A Realistic Approach To Social Political Cause Of Papua’s Separatism

The Papua case is like a “time bomb for Indonesia”.Many factors can trigger the issue of Papua into a large and open issue,namely politics,security,social,and economy.The dimensions of the Papua problem which are very diverse locally,nationally,and internationally have the potential to strongly change local issues into national,and vice versa.Moreover,the local and national dimensions of the Papua problem are very likely to become international issues when they involve the role and political and economic interests of foreign parties.The international characteristics or dimensions of the Papua case are determined by the role of state actors and non-state actors who have consistently and continuously "internationalized" the Papuan issue,for example through lobbying and diplomacy,both by the Government of Indonesia and those who are at odds with The Government of Indonesia,namely the Free Papua Organization(OPM).This paper will discuss the international dimension of the Papua issue by analyzing the roles and interests of several international actors involved in the problems in Papua.Then also discussed the steps or strategies of the Government of Indonesia in dealing with problems in Papua,specifically related to Indonesia’s efforts to maintain its foreign relations with foreign countries and the international community,especially with Australia and the South Pacific countries.The Indonesian nation as a large nation has not escaped a long history of conflict,and violence which still continued to occur in various regions in the country,such as in Ambon,Poso,Aceh,Lombok,Probolinggo,and Papua.Internationally,the West Papua region is seen as having been legally integrated into the territory of the Unitary Republic of Indonesia(NKRI)since 1969-after the implementation of the Act which received recognition from 84 countries and was ratified through UN Resolution No.2504/XXIV/1969.However,until now,the region is still volatile.Development in this region has not completely eroded violence and various conflicts.Both national and international mass media clearly show that Indonesia does not have a clear cultural strategy to build the integrity and harmony of its people.This condition will certainly affect the formation of Indonesia’s image abroad,because in Papua,there is a giant mining company Freeport,where the interests of global capitalism are very dominant.The issue of separatism embodied in various Papuan organizations and movementsseems to be getting stronger.If we do not begin to fix the harmony of the lives of the people,it is feared that the socio-cultural conditions of life in Papua will worsen.The chapter is organized in five chapters: Chapter one covered the introductory part,giving a general idea about the origin of separatism in Papua,which still exist until now.It also explain how & what cause of civil unrest in Papua,as part of this research task.The methodology adopted for the study is an analytical descriptive approach,interview with the expert,and historical approach to track the historical escalation of the crisis through collection of data..For the significance of study,this is expected to be able to make a real contribution to the government in its efforts to solve various problems that exist in Indonesia.Papua is a ’field of reading’ that needs attention from tertiary institutions.Conflict and violence in Papua have been going on for a long time and have a long history and are now becoming increasingly complex.Chapter two focused on flashback development of Indonesian government’s policy on Papua.This chapter will take back from the year where Indonesia is still struggle for Independent under Sukarno,New Order under Suharto,until enter the era of Reformation under administration of Habibie,Gus Dur,Megawati,SBY,and lastly,Jokowi.During the Soekarno period,he wanted to recapture Papua in integrating Indonesia’s unity with diplomacy and resistance to the Dutch who still controlled Papua.During the Soeharto era,he consolidated Papua to remain an integral part of the Republic of Indonesia with an authoritarian military approach,establishing Papua’s status as regional military operations.For 30 years under the Suharto regime,the issue of Papua became taboo and frightening so that it did not develop freely as a public political commodity.During the administration of Habibie in the beginning of Reformation Era,Papua’s problems began to unfold to the public sphere at the same time as the demands for reform of the implementation of the democratic system of government in Indonesia were rolling.President Habibie,invited the people of Papua to be free to voice their political rights,received 100 Papuan leaders at the State Palace then advised,went home and pondered.During President Abdurrahman,he wanted to listen carefully to the voices of the people of Papua and then decide on some state political policies that are fundamental and monumental,including: Deciding that Papua and Aceh be granted Special Autonomy.Allow ’Papua’ to be used as the name of a region and the name of a tribe,formerly ’Irian Jaya’.So legally,it was