Autonomy Watch: Merauke looking to step up development from villages

Newly-appointed Merauke Regent Romanus Mbaraka and Vice Regent Sunarjo have vowed to place human resource development at top of their priority list for helping development in Merauke.

Romanus and Sunarjo were both sworn in by Papua Governor Barnabas Suebu at the Merauke regency council office in Merauke city on Jan. 8.

The pair say they intend to speed up village development through the Village Development Movement.

Merauke regency consists of 20 districts made up of 160 villages. The program will entitle each village to Rp 1 billion (about US$111,111) for rural development.

According to Vice Regent Sunarjo, the 160 villages are divided into eight areas, with each area expected to carry out their respective development programs. The overriding theme, however, still focuses on the main concern — developing quality people. Every area will build education dormitories, conduct agricultural workshops and programs to promote fisheries, animal husbandry and supplemental crop cultivation according to the conditions of each village.

The regency administration will also build docks and roads, provide boats for coastal communities and build airstrips for areas isolated from overland and river access. Village residents will also be encouraged to learn and incorporate local skills developed and inherited over generations, such as weaving and carving.

In the health sector, the administration will provide facilities and optimize available community health centers (Puskesmas) and auxiliary clinics.

“The regency administration will increase incentives for medical workers who want to stay with the Puskesmas and teachers who want to continue teaching in the kampong. Residents will also be provided with better services, so they will remain in the villages,” Sunarjo said.

According to Sunarjo, many native residents have grown discontent with inactivity in their kampongs, and instead prefer to live in the forest.

“They want to attend school, but teachers are always absent. There are also no medical workers at the Puskesmas when they are sick, so they leave the kampong and live in the forest, where they can hunt for animals and cultivate their farms to meet their needs. If activities in the villages are enhanced, such as the presence of teachers in schools and medical workers in the Puskesmas, villagers will feel at home living in the kampong,” said Sunarjo, a transmigrant from Java born in Kurik village, Merauke, 39 years ago.

The government will look to meet the basic needs of civil servants, such as teachers and medical workers, so that they feel at home.

Sunarjo said the provision of Rp 1 billion for each kampong is not just a political promise, but has been regulated in Government Regulation No. 75/2002, which stipulates that 20 percent of the local budget must be allocated for rural development.

The regency administration has boosted development in the agriculture and livestock sectors given the favorable conditions in Merauke regency.

Merauke has a span of 2,491,822 hectares of farmland and 4,461,167 hectares of forested area. The regency is rich in timber reserves, such as rattan.

The regency, which is inhabited by roughly 186,000 people, also has huge potential for fishery development, with a coastline spanning more than 846 kilometers and sea territory of nearly 6,270 square kilometers.