Spare a thought for the Indigenous Papuans, who have endured decades of persecution in their own homeland under Indonesian rule. This ongoing form of colonialism is enabled by nations that continue to supply arms to Indonesia—just as troubling is the silence of regional powers that accept Jakarta’s authority without challenge.
President Benny Wenda of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) stated bluntly: “We are murdered, tortured, and raped, and then our land is stolen for resource extraction and corporate profit when we flee.”
The Papuan people are overwhelmingly Christian and ethnically distinct from the Javanese, who dominate the largely Muslim Indonesian state. Yet for decades, the international community has stood by, tolerating the massacres of Papuans, the imposition of Javanese colonial rule, the ruthless exploitation of Papuan resources, and other brutal realities on the ground in West Papua.
Indonesia’s major trading partners—including the United States, China, Japan, India, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, and the Philippines—remain largely silent on the ongoing human rights crisis in West Papua. Australia, meanwhile, prioritizes military and geopolitical ties with Jakarta, often turning a blind eye to Papuan suffering, even as it expresses strong concern for human rights violations in faraway places like Ukraine.
The Guardian reports, “West Papua is the western half of the island of New Guinea, home to the world’s third-largest rainforest. It is rich in natural resources, including the world’s largest gold and copper mine as well as extensive reserves of natural gas, minerals and timber.”
The Guardian continues, “West Papuans say more than 500,000 of their people have been killed by the occupation in the past six decades, while millions of acres of their ancestral lands have been destroyed for corporate profit.”
Papuan civilization, culture, ethnicity, history, and religion are distinct from those of the Indonesian state, which continues to assert control over the region. It is essential that the human rights of the Papuan people are acknowledged and addressed—both regionally and internationally—before their identity and future as an Indigenous community are further endangered.
The Indigenous peoples of West Papua seek liberation from decades of Indonesian colonial domination, oppression, and exploitation. Their right to self-determination and freedom from external control is long overdue and urgently demands recognition by the international community.
Benda said, “Indonesia doesn’t want the West Papuan people — they only want our resources.”
The documentary “Paradise Bombed” by Kristo Langker exposes the harsh realities of the ongoing crisis in West Papua. It highlights several villages targeted by Indonesian bombings and illustrates how food insecurity and brutal living conditions are systematically used to break the spirit of the Papuan people.
Paradise Bombed – Video documenting the hidden West Papua (Important video to watch about West Papua)
https://www.ipwp.org The International Parliamentarians for West Papua (IPWP)
Jakarta (VNA) - An Indonesian military task group incapacitated many members of the Free Papua Movement (OPM) in three different operations ahead of Independence Day (August 17).
Major General Kristomei Sianturi, head of the National Armed Forces (TNI) Information Office, said the Habema Task Force carried out the operations to ensure public order and security in Papua.
The first operation took place on August 8 in Biak Village, Puncak Jaya, Central Papua, targeting an armed group led by fugitive Tenggamati Enumbi.
Three OPM rebels were shot, one of whom is believed to be Tenggamati Enumbi, Sianturi stated.
Enumbi has been wanted by the Papua Regional Police since January 2014 for his role in a violent robbery at a police station in Puncak Jaya.
The task group carried out its second operation on August 11, raiding Mamba village in Intan Jaya. Soldiers attacked the OPM's Kodap VIII Kemabu faction in a gun battle, killing one rebel.
Rebels attempted to confront Indonesian soldiers following the earlier raid in the third operation, which took place on August 12 near Eknemba village in Intan Jaya.
Teleginus Maiseni and his aide Seprianus Maiseni were slain in a firefight. Sianturi revealed that both were members of the Kemabu gang.
Sianturi said the TNI will continue patrolling to defend local populations from armed groups while also ensuring Papua's security and stability./.
With a poor child in Papua completing roughly six years of school and a Jakarta child completing eleven, Indonesia is not simply unequal — it is risking the foundations of its democracy. Education is where the nation’s political future will be decided.
