2) Minister plays down plan to involve TNI in fostering religious harmony
3) Gasl-fired power plant in Timika roars to life ahead of 2021 National Games
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1) Equality of opportunity matters
Rob Goodfellow Jakarta
Jakarta / Sat, July 11 2020 / 01:00 am
Education for all: Students of YPK junior high school in Sumuri in Bintuni Bay regency in West Papua listen to their teacher during a class on Nov. 26, 2014. Papua and West Papua provinces were granted special autonomy to close the gap between them and the rest of Indonesia. (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)
On Aug. 17 this year it will be a mere 75 years since the Proclamation of Indonesian Independence from the Dutch. In contrast, it has been 239 years since the Declaration of American Independence from British colonial rule.
For America’s black population, the lofty constitutional proclamation that, “All Men are Created Equal” is still profoundly contested as the nation-wide Black Lives Matter protests have revealed. Inspired by the killing of George Floyd, a broad global movement has now emerged with the key demand of ensuring “the social, economic, and political power necessary for people of color to thrive”.
My question is, can these milestones be addressed in Indonesia with respect to the people of Papua?
An old expression says that, “an illustration is more convincing than a demonstration”. Three Indonesian Papuans—a career diplomat, a police commander and a director at the Indonesian National Development and Planning Board (Bappenas) share their insights into the structural changes that have provided each of them with an opportunity to thrive.
Fientje Maritje Suebu has served with the Indonesian Foreign Ministry for over 30 years. She is currently deputy chief of mission in New Dehli. Fientje is an ethnic Papuan born in Jayapura, who went to high school in Papua New Guinea, and graduated from Cendrawasih University.
Like all diplomats, she is a citizen of her country but also of the world, having held previous postings in Harare, Brussels and Ottawa. However, her greatest contribution as a diplomat has been her involvement in negotiations to secure the Indonesia-India comprehensive strategic partnership. So, what is the secret to Fientje’s success as a Papuan living in multi-ethnic Indonesia?
Fientje says, “As a senior diplomat, to be eligible for advancement, I must compete with other fellow senior diplomats from all over Indonesia. In my office there are Acehnese, Balinese, Bataks, Padangese, Javanese and other Melanesians from all over East Nusa Tenggara. I believe that I have reached my position on merit—because of my experience, my good work ethic and my ability. I hope that my example will give inspiration to the younger generation of Papuans. I have succeeded, and so can they.”
There are around 14 million Indonesians of Melanesian ethnicity living across the 6,000 inhabited islands of the Indonesian archipelago. Out of a total national population of 273.5 million, there are four million Melanesians living in Papua Province alone, but some 10 million others living from North Maluku to West Timor and from the island of Sumba to the island of Flores.
Many, such as Fientje, have directly benefited from major political reforms, especially Law No. 21/2001. This legislation has not only secured special autonomy for Papua, but also effectively quarantined senior positions in Papua for meritorious ethnic Papuans. However, just as importantly, this initiative secured equal prospects for Melanesians living outside of their home provinces.
Illustrating the experience of Fientje appears to show that Papuans are not disadvantaged—at least in the Indonesian diplomatic corp. Rather, if Fientje is any indication, they are thriving in what is one of the most culturally diverse nations on earth.
So, what about the national police force? Listra Kogoya is a commander in the National Police Mobile Brigade’s Intelligence unit. She is stationed in Depok, West Java. Listra was born and raised in Wamena, Papua. These days her area of special expertise is as a social media analyst. She profiles the perpetrators of online hoaxes and scams.
Her senior rank gives her real influence within the Indonesian police establishment. This year she was chosen as a keynote speaker at the National Police Academy on the topic of domestic cybercrime detection and prevention.
Because Listra serves outside Papua, her local community is predominantly made up of ethnic Javanese and Sundanese. She says, “As a Papuan Indonesian police officer, I maintain a good attitude with everyone and have learnt to speak the local languages fluently. I think for this reason people in my community of Pasir Gunung Selatan accept me as a sister. The same goes for the Indonesian police family. I work with the greatest imaginable human diversity of police officers, so I know very well first-hand how powerful unity in diversity is. And one day, if God wants me to go home, I will be a good role model in Wamena for my Papuan brothers and sisters as well.”
Like Fientje, Velix Wanggai is an ethnic Papuan born in Jayapura. He currently holds the position of director of underdeveloped regions and rural development at the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas). His new responsibility is to formulate and implement national policy for both Papua and West Papua. His specific brief at Bappenas and the Ministry involves preparing a new national policy framework to empower Papuans in all aspects of social and political life.
