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View all search resultsFrom Aceh to Papua, greed threatens the nation
The pattern is simple: find land, exploit it, suppress resistance, reward the cronies.
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Papuans hold placards reading “revoke all nickel mining permits in Raja Ampat immediately“ during a protest march to the Southwest Papua Governor's office in Sorong, West Papua, on June 10. (AFP/Awakiraya)
A
t 8:30 am on June 5, Aceh Governor Muzakir “Mualem” Manaf was ready to leave for a prescheduled meeting with his constituents. He’d been waiting for almost 1.5 hours to meet North Sumatra Governor Bobby Nasution.
The meeting had been requested by Bobby himself, and Mualem might have wondered, why call for a discussion in the morning on such a sensitive issue if you could not even be on time? Just as he was about to leave, Bobby, the son-in-law of still-powerful former president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, showed up.
The discussion didn’t last long. After listening for less than ten minutes, Mualem, former commander of the Free Aceh Movement’s (GAM) armed forces, cut the meeting short and walked out.
Perhaps he sensed that the issue at hand, the transfer of four strategic islands from Aceh to North Sumatra, was far too critical to be decided in such a superficial exchange.
Yet outside, Bobby smiled for the cameras, claiming that the matter had been discussed “well.” As if the erasure of Aceh’s sovereign territory was a trivial misunderstanding.
Indonesia is at a crossroads once again, a familiar one. A place where greed meets power, where the voices of indigenous peoples are muted and where decisions are made behind closed doors, then whitewashed for national consumption.
The controversial move by Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian to quietly shift Lipan Island, Panjang Island, Mangkir Ketek and Mangkir Gadang from Aceh to North Sumatra has sparked outrage.
