P

apua has always been called by those living on the island as Papua Tanah Damai (The Land of Peace), but is it really so? On the contrary, to some people Papua is probably the least peaceful area in the nation.

Those that have interest in Papua know that Papua is still far from being a true land of peace despite that various groups living in the area seem to be living peacefully side by side.

In Jayapura it does not take much time to understand why the seemingly peaceful conditions are actually prone to conflict. This condition is deeply rooted in the unbalanced control of economic resources.

Just go shopping around Jayapura or other towns in Papua for that matter and it will become immediately apparent that the bulk of the economic resources are in the hands of non-natives. The natives are practically in the periphery of the rapidly growing local economy.

The economy of Papua practically comprises two distinct and mutually exclusive components, namely the modern part controlled by non-natives and the sub-informal by the natives.

Few natives would be found shopping in malls, supermarkets, fast food stalls and other modern economic facilities. Needless to say, they would own shops.

Instead, the natives would be selling pinang, bottled gasoline, running very small kiosks and various other informal economic activities on roadsides. They practically do not participate much in the rapidly advancing modern sector of Papua.

As such they do not tap a meaningful share of the added value of economic activities of the region, and as long as this wide gap in resources control prevails, it is unlikely that Papua will become a true land of peace.

The current welfare gap will unlikely disappear through market mechanism as the “survival of the fittest” principle will disregard the inability of the natives to compete.

Unless they are equipped with necessary skills to meaningfully take part in the economic development, they will continuously be trapped in the informal sector.

Nevertheless, both local and central governments seem to rely more on cash transfers to strengthen the buying power of the natives than enhancing their economic capability.

Very few initiatives are in place to enhance among others their business skills, as confessed by the Papuan women participants in a workshop on business basics conducted by Papua Knowledge Center a few months ago.

They all openly acknowledged that the government did not provide any support for their business activities. They have no access to various credit schemes provided by both local and national governments. “The procedures were far too complex for us,” they said.

Through the 2001 Special Autonomy Law (OTSUS), the Papuans have been given special opportunities and resources to catch up with their fellow citizens in other parts of the country.

In this regard, the law has very clearly specified that the Special Autonomy fund must be mostly used on education and health.

However, after 10 years Papuans still top the list of poor people, illiterates, school dropouts and prevalence of deadly diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV.

Several factors can be identified causing this meager improvement. First of all the resources allocated by local governments to these two sectors have been far from adequate.

They tend to focus on physical construction such as office buildings and inter-regency roads than tending the needs of the people directly. There is no question that these two sectors are important as argued by most regency administrations, but should they be the first priority right now?

Unless the natives are properly prepared, interconnection between regencies will not bring much benefit to them.

The education sector has been inflicted by the establishment of new regencies that has been out of control over the last decade. The number of regencies has almost quadrupled in the last 10 years.

New government positions in the newly established regencies were mostly filled by teachers as they were comparatively the most ready in those areas.

This was exacerbated by high the teachers’ high rate of absentee for various reasons, including difficult living conditions in the remote areas.

Hence, unless things are made easier for teachers and health workers in the rural areas, education and health of Papuans will be stagnant for some time in the future.

As an effort to enhance the edu-cation level of Papuans, local governments have been sending hundreds of students to major universities in Sulawesi, Java and abroad, such as Australia, Japan, the US and Europe.

The number of these students, however, is only a tiny percentage of total population of Papuan students.

Hence, systematic and robust approaches and programs to boost the overall quality of education and health in Papua are imminent, otherwise those currently seeking better education outside Papua will not mean much in closing the gap as desired by the law.

Papua is almost half way through the OTSUS period that will end in 2025. Without concerted efforts by all stakeholders both in Jakarta and Papua, the development gap between Papua and other regions and more importantly the welfare gap between Papuans and others in Papua will very unlikely be closed.

The central government must move away from “hands off” policy to active engagement especially in closely monitoring the progress of all sectors in particular education and health.

The welfare approach must be adopted to replace whatever approach is currently employed. Budget allocations should be target-oriented instead of output oriented.

Meanwhile, in Papua itself, the provincial government should proactively assist the regency governments especially the newly established ones.

And although there is no longer a direct command line between Jakarta and Jayapura, the provincial government can use its budgeting power through the OTSUS fund allocator to directly influence program formulation and budget allocations in the regencies. With right programs we can be sure that the special status with specially allocated funds will bring Papuans up to par with their fellow citizens in the near future.

The writer is head of the Papua Knowledge Center, Jayapura.