In this role, Velix stresses that Papuan (and West Papuan) special autonomy is being reimagined at Bappenas to eliminate what he refers to as the “vertical conflict” that exists between Jakarta and Jayapura. One significant reform is culturally based. The new Papuan Consultative Assembly (MRP) will create a powerful political opportunity for Papuan tribal groups, women’s groups, and religious organizations at a national level.
Another is to significantly increase Papua’s share of national revenue with an emphasis on infrastructure development, especially in health and education. And finally, consistent with one of the most important demands of the Black Lives Matter movement, all Papuan leaders in Papua and West Papua from the level of governor to the regents and mayors, will be ethnic Papuans directly chosen by the Papuan people—essentially democratic decentralization.
Velix describes his work at Bappenas this way, “Greater special authority for Papuans in Papua in fiscal policy and in the creation of human capital frameworks, involving both affirmative policy and strategic development policy. This especially incorporates transparent human rights affairs with policy actions and choices determined by Papuans like me, for Papuans, in a pluralistic, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural Indonesia.”
Clearly, human diversity emphatically charts the success of both Indonesian society and individual Indonesians—such as Ibu Fientje, Ibu Listra and BapakVelix. And while slogans and symbolic gestures are inspiring, and the Black Lives Matter movement is important, it is the implementation of practical policy that changes lives.
The examples of a black Indonesian diplomat, a black high-ranking Indonesian policewoman and a black senior Indonesian bureaucrat tell a story that equality of opportunity really does matter and that real milestones are achievable.
***
The writer is a senior consultant with the Australian-based consulting firm Cultural Consulting and the first non-Muslim to teach in the International Program of the Islamic University of Indonesia, Yogyakarta.
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https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/07/09/minister-plays-down-plan-to-involve-tni-in-fostering-religious-harmony.html
Religious Affairs Minister Fachrul Razi appears to have backed off from a plan to tap into the Indonesian Military’s (TNI) resources to promote religious harmony in Papua and West Papua, following widespread criticism that its involvement could result in more grievances among the indigenous population.
2) Minister plays down plan to involve TNI in fostering religious harmony
Marchio Irfan Gorbiano and Budi Sutrisno
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta / Fri, July 10, 2020 / 09:06 am
Minister Zainudin Amali on April 23.
Religious Affairs Minister Fachrul Razi appears to have backed off from a plan to tap into the Indonesian Military’s (TNI) resources to promote religious harmony in Papua and West Papua, following widespread criticism that its involvement could result in more grievances among the indigenous population.
Critics have slammed the minister for trying to involve the TNI in civilian affairs in the country’s easternmost provinces, which has revived fears of military repression and throws the security reform agenda into doubt.
But Fachrul played down the TNI’s involvement on Tuesday during a meeting with the House of Representatives in Jakarta.
He insisted the ministry was only asking for help to map out logistics.
“We want to seek out additional information in our efforts to improve religious activities in Papua, so we can better ease tensions. It is not our intention to involve the TNI – we only asked them for input,” he said at the hearing with House Commission VIII overseeing social affairs.
“We will focus our attention on houses of worship and religious schools.”
The minister’s comments sought to address concerns raised by a number of lawmakers.
National Awakening Party (PKB) lawmaker Maman Imanulhaq, for instance, took issue with the ministry’s security approach in promoting religious harmony and suggested instead a dialogue-based approach.
“You have working units in the regions such as the KUA [religious affairs offices] but also religious instructors, and they have functioned well,” Maman said during the hearing.
He said that if the TNI took over the mandate of these local working units, it might lead to “artificial harmony” among worshippers.
Maman echoed the sentiments of a coalition of civil society groups, which insisted that the TNI did not have the authority to meddle in religious activities.
“There are no strong or logical arguments for the Religious Affairs Ministry to involve the TNI in a program on religious harmony, because it is a fact that improving religious harmony is more effectively achieved through dialogue than through a repressive approach,” the coalition said in a joint statement last Friday.
“The plan to involve the Indonesian Military in efforts to promote religious harmony in the regions in Indonesia goes against the principles of democracy, human rights and the security sector reform agenda, as well as Law No.34/2004 on the TNI.”
The coalition includes rights watchdog Imparsial, the Legal Aid Institute for the Press (LBH Pers), the Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR) and the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras).
As the first retired TNI general to assume the role of religious affairs minister after the fall of the New Order regime, Fachrul met with Army officers in Jakarta on June 30 to discuss possible collaboration.
