Foto aerial pembangungan proyek jembatan Holtekamp di Jayapura, Papua, Senin (13/11). Pemerintah melalui Kementerian Pekerjaan Umum dan Perumahan Rakyat (PUPR) mengupayakan percepatan penyelesaian jembatan Holtekamp yang saat ini pembangunan fisiknya telah mencapai 78,68 persen dan ditargetkan selesai pada September 2018 atau lebih cepat dari rencana semula tahun 2019. ANTARA FOTO/M Agung Rajasa/ama/17
By: Jeremiah Kogoya) *
The Papua region is indeed one of the areas that is the focus of development by the government, it aims to eliminate the jawasentris impression, because the government really wants to develop Indonesia as a whole, including in Papua.
The single motto of diversity is that it must be implemented equally. The Papuan people certainly should get the same facilities as the places outside Papua, so that more Papuans can contribute to the country.
Coordinating Minister for Law and Security (Menko Polhukam) Mahfud MD said the government had prepared 5 priorities in accelerating development in Papua. These priorities include the fields of education, health, empowerment of the people’s economy, infrastructure development and human resources. Mahfud said, the people of Papua need the same logistics and development as those who live outside Papua, especially those located on Java.
Therefore, he also pushed for the acceleration of the development of Papua so that it could be done holistically. The former head of the Constitutional Court said, the effort to develop Papua holistically was a promise of the state to be realized and enforced. Because, basically it is a manifestation of the practice of the five precepts of Pancasila, namely social justice for all Indonesian people. On the other hand, the government has also given special treatment or affirmations. One of them is related to the law on special autonomy.
In addition, the government has issued several regulations and specific policies that are affirmative in relation to Papua and West Papua. One of them is the Presidential Instruction (Inpres) number 9 of 2017 concerning the acceleration of development and welfare in the provinces of Papua and West Papua. Through presidential decree number 9 of 2017 the president has given instructions to 27 ministries or institutions to accelerate the development of the welfare of Papua and West Papua.
For all these efforts towards the Cenderawasih earth, of course it shows that the government has a determination to advance Papua from time to time. We must also recognize that previously the problems in Papua were almost untouched, mainly related to the difficulty of access to transportation and communication.
However, slowly the condition of Papua will show a change, it is due to the development of infrastructure. One very pronounced impact is the national price of fuel. This certainly shows that development in Papua is slowly showing a certainty so that it is hoped that the welfare of the people of Papua can improve.
Previously President Jokowi had also said, If the infrastructure is good, roads and ports are good, then the economy in Papua will grow faster because of the logistical distribution of goods and people. Development in Papua also does not pass about roads and bridges, but also about improvement and completion, such as improving electricity, improving health infrastructure, education infrastructure and so forth.
The former Governor of DKI Jakarta also briefly recounted areas in Papua such as Nduga and Wamena that were blocked by the central mountains 5 years ago and there were no roads yet. The people there must walk for 4 days and 4 nights. Though the distance traveled is around 83 Km, but due to the heavy mountainous terrain, community mobility and logistics are quite difficult to pass.
Of course this is quite difficult for the community, what if there are people in Papua who are sick and want to get health services. For this reason, infrastructure development in Papua is important, and will remain a focus of government for the next 5 years, in addition to focusing on human resource development.
Although the challenges in developing Papua are not minor, the separatist groups there still often interfere with the government’s efforts to develop Papua. Not a few incidents of shootings by separatists which killed both the security forces and civil society.
But the government is still trying to develop Papua to realize the fifth precepts of Pancasila, we certainly agree that development is a positive step to advance an area. We must not be provoked by something that will adversely affect the life of the nation, building Papua is a concrete effort by the government to develop Indonesia as a whole.
) * The writer is a Papuan student living in Yogyakarta
