When President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo visited Papua in December 2014, he led a ground-breaking ceremony to kick of the development of a market named Pasar Mama Mama Papua (Papuan Mamas'€™ Market), but no progress has been made on its construction nearly one year after the ceremony, except the stone laid by the President.

Six of the Papuan ladies visited Jakarta recently to convey their disappointment to President Jokowi, in the hope that he would give them a guarantee that the market's construction would begin immediately. They women are Mama Yuliana Pigai, Mama Martina Halitopo, Mama Yustina Arobaya, Mama Albertina Yapsenang, Mama Yohana Yumame and Mama Martha Basik Basik.

They said that the President had promised to complete the market development within one year. However, the fate of the market is similar to that of traders, who have to do business at a building formerly used as the Papua Information and Communications Agency office on Jl. Percetaan in the Papuan provincial capital of Jayapura.

'€œWe have met with Lenis Kogoya, a presidential staff member, who is also a Papuan. I have told him everything. I hope President Jokowi will immediately pay attention to the fate of us, Papuan mamas,'€ Yuliana said at the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) on Friday, as reported by tribunnews.com.

Yuliana is one of the women who received a portion of a tumpeng (cone-shaped rice dish) from Jokowi during a party to celebrate the inauguration of Jokowi and Jusuf Kalla as the country's new leaders in October 2014.

They met with staff from the Presidential Office on Thursday and planned to meet with other related institutions in Jakarta to ensure that the market would be constructed. '€œIt is not true that the Mama Mama Market has been constructed. What is being constructed is Pharaa Market in Sentani, not the market that is only for Papuan ladies,'€ Yuliana stressed.

As part of their protest, the women opened stalls selling Papuan handicrafts on the grounds of LBH Jakarta, on Jl. Diponegoro in South Jakarta on Friday. They called the event Pasar Noken, after a fiber used to create handicrafts.

Yuliana said that traders had been told to move from their initial site on Jl. Percetaan in Papua to the Yotefa or Hamadi markets, quite a distance from Jl. Percetaan, forcing the traders, who are mostly women, to spend much more money on operational costs, particularly daily transportation. They have to do business in front of shops, with only limited working hours.

Papuan women who come from mountainous areas need the market promised by President Jokowi to sell agricultural commodities like vegetables, fruits and spices. Most of them cultivate their own land to grow crops. (bbn)

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