Do Not Doubt on Jokowi Intention to Build Papua

Having been accused of frequent abuses of human rights in Papua, the Indonesian government took a couple of senior Australian officials on a tour of the easternmost region on Thursday to see the peaceful state of the region.

Australia's Attorney General George Brandis and Ambassador to Indonesia Paul Grigson joined Indonesia's Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Wiranto and Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan on a trip to observe the construction of the Skouw-Wutung border post on the border between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea (PNG) and other developments. The entourage left together from Nusa Dua, Bali, where they participated in a counterterrorism seminar.

Wiranto said he had invited the high-ranking Australian officials to Papua to see conditions in Papua firsthand, to counter what he called misleading information about the region's security situation. "They will personally see the condition of the region and people of Papua. A lot of information from outside does not match reality. They can also see firsthand that Indonesia is serious about paying special attention to Papua," he added.

Brandis said it was the first time he had visited Papua. "I see pride in the people in their country Indonesia. The government is also focusing on infrastructure development in Papua, especially at the Indonesian-Papua New Guinean border," he said.

Generally, a serial propaganda from whoever supporting a separatist group in Papua is always say that Indonesia has been accused of neglecting development and security in the resource-rich region, leaving it mired in conflict and human rights abuses. A separatist group, the Free Papua Movement (OPM), has a degree of popular support and is occasionally involved in armed exchanges with members of the security forces.
 
Another propaganda such as protests demanding freedom for the region have also occurred in other parts of the country. The latest was a demonstration in Yogyakarta by students who staged a rally to show support for the United Liberation Movement for West Papua's (ULMWP) bid for membership in the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) last month. The police detained seven students and raided the Papuan students' dormitory. There has also been a number of human rights violations recorded in the region over the decades.

In other way, we are know that whoever is doing mass rally or a public debates which is talking about supporting the existance of a separatist tenet in Indonesia must be banned eventhough those event is claimed as a democratic rihts or freedom of expression.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch (HRW) recorded that among the cases is the Biak massacre in 1998 during which civilians were tortured and killed in West Papua. The Indonesian government has previously said it is examining 22 human rights violations in Papua, of which it hopes to complete three by the end of this year.

Jayapura's Cenderawasih University Students' Executive Body chairman Goni Gobay said development, sought by the Indonesian government in Papua, would not be achieved if it failed to resolve the many cases of human rights violations. Goni agreed that peace was important in building Papua, so the government should also invite the brothers in the forests and strive to build Papua together.

I think the statement of Human Rights Watch (HRW) didn't make a single sources about the recent development in Papua. As a vested interest group which is directed by a global interest, HRW was always blamed Indonesia, specially on human rights violation, but we sure the sources of HRW didn't adequate sources about those cases because generally HRW had been taken a number of an information from their links or their compradore in Indonesia which have "a bad intention" to urge Indonesia as a single perpetrators on human rights violations.

I agree with Wiranto's statement that the people of Papua and local administrations to create a peaceful situation in the province because no development would ever bear fruit if people lived in conflict.

Whilst to commenting on Goni Gobay's statement, I think the Indonesian government has been taking an efforts to invite "the brothers in the forests" which known as Papuan Freedom Movement (OPM) to build Papua together, but OPM's leader didn't responds to the Indonesian government intention with a number of their reason.

If OPM's leader and their supporters will be surrendered to security apparatus, its could be started as a good moment to build Papua togetherness and I think the Indonesian government may give grant amnesty to OPM's members.    

Papuan religious leader Rev. Herman Saud acknowledged that the central government was open to Papua and had carried out many progressive development projects in Papua. "President Jokowi has paid very close attention to advancing Papua. This is an opportunity that should be taken advantage of by local authorities to carry out large-scale development to boost the prosperity of the people," he said.

I think Herman Saud's statements must be supported because its to be a positive opinion to invite all circles in Papua togetherness with the Indonesian government to build Papua, because under Jokowi's administration that the Indonesian goverment has a positive intention to boost an infrastructure development in Papua and to cope and to resolve all of human rights violations allegation in Papua in the frame of an Indonesia's law enforcement process without a foreign intervention.

I think to resolve all of Papua's problems, we must be taken a prosperity approach and a soft approach. Its could be happened if all of a separatist supporters in Papua need to realize that their actions just only make an economic and a politic furor in Papua. Hopefully.

*) The writer has earned his master at the University of Indonesia (UI).