Government to prioritize holistic development for Papua

 17th December 2019

Jakarta (ANTARA) – The Indonesian government aspires to persistently build Papua and West Papua in a holistic manner in the next five years through involvement of ministries, agencies, and institutions to expedite integrated development.

“If all agencies are moving on their own programs, it would not be beneficial. We are now optimistic of everything being integrated, although they are utilizing their own budgets,” Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Mahfud MD stated at a conference on Papua’s Development held in Jakarta, Tuesday.

To continue please read here

Notes

Located on the western half of the island of New Guinea and long racked by a simmering violent separatist insurgency, Papua encompasses Indonesia’s two easternmost provinces.

A former Dutch colony, West Papua was formally incorporated into Indonesia in 1969, after an undisputed vote of about 1,025 representative tribal leaders. The result of the plebiscite was overseen and endorsed by the United Nations.

Since the democratization in 1998, especially since 2007, democracy by mean of elections has been introduced to increase political participation in the two provinces. The fact that the leaders of Papua and West Papua provinces are democratically elected by the people has strengthened the legality of the region as a province of Indonesia.

During the Abdurrahman Wahid administration in 2000, aside from changing the province name from “Irian Jaya” to “Papua”, Papua gained a “Special Autonomy” status, a political compromise between Papuans and the central government.

The political will of politicians in Jakarta to proceed with the implementation of the Special Autonomy was formalized in 2001 with the special autonomy law.