By: George Marore
Problems related to Papuan independence have long been happening, even since this country was founded. The Papuans tend to be associated with Melanesians, bearing in mind the physical characteristics they have. But it is unfortunate, the problem was enlarged some time ago so that racism issues involving Papuan students in Surabaya and triggered a wave of protests in several regions in Indonesia.
In fact, this condition also tends to be exploited by a handful of parties so that instead of trying to reduce the escalation of the existing conflict, they actually enlarge this issue through various means. One of them is by spreading hoax news through electronic media and social media.
With hoax news from various media, it is easy to ignite the emotions of various parties. Moreover, the issue circulating is an issue that is very capable of igniting the emotions of both parties, namely racist issues and destruction of the red and white flag, both of which are still unclear which is the original news. Do not let things that are basically already worse become worse because of hoax news.
For this reason, to maintain the stability of national security, we must be clever in selecting the news that we will receive. Cooperation between the government and the community is also needed in order to maintain national unity and development can run smoothly anywhere, including in Papua.