West Papua Health Office's Disease Prevention and Control Department Head, Norma, stated that designation of the alert status aligns with the Health Ministry's instruction on handling mysterious acute hepatitis cases.
"The alert status is nationwide, and in West Papua, we are instructing public and private hospitals as well as public health centres to report (to the authority) if they detected a sudden surge (in the number) of hepatitis cases in their region," Norma stated here on Friday.
The department head also urged health officers at health service facilities to take proactive measures to detect hepatitis symptoms among infants and children in their respective work regions.
"Until now, West Papua has not recorded any acute hepatitis cases, but we will enhance our vigil by conducting blood sampling on infants and children that are suffering from symptoms of hepatitis as our early detection measures," she remarked.
Acute hepatitis reported in several countries, including Indonesia, is different from other hepatitis variants, as the disease origin is currently unknown, Norma noted, adding that the mysterious acute hepatitis disease causes severe symptoms that could appear rapidly.
"In general, only hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E cases are recorded in Papua and West Papua. Mysterious acute hepatitis only infects children below 16 years of age, and most cases are recorded among children below 10 years of age," the department head noted.
She urged residents to be cautious about symptoms of mysterious acute hepatitis among children.
"Symptoms of this disease are diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, stomach ache, and sometimes fever, as well as jaundiced eyes and skin," Norma stated.
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"The creation of new job opportunities is a serious matter in Biak Numfor District for which policies must be devised to open new job opportunities for Papuan natives," Biak Customary Council member Obet Ap stated here on Friday.
Biak people and the customary society expect the authority to create new jobs for them, he remarked.
Obet pointed out that despite an increase in the number of high school graduates in Biak Numfor District, job opportunities in the region were scarce.
He urged relevant authorities, including the regional parliament legislators, to inform the regional authority, the military and police, as well as other stakeholders about the Biak people's aspirations and concerns.
"A special regulation on (affirmative action) to recruit Papuan natives as military or police officers must also be devised," Obet noted.
The council member then expressed optimism that the creation of new autonomous regions in Papua would guarantee new job opportunities for native Papuans.
Meanwhile, another Biak Customary Council member, Mananwir Pondayar, urged the Biak Numfor District and Papua provincial authorities to be heedful of the native Papuans' rights, including ensuring jobs for them.
"Government programs are expected to provide job opportunities for Biak's youth," he remarked.
Biak Numfor District's National and Political Unity Agency head, Yermis Rumbiak, also drew emphasis to the government's consistent adherence to Law No. 2 of 2021 on Special Autonomy to ensure the prosperity of Papuans.
Earlier, Papua People's Representative Council (DPRP) member Yohanis Ronsumbre vowed to accommodate all aspirations and grievances voiced by the residents of Biak Numfor during the recent hearing meeting on Thursday (May 5).
"As the representatives of the customary society in DPRP, I affirm my commitment to accommodate all aspirations voiced by residents (that are essential) as inputs for the government in devising special regional regulations," Ronsumbre stated.
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Jayapura, Jubi – Data shows that the expansion of a region is highly dependent on the increase in Locally Generated Income (PAD), whose main components are regional taxes and levies.
PAD is used to finance the implementation of regional autonomy, therefore, there has to be a constant improvement in PAD. However, almost 60 percent of the regions in Papua are unable to meet their PAD target and should return to the parent regency.
“How do we achieve the welfare target if these regions are not able to increase their own locally generated incomes?” former Head of Social and Cultural Affairs of the Papua Regional Development Agency (Bappeda) John Bokorsjom told Jubi last week in Jayapura.
He said that despite the presence of many new regencies in Papua Province, not all regencies were able to increase their PAD. “In fact, they still depend on the regional and state budget (APBD and APBN). This will affect regional development and hinder the achievement of equal distribution of welfare,” he said.
“There must be an evaluation of the regional expansion to see if they are worth it or the governance should be returned to the parent regency,” he said.
Boekorsjom, who is also a lecturer at the Institute of Domestic Government Science, said that the Ministry of Home Affairs after conducting a moratorium on the regional expansion had yet to provide an evaluation and a green design for the next division of provinces, cities, and regencies in Indonesia.
