livelihood sufficiently.
The forest, river and sea could supply almost every need; wood for housing, various plants for medicine, unlimited land for farming, and animals and fish for consumption. With a little advanced knowledge and technology to manage these great resources, they would have everything they need to live a good life. (By Tri Harmaji, Yogyakarta)
Your comments:
Thanks Tri Harmaji for providing your insight. The cultural interface between indigenous societies and people living overseas is inevitable as people move around. In most cases, the indigenous culture is marginalized and trivialized as newcomers' technological and belief systems are deemed superior.
It may take a few generations for indigenous people to adapt to the new social order. The process would be a lot easier and beneficial to everyone if people exercised more mutual respect and made an effort to understand and assist each other. This may indeed be the case among ordinary people in Papua.
However, any goodwill between Javanese settlers and indigenous Papuans is being sorely tested by the rapacious behavior of the resource extraction industry and elements of the Indonesian military whose raw greed causes havoc wherever they go. They obviously believe that economic profit is more important than the welfare of general society. Until this greed is eradicated there will be no solution to the problem in Papua.
Step O'Rafferty
Bingil Bay, Australia
Who is responsible? Indonesia.
Jeremi
Pati, Central Java
It is important to look at Javanization's impacts in Papua. However we must bring an even more detailed analysis to the table, one that does not dismiss Papuans as being "totally" Javanese but appreciates ways that Papuans maintain and transform their culture and society on their own terms, within limits set by colonization and state violence, but also in defiance of those limits.
Karb
Manila
You argued that Java and Javanization landed Papua in poverty. What you said about Javanese as the source of poverty is politically misleading. From Sukarno to Soeharto and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, most of Javanese is still in poverty.
You may have to read history again. Even in the Soeharto era, many Javanese were killed in genocide. In fact, for many Javanese, Soeharto is not "Javanese" enough. Even the bureaucracy of Soeharto degraded Javanese communalism. You said, "The Javanese came to Papua and told them that they were poor, backward, and underdeveloped, while at the same time implied how advanced, modern and civilized they were." Your racism toward Javanese is clearly tendentious.
We Javanese also feel threatened by Jakarta's lifestyle and religious fundamentalism just as Papua, Dayak and others do. You overgeneralize the problem and your racist point of view is being questioned!
Arybudhi
Yogyakarta
Well said. Thank you for thinking outside your cultural box and seeing things from another viewpoint.
Om Med
Papua
