2) In 2020, 138 free WiFi spots to be available in Jayawijaya
3) Batas: Where kina is king
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1) Boycott Bali? Why the atrocities in West Papua demand your attention
Morgan Godfery | Contributing writer
Opinion
It’s estimated that as many as half a million Papuans have been killed at the hands of Indonesian security forces over the past 50 years. Not holidaying in Indonesia is an easy way to say you’re not OK with that, writes Morgan Godfery.
Would you have gone on holiday in apartheid South Africa?
I suspect for everyone other than Don Brash and his fellow Pledgers, the answer is a lightning-quick “no”. It’s a little hard to enjoy the Durban boardwalk knowing that the Black and Indian people who live only a couple of kilometres from the beachfront have probably never sunk their feet into the golden sands, for no other reason than the colour of their skin. Holidays and beaches were only for white people, and only a know-nothing or a white power apologist would book that morally corrupt trip.
I think about this every time a mate posts about his Bali trip. I mean, the trips always seem like a delight: the rice terraces, the cocktails, the tropical sweat-ups. One bloke I know seems to travel to the island every few years for nothing more than the cheap thrill of bartering down some of the poorest people in the world. I’m not sure I get it. One thing I do get, though, are “South Africa 1960” vibes. Do the New Zealanders who book trips there know that a few islands east, the Indonesian government is forcibly occupying the Melanesian island of West Papua and killing its indigenous people?
Last month four students from Jayapura, the West Papuan capital, were taken into police custody after unfolding the Morning Star flag, the symbol of indigenous independence, at Catholic mass. Possessing or displaying the Morning Star’s red, white and blue could land an activist in prison for up to 20 years. This is a possible future for the four students, caught by a plainclothes cop in the back pews. In West Papua the Indonesian government’s occupying forces (police, security services and military) reach into every corner of the country’s public and private life.
Churches, as one of the few places where solace can be found, are almost always at the heart of resistance struggles. The African National Congress did much of its organising under the protection of local churches. But in West Papua the walls are closing in. The Indonesian government is “opening” larger and larger chunks of the Papuan highlands. In earlier times the highlands and their people were more or less left to their live their own lives in their own way, just as they’d done for thousands of years, before the Indonesian military dictatorship ran a sham referendum in 1969 to justify taking the island. The so-called “act of free choice” saw a little over 1000 West Papuans – less than 0.25% of the population – bullied and coerced into signing over their sovereignty to the government in Jakarta.
An act of forced choice.
But what would the Indonesian government want from West Papua, a province that at first glance seems exceptionally poor, more so than even Bali. There are only a handful of universities, and travel is a negotiation between the road and its potholes. Yet the island is home to fantastically rich gold and copper deposits. The American company that operates the Grasberg mine, a vast mineral pit in the central highlands, is Indonesia’s largest single taxpayer. In Grasberg alone reserves worth more than $100 billion are still left to haul from the earth. Other parts of the highlands hide untold billions too.
This, then, is the chief reason Indonesia is tightening its grip on the Melanesian country: Jakarta’s elites understand that West Papua will finance their nation’s industrialisation.
So how far will those elites go to keep West Papua in the fold? Well, in the past half century, as many as half a million West Papuans met their end at hands of the Indonesian security forces. In the Asian Human Rights Commission’s report The Neglected Genocide, survivors from the massacres in 1977 and 1978 describe their run-ins with the Indonesian torture squads and their escape from the killing fields. “Violence wasn’t just something that happened in West Papua, it was a form of government.” Even today activists and ordinary West Papuans still go “missing”. Last year over 2000 West Papuan university students on Java made the trip home after racist harassment on Indonesia’s main island.
Knowing that history, it’s almost impossible to remain optimistic about West Papuan independence. And yet people continue to struggle. Young people, mostly, and increasingly Indonesians alongside West Papuans. Last year six Indonesian activists were taken to the cells for unfurling the Morning Star in Jakarta. Surya Anta, a spokesperson for the Indonesian Peoples Front for West Papua, is facing treason charges for his part in the demonstration. It’s an important reminder that the Indonesian people are separate from the Indonesian government, and not necessarily complicit in the latter’s crimes.
Many are ready and willing to risk more than we, as comfortable Westerners, can possibly imagine.