stipulatedin the Special Autonomy Law of the Irian Jaya Province to be the Province of Papua and the Papuan ethnic group.Allowing the Morning Star flag to be flown together with the red and white flag,but not higher than the red and white flag and is not used as a symbol of sovereignty,but is used as a symbol of the banner of greatness and a cultural symbol for the splendor of Papuan identity.With the monumental and fundamental policies mentioned above,Abdurrahman was able to attract the hearts of the people of Papua,to reduce the political situation that was heating up at that time.Papua’s political situation is back to normal.But when Megawati become the president,the political situation in Papua heats up again,among others: The assassination of the great Papuan public figure,Theys Hiyo Eluay.Because of this incident,the aspirations of independence began to develop among the people of Papua.Then,splitting the Papua Province into two provinces,namely Papua and West Papua through Presidential Instruction No.1 of 2003.The impact of the policy caused legal turmoil in the implementation of the Special Autonomy Law.The impact of this Inpres raises the pros and cons among fellow Papuans and the distrust of the people of Papua to the government and the Republic of Indonesia has increased.This is evidenced by the return of the special autonomy law to the DPRP and MRP by the people of Papua.During SBY’s presidency,the issue of the Papua problem remained fluctuating up and down the heat.Therefore,there are several policies taken by SBY,to ease the political temperature in Papua,including: President SBY encouraged the birth of PP No.54 of 2004 concerning the formation of the MRP.the existence of the MRP is divided into two namely the Papua Province MRP and the West Papua Province MRP.SBY issued Presidential Instruction No 5 of 2007 concerning the ‘New Deal for Papua’,which focused on encouraging the acceleration of development in the fields of education,health and economy in the pursuit of improving the quality of people’s welfare.But it did not succeed in realizing the target’s achievements.In addition,in the SBY era,several policy packages were issued that affirmed the empowerment of Papuan indigenous entrepreneurs in managing government projects sourced from the state and regional budgets.It also encourages the acceleration of basic infrastructure development,opening several sections of the Trans Papua road,which is currently being continued by President Jokowi’s government.In the current administration,Jokowi has encouraged several development programs in Papua and West Papua,but the impact is not significant to reduce the current political temperature in Papua.Papua’s political issues are increasingly global.Papua’s political temperature continues to rise sharply.The actions of the independent Papua movement continue to expand along with acts of violence and armed conflict between the OPM and the TNI/POLRI.To this day,the Nduga conflict problem is a burden for this country,but Jokowi has been unable to find a solution.Now there is the problem of racism that has a wide impact because of the incidents of Papuan students in Surabaya and Malang.Responded with destructive actions by the people of Papua.But President Jokowi remained relaxed when addressing this racism problem.Even though the political impact is quite extensive,it affects the national political constellation.Chapter three showed how local Papuan people’s perspective towards current issues in their homeland.There are several factors that we can see,both in terms of history,economics,welfare,and justice for the people of Papua.These factors are based on the results of questionnaire interviews with Papuans.In addition to collecting questionnaire data,the author also conducted direct interview with Dr.Frank Pekey from Jayapura,capital of Papua Province.He’s now serve as regional secretary for the Papua provincial government.The author also analyze this issue with several observations which already made by LIPI and other experts.The fourth chapter focused on how the international actors take role on civil unrest in Papua.As we know,Papua’s political issues are increasingly global.Political support from various world groups continues to increase.In the southern Pacific region,for example,support for the Papua issue has continued to increase,and has even been brought to the UN forum,especially the issue of human rights violations.In addition,the authors also conducted a different analysis of Papua with Aceh and East Timor,because the three provinces have similar cases,which are related to separatism issues in Indonesia.Lastly,Chapter five concludes the study,express the personal opinions of the research based on the results obtained.The main point is,It’s time for dialogue between the Papuan society and the central government,and both the Papuan side and the Government of Indonesia have been willing to talk.However,if it does not conduct a dialogue as soon as possible,the influences of independence from the OPMwill make it even more stronger among people of Papua,and the Indonesian government will face obstacles that are more difficult than before.