Appreciation of the Collaboration between the Central Government and Regional Heads Focusing on Papuan Development
The government through the Minister of Home Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia (Mendagri RI) Tito Karnavian continues to remind all Regional Heads in the Land of Papua so that they can focus more on handling various important issues in the context of development in the Land of Cenderawasih.
He conveyed this during the 2023 final evaluation coordination meeting (Rakor) regarding development in the easternmost province in the country. It is hoped that all Regional Heads in Papua can resolve a number of important issues with much more focus.
Several issues that are very important issues regarding Bumi Cenderawasih include the poverty rate in Papua and West Papua which is still relatively high. Not only that, another problem is related to the readiness of facilities and infrastructure for the new autonomous regions (DOB) which have not been completed in the three provinces that have just been expanded by the Central Government.
There are other problems which are also important issues, namely how to realize expenditure using the Regional Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBD) and how income in Bumi Cenderawasih is currently still not optimal or is actually capable of continuing to be increased further.
The Minister of Home Affairs also reminded all Regional Heads in Papua to also focus on other important issues, namely the problem of stunting, which is still quite high in the region. The last thing is for the local Regional Government (Pemda) to maintain readiness in holding General Elections (Pemilu) and Regional Head Elections (Pilkada) considering that soon this nation will hold elections.
In fact, the budget disbursed by the Central Government in Papua itself cannot be said to be small. On the contrary, under the leadership of the seventh President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo (Jokowi), the government has given enormous attention to Bumi Cenderawasih. One of them is by providing a fairly large budget for the Land of Papua.
With this large budget disbursement, it is certain that the Papua Regional Government can do many things, so that they no longer need to worry about funding. Therefore, now that full support has been provided by the Central Government in the form of quite high funding, then only focused work is needed from Regional Heads to realize accelerated development. One of the efforts they can make is to carry out appropriate management from the regional leadership level to develop their own region.
Meanwhile, the Central Papua Provincial Government (Pemprov) itself has a very big commitment to being able to lift all its citizens from the brink of extreme poverty. For this reason, the Provincial Government through the Department of Social Affairs, Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection disbursed direct cash assistance (BLT) in the amount of more than 31 billion Rupiah to the community in eight districts there.
Regarding the provision of assistance, the Acting Governor of Central Papua, Dr. Ribka Haluk revealed that the activities carried out were a manifestation of a very real commitment from the Provincial Government in their efforts to eradicate extreme poverty and also in support of the national target of reducing the extreme poverty rate to 0 percent by 2024.
Because the number of Papuan people who are still mired in the abyss of extreme poverty can be said to be quite large, this makes the provincial government itself even more motivated to work much more actively and creatively to be able to alleviate the problem of extreme poverty.
There is great hope that the assistance distributed to the community will be able to reduce the extreme poverty rate in Central Papua Province. Not half-hearted, the Acting Governor of Central Papua Province appealed to the District Heads in all their regions not to hesitate to intervene in work programs and activities in 2024 in every element of regional apparatus, because the focus is to strive for the eradication of extreme poverty. , so it is hoped that they will be able to take an active role in updating the extreme poverty data in the area to zero.
However, it is also appealed to the entire community so that they are able to use very wisely the assistance that has been disbursed by the Provincial Government. Prudence in using aid is very important because recipients of aid this year will not receive the same social assistance again the following year. In other words, the next social assistance will be given to other communities who equally need assistance from the government to achieve equality and justice.
Optimizing the acceleration of development in Bumi Cenderawasih requires the role of every Regional Head in Papua himself. Therefore, the Central Government through the Minister of Home Affairs reminded each Regional Government to continue to focus on being able to handle various problems which are important issues in development in Papua.
)* The author is a Papuan student living in Makassar
