Papua turmoil and its people's discontent

Winarno Zain
Commissioner in a publicly listed oil and gas service company

PREMIUM

Jakarta / Mon, October 21, 2019 / 02:43 pm

Papua turmoil and its people's discontent

The poverty rate increased from 27.4 percent in September 2018 to 27.5 percent in March 2019, three times the national poverty rate, while 930,000 Papuans lived below the poverty line in March 2019, the highest in the province’s history. (JP/Aman Rochman)

The violent unrest and demonstrations that occurred this month in several cities in Papua that have killed dozens and injured hundreds has brought to our attention the Papuans’ feelings of anger and frustration as well as the question of how economic growth in our easternmost province has benefitted Papuans. In the six years from 2013 to 2018, the Papua regional gross domestic product (RGDP) grew at a higher rate than national growth in GDP, driven largely by mineral exports. But things began changing in the fourth quarter of 2018, when copper production and exports plummeted. PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI), which has the largest recoverable copper and gold reserves in the world at Grasberg, started phasing out copper production at the Grasberg open-pit mine and transferring its production focus to the huge Grasberg Block Cave underground mine. This has had a huge impact on the...