Former Minister of Home Affairs Tjahjo Kumolo said increasing PAD is the goal of a regional expansion. “What’s the point of expanding if you can’t increase your PAD and only rely on the state budget?” said Tjahjo, as quoted by Republika.
Former Minister of Home Affairs Tjahjo Kumolo said increasing PAD is the goal of a regional expansion. “What’s the point of expanding if you can’t increase your PAD and only rely on the state budget?” said Tjahjo, as quoted by Republika.
But in reality, he mentioned that according to the previous experience, 60 percent of new autonomous regions failed to increase their locally generated incomes, which had also turned the government more selective in granting regional expansion.
Locally Generated Income of Jayapura City
Based on data from the Jayapura City Bappeda for the last two years or since the pandemic, in 2020 the PAD target was Rp 250 billion, but it had refocused to Rp 130 billion based on changes in the regional budget. This target was met with a surplus of Rp 20.5 billion. Meanwhile, in 2021, the PAD of Jayapura City was Rp 215 billion, which also experienced a surplus or exceeded the target. In 2022, PAD was targeted at Rp 243 billion.
In the Analysis of Locally Generated Income (PAD) in Jayapura City by Luigi Laurens Derosario Berwulo from the Department of Development Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business, Sam Ratulangie University, the PAD in Jayapura City from 2009 to 2014 continued to increase. However, Luigi said, this did not promise independence because regional income from the state budget allocation was still very large.
Luigi and his research team concluded that despite the improving economy of Jayapura City, in aggregate, Jayapura City’s PAD was still very small and had not been able to support its own household budget, and Jayapura City was still dependent on budget allocations from the central government.
Regional Financial Independence
Researcher Gunardi Ridwan of the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (FITRA) in a study entitled Papua Local Budget Analysis (LBA) 2020 published on February 25, 2021, said that the provinces of Papua and West Papua were considered to have not been financially independent. The two provinces still have a high degree of dependence on the central government through regional transfer funds.
“Regional financial independence is seen from how big the ability of Locally Generated Income is is to fund regional expenditures,” Gunardi Ridwan explained.
The Papua LBA 2020 was a qualitative study conducted in eight regions, namely Papua Province, West Papua Province, Jayapura Regency, Merauke Regency, Fakfak Regency, Tambrauw Regency, Sorong Regency, and Raja Ampat Regency.
During 2016 to 2019, Papua’s PAD has never reached 10 percent of the total regional budget (APBD). The details are as follows: Rp 1.098 trillion or 8.8 percent of the total APBD of Rp 12.438 trillion in 2016; Rp 1.308 trillion or 9.4 percent of the total APDB of Rp 13.968 trillion in 2017; Rp 1.009 trillion or 7.4 percent of the total APBD of Rp 13.548 trillion in 2018; and Rp 938 billion or 6.7 percent of the total APBD of Rp 13.978 trillion.
“West Papua, meanwhile, is not much different. In 2016 the PAD was 5.1 percent of the APBD, in 2017 5.9 percent, in 2018 5.8 percent, and fell again to 5.2 percent in 2019,” Gunardi said.
In addition to regional financial independence, another indicator of regional financial health is fiscal space. In Papua and West Papua, the fiscal space is still below 50 percent of total regional income, or in the medium category. (*)
- Indonesia has a vast maritime area, but not enough personnel to patrol and monitor for illegal and destructive fishing.
- To address this gap, in recent years the government has incentivized fishers and other coastal communities to form monitoring groups that are responsible for patrolling their local waters.
- In the Raja Ampat archipelago in the country’s east, Mongabay meets some of the people who have volunteered for the task of protecting their waters from blast fishing and cyanide fishing, among other violations…………..
- A total of 17.6 million hectares (43.5 million acres) of Indigenous territories in Indonesia, an area half the size of Germany, have been demarcated under an independent initiative that began in 2010.
- The mapping is seen as the first step for Indigenous communities in the long and complicated process of applying for official government recognition of their land rights.
- But government efforts continue to lag behind this initiative, with the state to date only recognizing 15% of the territories demarcated by the latter.
- At the local level, governments in the eastern regions of Maluku and Papua have been more accommodating of Indigenous land claims; but at the national level, a bill on Indigenous rights has been stalled in parliament for a decade now………..
- https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/indonesian-government-lagging-independent-effort-to-recognize-indigenous-lands/
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