Day: November 29, 2012

Police chief calls on Papuans to ‘remain calm’ as 1 December approaches

Morning Star Moon Landing
Ironic Morning Star Moon Landing (Artwork: AK Rockefeller)

 

Tabloid JUBI

28 November, 2012

The police chief  of the district of Mimika, Jeremias Runtini has called on the people to ‘remain calm’ as1 December approaches. He said that people should act together to safeguard security and public order and should avoid getting involved in activities that tend towards subversion such as flying the Morning Star flag.

He said that to mark its anniversary, the OPM, Organisasi Papua Merdeka, the Papuan Freedom Movement, usually flies the Morning Star flag and other people join in this as well.

‘There is nothing special about 1 December,’ he said, adding that the police and the military will be patrolling the area, after mustering their men on Timika Indah Square,’ he told journalists, as 1 December approached.

He said that in anticipation of people flying the Morning Star flag, his men will be mounting patrols throughout the region of Mimika. ‘I very much hope that people will not get involved in activities that are in violation of the laws in force in the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia, ‘especially bearing in mind that flying the Morning Star flag is regarded as an act of subversion and is therefore against the law.’

Repeating his call for people to ‘remain calm’ and avoid doing anything that is against the law,  he called on people to support all the development activities that are being undertaken. ‘Let us join together and get involved in these development activities; I am ready to be a partner in these joint endeavours.’

He told journalists that during the three days approaching 1 December, the police will be at the top level of readiness during these three days.

‘All of us must think positively and refrain from doing anything that is in violation of the law, so as not to disrupt peace and tranquillity.’

[Translated by TAPOL]

(WPM NOTE: West Papua Media will be providing monitoring services for international media for December 1 events.  Please contact the editorial team to assist or report.  Donations are required to enable effective monitoring.)
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No primary schools in over a thousand kampungs in Papua

JUBI,

28 November 2012

Jayapura: The head of  the Education, Youth and Sports Service in the province of Papua, James Modouw, said that there are at least one thousand kampungs (villages) spread across the province where there is no primary school.

‘Of the more than four thousand kampungs in Papua,’ he said, ‘ it is thought that around 1,047 do not have a primary school. It is also the case that throughout the district of Suru-Suru in the Regency of Asmat, there are eight kampungs, none of which has a primary school. This does not include the regency of Yahukimo about which no data has yet been received.’

He said that the kampungs without a primary school are mainly in the mountainous regions of Papua. ‘In the whole of the Bintang Highland Regency, there is not a single primary school,’ he said. The same is true throughout the regencies of Lany Jaya, Puncak Jaya and Nduga. ‘This is a matter that requires the attention of the local governments in these areas,’ he said.

He said that the problem of the lack of availability of primary education in Papua should be resolved. ‘We call on the local and municipal  administrations to  insist that adequate funds are made available for primary schools everywhere in the 2013 budget.so as to deal with the lack of schools and the widespread illiteracy among the Papuan people. He said that is calculated that thirty percent of Papuan children get no education at all.

[Translated by TAPOL]

[COMMENT: Over the years, we have read so many reports about the non-availability of teachers as well as healthcare workers in so many parts of West Papua. This is clearly an extremely serious matter indeed, a situation that clearly has not improved since the enactment of the Special  Autonomy Law in 2001, more than eleven years ago. No wonder Papuans are being thrust aside as more and more better-educated migrants from other parts of the country outnumber Papuans and take control of the territory’s economy and administration. As is so often the case, Papuans are frequently described as being ‘terbelakang’ or ‘backward’. So whose fault is that?! TAPOL]

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