READING AND LIBRARY PROGRAM Community Development Program in Fakfak Regency and Teluk Bintuni Regency, West Papua Province

2/15/2011 12:00:00 AM

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Staf Peneliti:

Clara R.P. Ajisuksmo

Johanes Supriyono

Leonard Siregar

Ricky Andriansyah

Yohanes Whidi Nugroho

 

 

Tanah Papua[1] is the easternmost land area of the Republic of Indonesia occupying the western portion of New Guinea Island, the first largest island and province in Indonesia and the second in the world. Tanah Papua in the eastern side is directly adjacent to the Independent State of Papua New Guinea and flanked by the Arafura Sea in the southern and in the northern by Pacific Ocean. Tanah Papua has an area of 420,540 kilometer square, approximately 22% of Indonesia’s land area.  Nevertheless, this island is the least populous compare to other islands in Indonesia.  Central Bureau of Statistics reported that in the recent census in 2010, there are 3,612,854 people reside in the area (www.bps.go.id ). It thus means only approximately 1% people inhabit in one kilometer square. Compare to adjoining together Madura, Bali and Java which accounts for only 7% of the Indonesia’s land area, but these islands are populated by119 million inhabitants or 59.5% of the total population. Pertaining to its culture, cited from Walker and Mansoben (1990:2) “Irian Jaya is a province of linguistic diversity, with 240 mutually unintelligible languages, and considerable cultural complexity”.

 

Tanah Papua had been brought under Indonesian administration on May 1, 1963 following a ceasefire between Indonesia and Dutch forces and a seven months United Nations administration of the former Dutch colony. After the PEPERA/Penentuan Pendapat Rakyat (act of self determination) in 1969 has widely been regarded as legitimate and historic democratic process in the history of Indonesia, it then was followed by the condition of integration of Papua with Indonesia, which was then called as Irian Barat (West Irian).  Afterward, it became the 26^th province of Indonesia and Jayapura was as its provincial capital with full United Nations and international recognition.

 

At the onset, Soeharto, the second Indonesia president, initiated a name for Irian Barat as Irian Jaya. This name had been used officially until 2002 and then it was changed to Papua according to the Law No. 21/2001 (www.papua.go.id). This idea supports the recognition of the native Papuans as a branch of Melanesian race and as one of the many ethnic groups in Indonesia that has its own cultures, traditions, history and languages. The name of Papua itself is derived from Melayu language which means crimps depicting the physical appearance of its native.  Under the Law No. 21/2001, the National House of Representatives besides declaring a new name, Papua, for Irian Jaya, granted it the status of Special Autonomy. The main objective of granting this status is to bring the positive changes for the well-being of the people in Papua, and to maintain the integrity of the nation within the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (Alrasid, 2003; Watory, 2008).

 

It is quite astonishing that as a matter of fact, Papua is one of the richest provinces of Indonesia in terms of its natural resources and culture. Cited from the official website of Papua Government, Papua has natural potential of high economic value such as minerals, forest, sea, etc. Unfortunately, even though this province has the potential of abundant natural resources, there are still many people who are on the poverty line. It has been more than one third of the population is still poor.  In the period 1996 – 2002, Human Development Index of Papua compare to other 25 provinces, it was always on the last rank (www.bps.go.id ). This index is a composite statistic used to rank countries, in this case Central Bureau of Statistics rank provinces in Indonesia, and composed from data on life expectancy, education and per-capita gross national income.

 

The development process in Papua evolved very slowly that made it the most abandoned province in Indonesia (Tanamal, 2003). Even, stated from Frederika Korain’s, Jayapura Bishopric’s Justice and Peace Secretariat, saying on November 26, 2008, “Eighty percent of native Papuans are living below the poverty line, with most local jobs granted to migrants instead of the typically poorly educated indigenous people. Freeport (the U.S. based copper and gold mine company operating in Papua) has been the country‘s biggest taxpayer since 1967, but 80 percent of native Papuans still live in absolute poverty. Poverty pockets are evenly spread throughout almost all Papua regencies”. (www.papuaeducationaid.org ).

 

According to Tanamal (2003), in the Special Autonomy era, the government of Papua has identified four strategic development sectors, i.e.: education, health, physical infrastructures, and people-based economy, and considered these four sectors as main pillars for basic social welfare of the people in Papua. Due to geographical situation in Papua, it has already been mentioned by Walker and Mansoben (1990), “Irian Jaya is the most remote and least-developed province in Indonesia. The rugged terrain of much of the interior and extensive coastal swamplands poses formidable barriers to communications and the economic development of the native population”. It thus is important for the local government to give attention on the development of the infrastructures, e.g. integrated transportation, in order for the local population to optimize the utilization of the natural resources as well as to easily access all the facilities that help them improve their quality of life.

 

On the other hand, the quality of human resources is the most important factor for the development of Papua, and should be improved through the raising of education, health standards and the upgrading of the productivity of work force. Raharjo (as stated in van Oosterhout, 1995) argued that although the per capita income in Papua had improved through investments, there had been little benefit to the local population because investment had not been made in projects that are directly relevant to the local population, such as education and health care.  High quality of human resources, then, in the future will play important role in planning, implementing and facilitating the improvement of the potential cultures as well as the natural capacities of Papua. Thus, to improve the quality of human resources is through a proper education.

 

Many studies reported that poverty is very relevant to education, in term of access and experiences. As mentioned earlier, development of educational sector is necessary in order to improve the quality of life of Papua people. One of the indicators to measure the quality of education is through the ability of residents to be able to read and write. Bas Suebu, the Governor of Papua stated that, “widespread poverty and poor nutrition everywhere, especially among indigenous Papuans. Children of school age are not able to read or write.” (www.papuaeducationaid.org ).

 

The Central Bureau of Statistic reported that in comparison to other provinces in Indonesia, number of school participation in Papua is quite low, especially among female (see table 1). According to Wahid (Menguak masalah pendidikan di Papua, www.bintangpapua.com) the educational problems in Papua is not only shown by low number of school participation, but also indicated by low number of teachers, high number of unqualified teachers, unequally spread of teachers and schools in the city and in urban areas, inefficiency and ineffectiveness of educational services, and low interest in reading.

 

Table 1 School Participation in Papua in 2008

Source: Biro Pusat Statistik 2010

 

In 2003 Papua was split into two provinces, i.e. Papua province with Jayapura as its capital and West Papua province with Manokwari as its capital. It was then reaffirmed with the ratification of Presidential Instruction No. 5/2007 concerning the Acceleration of Development in Papua and West Papua (Kompas, 2010b) and several aspects according to that law that needs to be accelerated are education, health, food security, affirmative action, and infrastructure. Moreover, it resulted that Papua and West Papua have increased the budget amount located in State Budget each year and in 2011, Papua will receive IDR 3.1 trillion and West Papua will get IDR 1.3 trillion. From that amount, 30% of which will be allocated for education and 17% for health sector (Tempo Interaktif Nasional, 2010).