Special Autonomy Really Helps Small Communities in Papua

Small Communities in Papua

Jayapura (WBP), Agus Yerangga (Head of Binsari Tourism Village), Samofa District, said he supports Otsus Volume 2 and the Evaluation of Village Fund Empowerment.

“Otsus must be continued and needs to be evaluated so that the Special Autonomy funds that are disbursed by the Central Government in Papua can reach Papuans in the villages and development in the villages can be completed more quickly,” he said.

Agus Yerangga, as the Head of the Binsari Tourism Village, strongly agrees with the Otsus that was handed down by the Central Government in Papua for the advancement of Papua so that it is not left behind from other regions in Indonesia.

“Otsus must continue to be carried out because from our Otsus funds, the Papuan people have been greatly helped. With this special autonomy fund, Papua will certainly advance along with other regional areas,” he said.

Small Communities in Papua

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.