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span class="inline inline-center">Courtesy of Papua Police Public Relations Department At first glance, the Regency Police chief of Biak Numfor, Papua — with her straight hair and fair skin — may not appear to be Papuan.

“Have no doubt, I am Papuan. My father is from Biak and my mother is from Pangkalpinang [Bangka]. My mom’s genes may be dominant so I lack the Papuan physical features,” said Adj. Sr. Comr. Esterlina Sroyer, better known as Ester.

Even Ester, when she first joined the police, doubted her own Papuan ancestry.

“By my name, people think I am Papuan but when they see me they have doubts,” she said. The physical difference actually prompted her to approach her father.

“My father assured me I was his natural child. He told me to return home to Pangkalpinang, where my mother was buried and my aunts lived. I followed his advice and they convinced me I was really Papuan by blood,” Ester recalled.

Ester is the first of two children of Manase Sroyer, a policeman from Biak, Papua, and Caroline Lie from Pangkalpinang, Bangka.

“My parents are both dead and my younger sister lives in Pangkalpinang. She inherited the Papuan physical characteristics,’’ said Ester, who was also born in Pangkalpinang on Sept. 2, 1961.

The Sroyers lived in Pangkalpinang until Ester was 7, when her mother died.

“After my mother’s death, father took me to Biak in 1968 and my sister was left in Pangkalpinang, where she has remained up to the present,’’ she said.

In Biak, her father remarried and Ester has since welcomed four more siblings to her family from her stepmother, a native of Biak.

Ester finished economics high school in Biak and in 1980, when the National Police opened recruitment to women in Biak, Ester enrolled along with her four friends from Papua, who have all become the first generation of Papuan
female cops.

‘’Previously policewomen enrollment was handled by the National Police Headquarters and it was only in 1980, for the first time, recruitment was assigned to the Papuan Regional Police,” she noted.

Ester has now made history as the first woman to enter the rank of regency police chief (Kapolres) of Biak, Papua, a position so far only occupied by men. The policewoman, who likes biking and swimming, has built up her career in the regional police office.

Ester never expected to become a policewoman although her childhood was mostly spent with police officers. “We mingled with policemen every day and made fun of patrolling harbor cops as we were swimming near the port after school. It is an unforgettable memory,” she reminisced.

She applied for a job at the Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) alongside enrolling in the police office.

‘’I must have been destined to be a policewoman. After passing entrance tests with my four friends, we were all sent to Jakarta for training. I did not even notice if I had passed the BRI tests,’’ she pointed out.

Ester married Iwan Nazaruddin, manager of the Dafonsoro Soccer Association (Persidafon), Jayapura regency, and they have a son together Yusrizal, who is 27.

Even though her husband has been engaged in soccer activities for decades, as he was deputy manager of the Jayapura Football Association (Persipura) before his Persidafon position, Ester is not a soccer enthusiast.

“I just watch soccer matches when I’m in a good mood,” she said.

Undertaking a leadership role that is usually held by men, according to Ester, is not difficult because the functions and duties to be performed by the leader — male or female — are already clearly defined.

Named district police chief of Biak and installed by Papuan Regional Police chief Insp. Gen. Tito Karnavian on Oct. 29 along with 22 other regency police chiefs, Ester described the event as a manifestation of trust and a blessing.

“The position amounts to the trust of our superiors and is inseparable from God’s blessing, so that the job should be well done,” she indicated.

 “So far policewomen have mostly been considered incapable of assuming leadership. This time [Ester is] entrusted with this role, otherwise we would have no way of ascertaining women’s capabilities,’’ Tito Karnavian said.

As the first female district police chief in Papua, Ester sees the job as a challenge to prove that policewomen are also able to head the law enforcement office.

“If I’m not successful the policewomen corps will have a bad record. So I should ensure that following my leadership, other policewomen can fill the same post,” she added.