The government prioritizes three approaches to resolve Papua issue

Jakarta (ANTARA) – President Joko Widodo’s administration (Jokowi) prioritizes three approaches to resolve Papua issue, namely the welfare, anthropological and evaluative approaches.

Deputy V on Politics, Law, Security and Human Rights Presidential Chief of Staff Jaleswari Pramodhawardani said the welfare approach was the most important approach in solving problems in the provinces of Papua and West Papua.

“The president approached welfare with various developments. Papua’s problem today is about welfare, marked by the lowest Human Development Index in West Papua,” Jaleswari said, in a Podcast from Bina Graha as released in Jakarta on Tuesday.

He said the Government carried out a number of policies in Papua and West Papua such as the construction of the Trans Papua Road section, infrastructure, one-price fuel oil, and taking over or divesting 51 percent of PT Freeport Indonesia’s shares.

Jaleswari explained, before the fuel policy of one price, the people of Papua felt the difference in fuel prices with regions in Java, Sumatra, and others. They have to pay very expensive fuel at a price that many times over, in contrast to Java and so on.

“I must say, a one-price fuel does not merely increase or decrease prices, but it implies how justice for all Indonesian people is realized,” Jaleswari said.

According to him, the Government continues to focus on improving welfare in Papua to be equal to other regions in Indonesia.

In this case, the Government issued a regulation in the form of Presidential Instruction (Inpres) No. 9 of 2017 concerning the Acceleration of Welfare Development in the Provinces of Papua and West Papua. This Presidential Instruction has expired in 2019 and will be renewed.

In essence, continued Jaleswari, the President mandated that education, health, local economic empowerment, infrastructure, digitalization, governance and law, must receive simultaneous and parallel attention continuously.

“We know that people see the problem in Papua only regarding human rights and violence. But how to fulfill the basic rights of the people of Papua is still minimal and continues to be improved,” he said again.

According to him, the achievements of Papua have begun to show results. Proven figures for the Human Development Index (HDI) in the last five years since 2015 in Papua and West Papua have increased.

In 2015, Papua HDI 57.25, then in 2019 it rose to 60.84. While West Papua’s HDI in 2015 stood at 61.73, then rose to 64.7 in 2019.

Notes

Three approaches to resolve Papua issue, which consist of welfare, anthropological and evaluative approaches are very important to be implemented correctly.