Cultural Development and Reconciliation Are Assessed as the Basis for Papua Conflict Resolution

Jakarta: The religious and customary approach is one way to solve Papua’s problems. Traditional elements and churches can be involved because they have synergy in the lives of the people of Bumi Cenderawasih.

“In Papua there are three stoves, namely custom, church and government, all three of which have synergy for the Papuan people,” said the Coordinator of the Pentecostal Church in Indonesia (GPdI) in the Central Highlands of Papua, Reverend Alexander Mauri, in a written statement, Sunday, May 1, 2022. .

Mauri said Papuan youth could be given the opportunity to express themselves through culture, song, dance, and the musical instrument tifa. Meanwhile, churches and customs can be further facilitated and given the authority to move and help the government deal with any problems that occur.

If religious leaders are given support and mandates, he guarantees the problem will be resolved. The government needs to see the opportunity to give faith to religious leaders to appear to help resolve Papuan problems.

“Humans have a conscience that can be filled with the teachings of the goodness of religion, so a religious and cultural approach is needed, religious leaders need to be supported to help solve Papuan problems,” he said.

He recounted that the conflict in Lani Jaya in 2010-2012 which resulted in many police casualties at the Polsek could be suppressed when the church entered and a prayer was held with the West Papua National Liberation Army-Free Papua Organization (TPNPB-OPM).

“At that time it was explained to the Lani Jaya TPN OPM that what was done was wrong and contrary to the principles of the teachings of the scriptures, the OPM TPN in Lani Jaya wanted to understand and accept it, and so far there have been no more shooting cases in Lani Jaya,” he said.

In addition, he explained that special autonomy (otsus) was prepared because of the demands for the welfare of Papua, as the TPN OPM wished. He considered it good for this group to be touched as well as other groups.

“DOB (new autonomous regions) are also actually good and can bring goodness to OAP (indigenous Papuans), although there are pros and cons related to new autonomous regions, they must be respected and respected”.

According to him, reconciliation is also a way to solve Papua’s problems. Reconciliation can resolve the wounds and grudges of the past because of the implementation of the military system which has become a protracted problem to this day in Papua.

“Reconciliation is a religious teaching, part of a teaching from the Bible, namely love,” he said.

(AZF)