The same principle holds in Bali – the Balinese aren’t responsible for the actions of elites in Jakarta, and even less so the actions of the 20th century’s Indonesian dictatorship. Regardless, before setting foot on any Indonesian soil you should perform a moral and ethical calculus. Is my Indonesian getaway undermining solidarity for West Papuans? Is it lending international legitimacy to a government that doesn’t deserve it? There are no clean answers. But two truths are inescapable: one, West Papuans are ethnically Melanesian, and so for us as Māori and Polynesians they are our brothers and sisters; and two, the country is geographically a part of Oceania, and so for us as New Zealanders they are our neighbours in need.
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2) In 2020, 138 free WiFi spots to be available in Jayawijaya
Wamena, Papua (ANTARA) - Residents of mountainous Jayawijaya District, Papua Province, will be able to enjoy free wireless Internet (WiFi) services at 138 spots to be provided by the Ministry of Communication and Informatics in 2020, an official announced here, today.
The Internet services, part of "WiFi Nusantara" project, will be operational this year, the Papua Communication and Information Office's chief Isak Sawaki said in Wamena, the province's capital city.
"WiFi Nusantara" is a nation-wide program launched by the ministry that aims to provide the Internet access to people living in remote, outermost and border regions in Indonesia.
According to Sawaki, the Internet access will help people in Jayawijaya district to browse websites without traveling to the city.
The Jayawijaya District Office has planned to install the free wireless Internet access at public offices, village offices, schools, and clinics.
Free wireless Internet services so far are only available in eight villages in Jayawijaya District. "We still have to install the WiFi devices in other 32 villages. I hope it will be completed in 2020," Sawaki added.
Related news: Internet development not yet accompanied by adequate literacy
Related news: Jokowi upbeat about Palapa Ring educing improved trade, bureaucracy
The Internet services, part of "WiFi Nusantara" project, will be operational this year, the Papua Communication and Information Office's chief Isak Sawaki said in Wamena, the province's capital city.
"WiFi Nusantara" is a nation-wide program launched by the ministry that aims to provide the Internet access to people living in remote, outermost and border regions in Indonesia.
According to Sawaki, the Internet access will help people in Jayawijaya district to browse websites without traveling to the city.
The Jayawijaya District Office has planned to install the free wireless Internet access at public offices, village offices, schools, and clinics.
Free wireless Internet services so far are only available in eight villages in Jayawijaya District. "We still have to install the WiFi devices in other 32 villages. I hope it will be completed in 2020," Sawaki added.
Related news: Internet development not yet accompanied by adequate literacy
Related news: Jokowi upbeat about Palapa Ring educing improved trade, bureaucracy
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3) Batas: Where kina is king
By CRAIG ALAN VOLKERIN RECENT years we have got used to reading news about how the PNG kina is dropping in value or how the Bank of PNG does not have enough foreign currency to meet the demand for businesses to exchange kina to pay all their overseas debts in foreign currencies.
We have become used to thinking of the kina as a weak currency. But there is one place where kina is king — at the batas (“border”) market just over the international border in Skouw, in the Indonesian province of Papua opposite Wutung in West Sepik.
This market is so popular that the Indonesian President Joko Widodo flew from Jakarta to officially open the new expanded market venue last October.
Every week hundreds of people cross the border go there to get cheap bargains and stock for their Vanimo trade stores, or to sell market produce, especially betel nut, to buyers on the other side.
The vast majority of these transactions are in kina, not Indonesian rupiah.
Even an hour’s drive from the border in Jayapura City itself, some business people prefer kina.
When I got a haircut in Jayapura, for example, the barber knew I had just come from PNG and asked if I could pay in kina rather than the local currency.
Undoubtedly one reason for this is the weakness of the rupiah, which has dropped in value even faster than the kina.
Each year a kina (or dollar or pound) buys more rupiah than the year before.
We have become used to thinking of the kina as a weak currency. But there is one place where kina is king — at the batas (“border”) market just over the international border in Skouw, in the Indonesian province of Papua opposite Wutung in West Sepik.
This market is so popular that the Indonesian President Joko Widodo flew from Jakarta to officially open the new expanded market venue last October.
Every week hundreds of people cross the border go there to get cheap bargains and stock for their Vanimo trade stores, or to sell market produce, especially betel nut, to buyers on the other side.
The vast majority of these transactions are in kina, not Indonesian rupiah.
Even an hour’s drive from the border in Jayapura City itself, some business people prefer kina.
