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Some relieved, others remain concerned as internet shutdown not completely over in Papua
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Papuan students grouped under the Papuan Student Alliance protest in front of Merdeka Palace in Central Jakarta on Aug. 28. (JP/Donny Fernando)
I
n her living room on Friday evening, Juliana Tando’s face instantly lit up as she saw her little brother’s face pop up on his father’s cell phone screen. Her brother, Hendrik, had called them from Yogyakarta through WhatsApp video call.
Juliana, 35, is a high school teacher living with her father, Yunus, in Nabire, Papua . That call was the first time they had been in contact Hendrik through WhatsApp and seen each other’s faces after more than two weeks of a total internet blackout across Papua.
“We talked through video call last night for almost an hour. After two weeks of only exchanging text messages and phone calls, it was bliss that we were able to finally laugh and see each other,” she told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
Juliana and others living in Nabire had been going on 18 days without internet following restrictions imposed by the central government on Papua and West Papua provinces on Aug. 21. The internet shutdown came after antiracism protests that escalated into riots across the country’s easternmost provinces.
For Juliana, the blackout not only limited her access to information and contact with family members living outside the restive region but it put her opportunity of applying for a scholarship at risk.
After teaching her English classes on Saturday morning, Juliana sat in the school’s office with her laptop open while she completed her scholarship application, something she had not been able to do in the past two weeks without internet.
“It is an online-based application form and the deadline for submission is in three days. And I still have to download and prepare a lot of things. I don’t know if I can make it before Tuesday,” she said.
