JP/Syofiardi Bachyul Jb

Shortly after announcing his new Cabinet, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo visited some areas in Papua and West Papua. The key points of his visit were still welfare-oriented policies and promises. Developmental programs, it’s assumed, will result in indigenous Papuans’ loyalty toward the central government.

Here I will only highlight three prominent pledges of Jokowi and his ministers to Papua: creating new provinces and regencies, building Papuan youth centers and addressing human rights violations.

The central government’s recent plans to form new provinces in Papua, such as South Papua and Central Highlands, have received mixed response from local indigenous Papuans. On the one hand, the new provinces will hopefully boost local welfare as it will bring more government services closer to the people.

However, Papua and West Papua have remained Indonesia’s poorest provinces, according to data from 1990 to 2018. If these two provinces — which enjoyed special autonomy since 2002 — cannot address the basic issue of poverty, how can we be optimistic about the new provinces?

It is also crucial to manage the expected influx of migrants once the new provinces are established. Although many Papuan and non-Papuan residents usually get along well, perceived inequality can flare up and lead to fatalities, such as in Wamena. Papuans and non-Papuans were killed and the absence of authorities’ explanations of gunshot wounds among the causes of death leaves speculations of Papuans “attacking” non-Papuans.

On the other hand, newly formed provinces would mirror the poor performances of some recently established regencies in Papua. For instance, the Home Ministry last year listed Indonesian regencies with the poorest performances and most are in the central highlands of Papua, such as Lanny Jaya, Nduga, Mamberamo Raya, Yahukimo, Puncak, Puncak Jaya, Deiyai, Nabire and Paniai.

One indicator of government performance is the poor quality of delivering basic services to society. Nduga was a new regency separated from the Jayawijaya regency in 2008, but medical facilities are still only available in four districts to cover the 32 districts of Nduga. Further, medical staff are rarely available in remote districts. Thus, the idea of creating a new Central Highlands province is highly questionable given such conditions in some highland areas.

The planned establishment of Papuan youth centers in a number of locations is also supposed to be a solution to contain political aspirations as chanted by Papuan youth and students, who were at the center of the massive demonstrations and riots in Papua and outside Papua last August and September. Yet such youth centers are likely mere cosmetic for the central government if established without understanding the true aspirations of those students and young indigenous Papuans.

Thousands of Papuan students who left their studies in other islands and who are still in Papua bring another problem. The centers aiming to improve young people’s skills cannot be fruitful if the youth are still experiencing collective trauma and insecurity.

Those returning students still report facing intimidation and repression from security personnel since they arrived in
Papua after protests erupted in Surabaya, East Java, last September over racial slurs against Papuan students.

Thus, the idea of training and mobilizing Papuan youths to improve their business creativity will work well only if they receive proper access to continued education and live without trauma.

Another crucial issue is human rights. Former chief security minister Wiranto played a crucial role in dealing with Papua’s biggest protests.

Newly installed Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD, a former Constitutional Court chief justice, promises to review all past human rights cases and create a truth and reconciliation commission for Papua. However, as some security personnel are implicated in human rights abuses, such initiatives will get strong resistance from the military and police.

Last month, Choirul Anam of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) reasserted that the military is a roadblock to resolving human rights cases in Papua. The military has been allegedly conducting secret military operations in Papua that caused tens of thousands of deaths and scores of Papuans being displaced since the area became part of Indonesia in 1969.

The recent additional deployment of 6,000 security personnel to Papua merely displays an unchanged approach to human rights problems.

What remains missing from Jokowi’s promises is the lack of security for Papuans, particularly following riots and ongoing military operations in a number of areas, which are said to be necessary to hunt for guerillas blamed for the deaths of road construction workers last December, and to restore peace and order in cities where the recent protests and riots occurred.

Yet thousands in areas including Jayapura, Wamena, Deiyai, Nduga, and Puncak instead continue to feel vulnerable, bringing back the collective trauma of abuse by security forces or other perpetrators.

The state has the responsibility to provide collective trauma healing in Papua. However, the central government has been discriminative. On the one hand, the government has provided psychologists and psychiatrists to treat victims from the latest riots. The Social Affairs Ministry has also visited and distributed aid to victims in Wamena.

But in the cases of internally displaced persons (IDPs) from the armed conflict areas Nduga and Puncak, the central government’s provision of trauma healing services has been absent. The Nduga IDPs are still struggling to find safety in Wamena but can hardly access these services. Some even have been reportedly living in the jungle, far from the media spotlight. About 100 residents in Puncak also have sought refuge in safe places to avoid joint security operations pursuing the armed group in the area.

If the central government is genuinely willing to resolve the problems in Papua, such trauma of past human rights violations should be primarily addressed before launching new plans or promises that are occasionally at odds with the Papuans’ interests. All the development programs would not improve welfare if the Papuans are still traumatized and afraid to ask for justice.

Note that all the aforementioned plans, including the establishment of new provinces, are a response to the recent racism-triggered protests of Papuans. Since 2000, every protest or riot in Papua has not been able to diffuse Papuan aspirations, particularly regarding politics and human rights.

Jokowi’s administration will only receive the shallow approval of Papuans, not genuine approval, if deep-seated grievances, rooted in strong distrust among the locals toward the central government, are continually overlooked.

________________________

Researcher at the Marthinus Academy, who conducted fieldwork in Papua from December 2018 to August 2019.

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