When I got a haircut in Jayapura, for example, the barber knew I had just come from PNG and asked if I could pay in kina rather than the local currency.
Undoubtedly one reason for this is the weakness of the rupiah, which has dropped in value even faster than the kina.
Each year a kina (or dollar or pound) buys more rupiah than the year before.
This means that persons in Indonesia keeping kina or dollars in their pocket will see it growing in value in terms of rupiah.
It also means that a merchant buying betel nut, Twisties, or Ox & Palm from PNG (all popular with Jayapura residents) will end up having to spend more rupiah to pay the kina price that Papua New Guineans are asking.
With Papua New Guineans buying expensive goods like electronic goods and fuel and Indonesians buying relatively inexpensive goods like Twisties and betel nut, the flow of kina to Indonesia is much greater than the flow of rupiah to PNG.
This means that when merchants on the Indonesian side exchange their kina for rupiah, the banks accumulate a large amount of kina.
This imbalance in international trade has ended up with the Indonesian central bank having what it believes to be an unhealthy surplus of kina.
As a result, the Indonesian government has erected signs in Bahasa Indonesia, English, and Tok Pisin at the border stating that only Indonesian money is to be used in Indonesia, and officials have told merchants that they should use rupiah, rather than kina, in their shops.
It also means that a merchant buying betel nut, Twisties, or Ox & Palm from PNG (all popular with Jayapura residents) will end up having to spend more rupiah to pay the kina price that Papua New Guineans are asking.
With Papua New Guineans buying expensive goods like electronic goods and fuel and Indonesians buying relatively inexpensive goods like Twisties and betel nut, the flow of kina to Indonesia is much greater than the flow of rupiah to PNG.
This means that when merchants on the Indonesian side exchange their kina for rupiah, the banks accumulate a large amount of kina.
This imbalance in international trade has ended up with the Indonesian central bank having what it believes to be an unhealthy surplus of kina.
As a result, the Indonesian government has erected signs in Bahasa Indonesia, English, and Tok Pisin at the border stating that only Indonesian money is to be used in Indonesia, and officials have told merchants that they should use rupiah, rather than kina, in their shops.
They have also had ATMs erected at the border so travellers who do not want to use local money changers can use cards to withdraw in rupiah from their PNG or other International accounts.
But like merchants everywhere, shopkeepers at the border market want to please their customers.
They learn Tok Pisin and keep on accepting kina as payment to make their Papua New Guinean customers feel comfortable.
A few merchants who buy PNG products do try to follow their government’s policy and insist on using rupiah.
One woman was quoted in a Jayapoura newspaper as saying in Bahasa Indonesia, “This is Indonesia and we should use our own money in our own country”.
She buys PNG betel nut and sells it for three times the price in Jayapura.
Her Jayapura customers pay her in rupiah, so of course it is in her interest to pass on those rupiah to the Papua New Guineans who come to the border and are eager to sell PNG betel nut to her.
But she is in a minority; most commerce at the border continues to be in kina, no matter what the Indonesian government says.
Until the markets on the PNG side of the border are more developed and shopping in Vanimo becomes more attractive to people from Jayapura, Indonesian banks will continue to accumulate kina and the rupiah is unlikely to be able to compete with the kina.
For the foreseeable future, in at least this region, the kina will continue to be king.
But like merchants everywhere, shopkeepers at the border market want to please their customers.
They learn Tok Pisin and keep on accepting kina as payment to make their Papua New Guinean customers feel comfortable.
A few merchants who buy PNG products do try to follow their government’s policy and insist on using rupiah.
One woman was quoted in a Jayapoura newspaper as saying in Bahasa Indonesia, “This is Indonesia and we should use our own money in our own country”.
She buys PNG betel nut and sells it for three times the price in Jayapura.
Her Jayapura customers pay her in rupiah, so of course it is in her interest to pass on those rupiah to the Papua New Guineans who come to the border and are eager to sell PNG betel nut to her.
But she is in a minority; most commerce at the border continues to be in kina, no matter what the Indonesian government says.
Until the markets on the PNG side of the border are more developed and shopping in Vanimo becomes more attractive to people from Jayapura, Indonesian banks will continue to accumulate kina and the rupiah is unlikely to be able to compete with the kina.
For the foreseeable future, in at least this region, the kina will continue to be king.
- Prof Craig Volker is a linguist and writes the monthly Language Toktok column in Weekender.
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