Papua and West Papua: A very short introduction
Understanding a land and its people(s) beyond sensationalist Australian media headlines, fabricated separatist propaganda, and Jakarta’s bureaucratic denials.
Papua and West Papua are Indonesia’s two easternmost provinces, often referred to as ‘West Papua’ by groups supporting its secession from Indonesia. Both provinces experience a multi-dimensional conflict which have resulted in numerous civilian deaths and human rights violations, perpetrated by both Indonesian security actors as well as armed separatist groups operating since the mid 1960s.
Economically, both provinces suffer from significant underdevelopment compared to other Indonesian provinces. Significant progress in development and infrastructure is visible in the provincial capitals of Papua (in Jayapura) and West Papua(in Manokwari), two major transmigration centers (Sorong, Merauke), the Freeport-run mining city of Timika its mining-related compounds and installations, as well as a few regency-level capitals. A large percentage of the population in Papua (40,72%) and West Papua (36,89%) lives below the poverty line with limited, if any, access to the most basic forms of health and educational services.
In isolated lowlands (jungles and swamps) and in many central highland areas that are difficult to access, there is very little services provided by the Indonesian state, other than a few police stations and military outposts which, ironically, exacerbates feelings of insecurity especially among its indigenous population. The lack of basic primary education, means that a younger generation of Papuans face exponential difficulties further down the line, and basic education is substituted
Politically, the conflict is often oversimplified, caricatured and even glorified by Australian social justice warriors, as one being fought (exclusively) between Papuan ‘freedom fighters’ fighting against a ‘colonial, repressive and genocidal’ Indonesian police state and its military forces. Although this might have some currency in describing Papua under former president Suharto’s authoritarian iron fist rule (1965–1998), such claims can readily be dismissed as uninformed and ignorant, if not entirely misleading, by today’s standard.
