Reza Pande Manuru | Papuan Figure
Building Papua means building Indonesia. On the land at the eastern end of Indonesia, the government continues to make Papua a development priority, especially since the issuance of Presidential Instruction No.9 of 2017 concerning the Acceleration of Welfare Development in Papua and West Papua Provinces.
Driven by strong enthusiasm and commitment, from 2001 to 2019, the development acceleration carried out by the government in Papua through increasing access and quality of basic services as well as economic development through downstreaming of superior commodities has continued. In responding to various development problems and challenges for the welfare of the people of Papua, the government has published various regulatory instruments, such as Undang-Undang Number 21 of 2001 concerning Special Autonomy, Presidential Instruction Number 5 of 2007 concerning the Development Acceleration in Papua and West Papua Provinces, Presidential Regulation Number 66 of 2011 concerning the Unit for the Development Acceleration of the Papua and West Papua Acceleration of (UP4B), and Presidential Instruction Number 9 of 2017 concerning the Acceleration of Welfare Development in the Provinces of Papua and West Papua.
Not only have various regulatory instruments been formed, to support the implementation of development acceleration in Papua, the government has also prepared five main areas to support development programs in the region. The five main fields include education, health, people’s economic empowerment, infrastructure development, and human resources.
Besides, the implementation of the development acceleration in Papua will be done holistically. Holistic development needs to be done because the Papuan need logistics and development like those who live outside Papua, especially in Java.
There are many policies to accelerate physical development and welfare in Papua. Physically, tens of pioneer airfields, river docks, and hundreds of bridges and thousands of kilometers of roads have been built in Papua and West Papua.
However, one of the five main areas in support of development programs in Papua, which is human resource development in Papua and West Papua, has made some progress. The results of the government’s hard work for five years had an impact on increasing the Human Development Index and reducing the poverty rate. Papua’s Human Development Index (HDI) in 2014 was 57, increasing to 60 in 2019. In West Papua in 2014, it was 61 and 64 in 2019.
Besides, there are two national energy policies that are also enjoyed by the people of Papua and West Papua, namely the one-price fuel policy and the availability of electricity to all corners of the country. This policy has been implemented at 170 distribution points.
The government also gives light energy at night. To make it happen, the government has prepared 35 thousand MW of power plants, hundreds of kilometers of transmission cables are connected. And for people in the depths forest, Energy Saving Solar Lights are presented. Papua and West Papua also enjoy advances in information technology as a result of the equal distribution of the increasing internet quality equally throughout the region by the Palapa Ring policy.
By continuing the funding for Papua’s special autonomy, it can accelerate equitable development in Papua in line with other provinces in Indonesia. Only people who do not like Indonesia’s growth reject special autonomy.
In addition to the achievements that have been described, to support the acceleration of development in Papua, the government has published Presidential Regulation Number 17 of 2019 concerning Procurement of Government Goods / Services for the Acceleration of Welfare Development in the Papua and West Papua Provinces to increase empowerment of Papuans entrepreneurs. This is a revision of the previous Presidential Regulation No. 84/2012. After the revision, the Presidential Regulation provides several facilities and special treatment for the procurement of goods and services that support efforts to accelerate the development of the welfare of Papua.
Not only that, the Special Autonomy (Otsus) funds for the Papua and West Papua Provinces which are sourced from the General Allocation Fund (DAU) of the State Budget which should be terminated in 2021 according to Law Number 21 of 2001, will be recommended by the Audit Board of the Republic of Indonesia (BPK) in early 2020 to be extended so that development can continue following the five priority development programs in Papua and West Papua.