As a rising BRICS+ power and the world’s fourth-largest democracy, Indonesia stands tall—yet its educationsystem reveals deep cracks. Stark inequalities persist – for example, a World Bank study found that a poor child in Papua completes only ~6 years of schooling on average, versus ~11 years for a child in Jakarta. Large gaps in learning outcomes follow; junior secondary students in Bali score ~80% on national exams, while peers in parts of Kalimantan score below 60%.
Such disparities undermine the promise of an inclusive democracy by perpetuating regional and socio-economic divides. They also hamper Indonesia’s long-term competitiveness; alarmingly, only about 9% of Indonesians aged 25+ hold a bachelor’s degree, and well over half of school completers remain functionally illiterate. Vietnam, Indonesia, and South Korea all gained independence in the 1940s, though through different historical contexts and timelines. Since then, Vietnam has reduced functional illiteracy to ~14%, and countries like South Korea now send ~86% of their youth to college.
Education reform is the pragmatic keystone for Indonesia’s democratic resilience and its new global role. Domestically, this crisis calls for a two-pronged approach: equalise access and raise quality. Fixing that gap is not charity; it is statecraft — a focused education revolution will cement democratic resilience and unlock Indonesia’s potential as a regional knowledge leader.
First, the government must ensure every child in inner cities or remote villages has a seat and a qualified teacher. Vice President Gibran Rakabuming has highlighted the “disparity in teacher distribution” across regions. Some urban schools are over-staffed, while rural schools struggle with vacancies. Policymakers should use data-driven incentives (hardship pay, housing, career track) to staff remote schools and fast-track certification and training so that all teachers meet professional standards. Early evidence suggests such measures can pay off: community-based monitoring linked to teacher bonuses in rural areas has raised instructional time and test scores in Indonesia’s remote schools.
Second, Indonesia must invest in learning infrastructure. A new Sekolah Rakyat program illustrates this strategy: by mid-2025, the government was renovating 63 schools (with digital monitoring of progress) to create tuition-free boarding schools for children from impoverished families. These schools will begin operating around July to August 2025, eventually enrolling thousands of disadvantaged students with no fees or entry tests, supported by approximately 4,000 newly recruited teachers. Such ambitious initiatives – ensuring safe buildings, sanitation, connectivity, and free meals – are vital to breaking the cycle of poverty and promoting social cohesion.
Indonesia’s G20 and BRICS+ roles amplify its domestic reforms, turning diplomacy into action. In July 2025, President Prabowo’s visits secured collaborations including education partnerships, advancing Indonesia’s ‘education diplomacy’ agenda.
In June 2025, Indonesia’s higher-education minister and the Russian education minister signed an MoU (witnessed by Presidents Prabowo and Putin) to boost Indonesian scholarships to Russia and mutual recognition of degrees. This deal will send 100 more Indonesians on Russian PhD scholarships and create joint research grants for professors. Likewise, in meetings with Saudi Arabia, Indonesia outlined joint programs in science and university exchange. The Indonesian minister reported proposals for joint/double degree programs and visiting-professor exchanges with top Saudi universities, noting that over 2,000 Indonesian students already study in Saudi Arabia.
In both cases, Indonesia treats education as strategic capital. Jakarta achieves goodwill and knowledge transfer by portraying itself as a bridge between states (for example, as the only global Muslim-majority democracy), building goodwill that supports diplomatic trust.
Moreover, Indonesia uses multilateral leadership to drive tech and pedagogy. At the June 2025 BRICS Education Ministers’ meeting, Minister Brian Yuliarto emphasised that Indonesia’s system of 50 million students and 3.3 million teachers must embrace digital tools and critical skills. He announced a national e-learning platform (Rumah Pendidikan), plans to teach AI and coding in thousands of schools, and urged BRICS partners to collaborate on AI in education.