Read also: Rethinking infrastructure approach in Papua
Brig. Gen. Sugiyono, the deputy assistant to the Army chief of staff (Waaster Kasad) who attended the meeting, said that the ministry invited the Army to take part in its plan so it could mobilize resources in the country’s far-flung regions.
“The ministry wanted to invite priests and dioceses in the region [to take part], but it doesn’t have adequate resources. The TNI has personnel in the regions [who can] help disseminate the proper religious perspectives so that [Papuans] don’t view the government as colonizers,” Sugiyono said.
Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) researcher Cahyo Pamungkas, who specializes in Papua, said the plan would unlikely address the ongoing tensions in Papua, where local communities see the security forces as part of the problem.
“The conflict [in Papua] is a vertical conflict between the government and the people,” said Cahyo. “The indigenous Papuans want a withdrawal of non-organic security forces because their presence reminds them of tales of past sufferings that are passed down from one generation to the next.”
In a region mired in decades of armed conflict between the TNI and subversive groups, the government’s approach in Papua has consistently stressed security, even though other alternatives have been sought since the onset of democratic reforms in 1998.
During the New Order era, then-president Soeharto rolled out a program known as ABRI Masuk Desa, which deployed military personnel into the regions and grassroots as a means of monitoring and discouraging dissent.
The program was terminated after Soeharto fell from power, but was revived afterward with modifications, invariably sparking criticism.
Military expert Khairul Fahmi from the Institute of Security and Strategic Studies (ISESS) said that getting the TNI involved was bound to have social and security repercussions.
“Involving the TNI is like rolling back the past, where the state was dabbling on the one hand in secularization and religious-moderation propaganda, and on the other going deep into the private domain of faith,” Khairul said. “It could trigger resistance and potential conflict.”
The Religious Affairs Ministry’s plan is not the first of its kind.
In 2015, the TNI teamed up with the ministry for a joint campaign to stop radicalism and curb the influence of the Islamic State movement, by using the former’s platform to spread moderate Islamic teachings.
Read also: TNI to play role in curbing radicalism
In 2017, the TNI collaborated with the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry to continue the legacy of ABRI Masuk Desa with its community service program, TNI Manunggal Membangun Desa (TMMD). Under the TMMD, military personnel are deployed to villages to help develop local infrastructure.
The most recent plan would be the first of its kind to focus specifically on a religious approach, Army general Sugiyono said.
But Minister Fachrul, with his military background, should not confuse the domain of religious affairs with that of security and defense, Khairul said.
“In their operations in Papua, for instance, the military has also incorporated aspects of religious and mentality development, but that doesn’t mean it should ink an agreement with the Religious Affairs Ministry, which certainly has budgetary implications,” he said.
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3) Gasl-fired power plant in Timika roars to life ahead of 2021 National Games
Norman Harsono
The Jakarta Post Jakarta / Fri, July 10, 2020 / 07:45 am
A small 10-megawatt (MW) gas-fired power plant (PLMTG) in Timika in Mimika regency, Papua, has begun operations ahead of the quadrennial National Games (PON) in Papua next year.
State-owned electricity company PLN, the plant’s off-taker, said on Wednesday the new facility, which took nearly two years to build, would raise Mimika’s installed power production capacity from 24.5 MW to 34.5 MW.
“Other than to electrify local communities and boost economic growth, this plant is initially planned to support the National Games,” said PLN Papua, Sulawesi, Maluku and Nusa Tenggara regional director Syamsul Huda.
PLN, he continued, would develop infrastructure as planned even though the games, initially scheduled for 2020, have been postponed to 2021, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He did not elaborate on the potential market for the plant’s electricity after the games.
The Timika plant is among six new gas-fired power plants that have been developed by PLN to power the PON. The six have a combined capacity of 115MW, the largest among which is the 40MW Jayapura peaker in the provincial capital.
Decades of neglect have left Papua as Indonesia’s most poverty-stricken province, despite hosting the world’s largest gold mine, the Grasberg mine, in Timika, Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data show.
At 94 percent, Papua also has one of Indonesia’s lowest electrification ratios, which is the proportion of communities with access to electricity.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo decided to hold the upcoming PON in Papua with the hope of boosting local infrastructure development and Papua’s performance in the games.
The games were, however, postponed to next year after many provinces, including Papua itself, imposed partial lockdowns, officially called PSBB, that delayed construction and forced people to stay at home.
“Construction materials from Java could not enter Papua after Papua closed its airports and ports," said Youth and Sports Minister Zainudin Amali on April 23.
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