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Jokowi-Papuans meeting 'misses the point'
Amicable solution: President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo meets Papuan public figures at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Tuesday
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micable solution: President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo meets Papuan public figures at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Tuesday. The meeting was held to seek solutions to problems in West Papua and Papua provinces, which were hit by violent demonstrations recently.(JP/Seto Wardhana)
For the first time since Papuan students in Surabaya, East Java, were inflicted with racist abuse on Aug. 16, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo finally sat together with a delegation from Papua on Tuesday morning at the Jakarta presidential palace.
Many see the meeting as an attempt to diffuse tension following the protests against the abuse that broke out in several places in the past two weeks.
Activists have said they were underwhelmed by the meeting as it did not address the current situation of Papua, their calls for self-determination and the protests against racial abuse and discrimination, among many other things.
The meeting was attended by 61 Papuan figures, including Ramses Ohee, the chairman of Barisan Merah Putih of Papua, a nationalist group, and Jayapura Legislative Council head Abisai Rollo.
In the meeting, Abisai, the appointed representative of the group, told Jokowi about his concern for Papua’s people.
“Papua is rich with its natural resources, but it is not in line with the quality and the quantity of Papuan human resources. We’ve talked a lot about infrastructure development and natural resources, but we forget how important it is to develop the quality of the people of Papua,” he said.
Abisai then made eight requests to Jokowi, including for the creation of five new administrative regions in Papua, building a presidential palace in Jayapura and building dormitories for and protecting the safety of Papuan students across Indonesia.
During the meeting Jokowi seemed to agree with most of the delegation's requests and promised to start building a presidential palace in Jayapura next year. He also highlighted how Papua is the area that he visited most in the past five years of his administration.
“Next year, we will start building a presidential palace in Papua,” Jokowi said.
Abisai assured Jokowi that Papuans would give him 10 hectares of land for free so the President could build the palace in Jayapura.
Jokowi also promised that by the end of this year the government would complete the development of a broadband network in the easternmost provinces in Indonesia under the Palapa Ring project, so all cities will soon enjoy a 4G connection.
“For the new regions, you ask for an additional five customary territories, but I think we cannot make five — maybe two or three,” he said.
Tuesday's meeting, however, was criticized by human rights activists and political observers as it did not address the protests condemning the recent racial abuse of Papuan students that spread nationwide in the past few weeks.
“It was a usual meeting, not a dialogue, and the content of the meeting was not relevant to the recent conflicts that happened. It mostly did not answer any of the issues that emerged,” said Adriana Elisabeth, head researcher in Papua studies at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI).
“The issues and requests asked by the delegations today are issues that can be discussed with other ministers and institutions, not the President. I wish they could bring to the President more important issues related to the protests in the past few weeks, so the President could hear them out,” Adriana said.
Amnesty International Indonesia executive director Usman Hamid said that the meeting did not touch on the current issues happening to Papuans, such as the racist abuse in Surabaya and Malang and the human rights violations by law enforcers.
“If the President really wants to help, he’d better finish Jakarta’s responsibilities by creating three human rights institutions in Papua, namely a human rights commission, a human rights court and a commission for freedom and reconciliation,” Usman said.
Timika-based human rights and environmental activist Adolfina said that the government should not meet with so-called Papuan "figures”, but instead should meet with the common people of Papua to better understand their demands and aspirations.
She said she had received an invitation to meet National Police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian when he was in Papua last week, but declined because she felt he should not only meet with a few hand-picked “elites”. “If he wants to meet [with Papuans], Bapak Tito should invite all the people and gather them in a field,” she added.
Adolfina also urged Jokowi to meet with United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) chairman Benny Wenda, as well as other separatist leaders to discuss the Papuan desire for self-determination.
Jayapura-based activist Cresco Yesnat echoed her sentiments.
“Jokowi should meet with [independence activists] who are abroad and in the jungle, who have been part of the struggle for Papuan self-determination for a long time,” he said.
