The Government of the Republic of Indonesia implements development with an Indonesia-centric paradigm , meaning that development is no longer only centered on one particular region or island. Then the government will carry out this equitable development with the Land of Papua as its priority.
Since the era of the leadership of the President of the Republic of Indonesia (RI), Joko Widodo (Jokowi), development has indeed been continuously pursued by the government, primarily related to infrastructure development. Even recently, the development that has taken place in the country is no longer only focused on one region or island like in Java, but is much more evenly distributed.
Other areas that previously seemed to receive little attention from the government and received less development, now in the era of President Jokowi’s leadership , they are starting to pay full attention, such as Sumatra, Aceh to Papua.
How could it not be, because the territory of Indonesia itself has many islands and not only consists of the island of Java, therefore it is the duty of the government to continue to pay attention to all regions and not just focus on certain areas.
Not only carrying out massive infrastructure development evenly throughout the region, but President Jokowi has also continuously advised the entire community to be able to supervise and monitor how development projects are implemented by the Government of the Republic of Indonesia .
Starting from how the quality of the construction is being carried out, whether it is really using good goods and so on. Then, indeed he emphasized that construction has recently continued to be carried out in various regions including Kalimantan. Lots of development that has been completed such as in supporting transportation.
Some time ago, namely during a speech at the inauguration of the Papua Youth Creative Hub (PYCH) on Tuesday, March 21, 2023, even the seventh President of the Republic of Indonesia emphasized that indeed the development currently carried out by the government has an Indonesia-centric nature , then the Land of Papua became one of the priorities of the development carried out.
The President also explained a number of developments that have been carried out in Papua, starting from the construction of the Trans Papua Road and border roads, construction and revitalization of airports (airports), to the construction of border areas and cross-border posts (PLBN).
He added that there is already the Trans Papua Road which stretches for 3,462 kilometers (km) which has been built by the Government of Indonesia in Papua, then there is the Youtefa Bridge which stretches for 1.3 kilometers (km) , there is also other infrastructure such as Domine Eduard Osok Airport . in Sorong where the terminal has also been repaired , so that there is an airport in Wamena which has been built in Jayawijaya.
Also included , President Jokowi explained that in the Land of Papua there had been cross- border development in as many as 3 ( three ) locations , namely at Skow , then at Sota and also at Yetetkun in Boven Digoel which had all been completed by the Government.
Furthermore, the Head of State invited the Papuan people to participate in overseeing the development process in the Land of Papua. The President said that from 2014 to 2022, the budget allocation from the central, provincial and district/city levels for the development of Papua has reached IDR 1,036 trillion.
To all the people of Papua, he advised that the development which was being intensified by the Government of Indonesia in Cenderawasih Land could continue to be monitored, guarded and also continuously observed, so that there would be no abuse which would actually make the amount of funds that have been spent not in accordance with the target and did not achieve development. that has been planned.
It is very important to have the role of the whole community to continue to participate in overseeing the development proclaimed by the Government of the Republic of Indonesia, because according to President Jokowi corruption cases are still a very big scourge for this nation .
The government continues to strive to develop Indonesia evenly. This is in line with the Indonesia Centris program , namely building Indonesia from the periphery , especially in Papua. Vice President Masykuri Abdillah’s special staff stated that government policies in the Reformation era had been much better compared to the New Order era. According to him, during the New Order the approach was carried out using a security approach while currently using a security and humanistic cultural approach .
Policy improvements between the two government eras were actually clearly visible with the granting of special autonomy ( otsus ) which was followed by policy adjustments and also additional funding budgets.
The Land of Papua is indeed a land that has abundant natural wealth as well as human resource wealth and has great potential. Therefore, now the Indonesian government continues to strive for equitable development to occur in all corners of the country by changing the development paradigm to become Indonesia-centric , in which Cenderawasih Earth is a priority for this development.
)* The author is r Papuan student living in Bali