This call for responsible, inclusive AI education underlines Indonesia’s global vision: to help shape a future of democratic, tech-savvy societies. The country’s soft-power scholarship programs reflect the same goal – for instance, Indonesia’s KNB Scholarship for students from developing countries explicitly advances “South–South cooperation” and redefines Indonesia’s role in global knowledge production. Such exchanges build long-term ties and show how education reform at home and abroad can mutually reinforce Indonesia’s democratic ideals.
By contrast, several ASEAN neighbours have strategically elevated their scholarship diplomacy programs as extensions of foreign policy. Malaysia’s MTCP (Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme) has hosted over 35,000 foreign professionals since its inception, framing technical education as soft power leverage. Meanwhile, Thailand’s TICA initiatives and Vietnam’s ASEAN Studies scholarships specifically target strategic Indo-Pacific partners. These models offer valuable lessons for Indonesia in refining its educational diplomacy to secure long-term geopolitical goodwill within ASEAN and beyond.
In an era where online disinformation campaigns and digital authoritarianism threaten electoral integrity across Southeast Asia, educational exchange programs also serve a subtler defensive function. By equipping regional scholars and future leaders with critical thinking skills and civic literacy, such initiatives inoculate against misinformation, populist demagoguery, and democratic backsliding. Education, therefore, isn’t just an economic investment — it is a safeguard for pluralistic, resilient societies.
To solidify these benefits, Indonesia should implement a complete policy package.
Equalise funding and governance. Mandate transparent school budgets and empower local governments to use funds where they’re most needed. Reinforce accountability by publishing performance metrics for all districts. Use G20/BRICS forums to secure technical assistance and peer learning on educational governance.
Upgrade curriculum and pedagogy. Infuse civics, critical thinking and multicultural education into all grades. Support teacher development centres to train educators in active learning and digital literacy. Ensure fast internet and devices reach every school (currently only ~30% of rural schools have reliable internet). Strengthen programs like “Merdeka Belajar” to allow schools academic autonomy, while aligning them with global standards.
Expand higher education access. Simplify and promote national scholarships (LPDP and KNB) with transparent information campaigns so talented youths from all backgrounds can apply. Encourage top universities to establish branch campuses or joint programs in underserved regions. Leverage Indonesia’s BRICS role to create regional university networks and affordable student-exchange schemes (e.g. reciprocal scholarships with Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, China).
Foster private, public and international partnerships. Attract global education investment via Public-Private Partnerships in tech and infrastructure (e.g. digital labs, STEM schools). Partner with NGOs (UNICEF, UNESCO) on teacher training in remote areas. Promote education as civic empowerment. Tie education programs explicitly to democratic values. Support media literacy and open debate clubs in schools. Allocate part of G20 aid funds or BRICS development bank credits to community schooling projects that also engage parents in governance.
Collectively, these steps address education “from the inside” by uplifting the masses and “from the outside” by integrating Indonesia into global knowledge flows. A healthier education sector will produce better-informed citizens who can uphold democratic institutions at home. And on the world stage, Indonesia – already a model of stability in Southeast Asia – can showcase how investment in human capital empowers both nation-building and international cooperation.
Indonesia’s anticipated BRICS accession elevates its status as a middle-power broker, yet this ambition requires more than elite summits — it demands people-centric diplomacy, with education reform as its most persuasive tool. Indonesia can be the region’s model of democratic education — but only if leaders convert summit commitments into a decade-long, well-funded domestic campaign that puts teachers, schools and learning first.
In the 1940s, newly independent Vietnam and Korea turned themselves into education success stories by making schooling universal and high-quality. Today Vietnam’s students exceed OECD learning benchmarks, and South Korea’s populace is among the world’s most educated. Indonesia can reach those heights too, but only by waging a sustained “education revolution” at home. In doing so, Indonesia will really reinforce democracy from inside and without, ensuring that every person has the information and chance to participate in and profit from their nation’s success.
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