By : Rebecca Marian )*
The development of the Papua New Guinea carried out by the Government of Indonesia indeed aims to continue to optimize public services so that they can be reached by all people to those in remote areas to help improve people’s welfare as well.
There are 4 (four) New Autonomous Regions (DOB) of Papua which have been inaugurated by the Minister of Home Affairs (Mendagri RI), Muhammad Tito Karnavian in 2022. He stated that with the existence of the Papua New Guinea, it was also at the same time an effort by the Government to carry out equitable development, which was the main factor in the formation of divided regions, especially in the eastern tip of Indonesia.
It is known, the provinces of South Papua, Central Papua and Papua Mountains were inaugurated in mid-November. Following this, Southwest Papua was ratified as a New Autonomous Region (DOB) in December. Papua has an area almost 3 to 4 times the size of Java Island with a population of around 5 million. The size of the area is one of its own challenges in accelerating development.
Not only because it has a very large area, but it is absolutely undeniable that Papua also has a geographical terrain that can be said to be quite difficult to reach. Therefore, according to the Minister of Home Affairs, development in a number of areas on Cenderawasih Earth is still quite late due to obstacles due to the geographical terrain. In fact, now with the division of regions in West Papua, it will trigger progress for the region and society.
Moreover, Minister Tito revealed that of course there will also be public services and management spend of control from the Government which have so far been constrained in Papua, but all of them have now been resolved with the Papua New Guinea. He gave an example of how people in Asmat, in Boven Digoel, have to wait to go to Jayapura first if they want to do something because there are flights that don’t necessarily exist every day.
The formation of three new provinces in Papua was carried out based on aspirations that had been conveyed for a long time by the people and community leaders of Papua. from the various kinds of aspirations that came in, the government immediately immediately considered it to accelerate development in Papua.
Of course, with the concentration of areas in Papua, it is intended that people can experience far more excellent and optimal services because the conditions of all these services can be much closer to the community and the positive impact is felt directly.
Meanwhile, some time before, Tito said that the division would have a more positive impact on accelerating development, as experienced by West Papua and also several other regions.
Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia (Wapres RI), KH. Ma’ruf Amin revealed that one of the government’s efforts to be able to provide services that are much closer to the people in Papua is through the division of the region. So, with the division of regions, it is closer to a coordination that will be more optimally felt by the community.
According to the Vice President, the division of the Papua region is intended to accelerate the development of community welfare, especially in providing services in the Land of Papua. He reiterated that indeed the purpose of the Papua New Guinea is so that service to the community can be much easier in the context of bringing more prosperity to the community as well. How could it not be, if the service is too far away like before the expansion of the region, namely the service was only carried out in one province, of course it will be less good in service to reach all the people of Papua.
Furthermore, the Vice President revealed that the majority of the Papuan people support the existence of regional expansion as an effort to optimize service to the community, although he also acknowledged that there are indeed some parties who reject the division. Data from a survey research shows that in fact the majority of the people of Papua really support the existence of the new autonomous regions because they admit that they really feel that they are being served much faster and even better.
The government is fully committed to the policy of accelerating welfare development in the Land of Papua through various efforts, one of which is with Indigenous Papuans as regional leaders. With this commitment, the DPR even conducted an assessment with the General Hearing Meeting (RDPU) and it was signed by the governor.
Optimal public service is indeed something that the government continues to strive for so that all parties in society are truly able to experience excellent service. Not only that, because with the existence of optimal public services, the people themselves will also directly help their welfare. Therefore, the development of the Papua New Guinea is very important to be able to achieve this.
)* Papuan students live in Jakarta
