Not So Happy ‘Otsus’ Day

Posted by AsiaViews | Nov 27, 2017 | 0 |

The Jakarta Post

Nov 24, 2017
Celebrations are moments of joy to commemorate milestones in a person’s life, or a nation. Today, Papuans have a new commemoration: “Otsus Day,” or Papua Special Autonomy Day, as declared this week by Governor Lukas Enembe.

Some residents grumbled for not being notified that Nov. 21 was an official holiday. But others may be forgiven for wondering what there was to celebrate. Maybe the blessing in disguise is that the commemoration of the 16-year-old law brings to mind the pile of work that is progressing too slowly to catch up with numerous shouts of unaddressed grievances.

The 2001 Special Autonomy Law brought much hope to the nation and to the people of what is now Papua and West Papua; hope that they could be trusted to run their own government with the Papuan People’s Council representing customary groups, diverse faiths and women. The central government under then-president Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid had hoped that a special autonomy, following the symbolic name change from Irian Jaya of the Soeharto era to Papua, would help tone down cries for independence following unresolved human rights violations and continued poverty despite Papua’s rich natural resources, including the world’s largest gold mine.

Since the granting of its special autonomy, Papua has received Otsus funds reaching almost Rp 60 trillion (US$ 4.4 billion) — yet natural-resources rich Papua and West Papua remain provinces with the lowest Human Development Index.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has stood out among his predecessors for showing more attention to Papuans. He pardoned political prisoners and is accelerating infrastructure development in the province. But efforts at winning over the hearts and minds of Papuans remain paltry to what is being ignored.

Among others, a special team set up last year to address major human rights violations has yet to announce any progress. Among the reasons law enforcers cite as hurdles in investigations are the refusal of families to exhume the bodies of victims for autopsies, such as those killed in the December 2014 shooting of civilians, including teenagers.

Papuan civilians have come to perceive that as Indonesia’s minority of non-Muslim Melanesians, they are valid targets as suspected supporters of the independence movement, while losing out to migrants economically.

Though Papua does not host a battlefield as in the war between the government and Aceh rebels in the past, Papuans are often subject to an insecure life with low-level eruptions of violence with unclear actors — the worst involving the recently reported hostage taking of 1,300 people in Mimika regency near PT Freeport Indonesia’s mine. That a separatist group claimed responsibility has not helped bring clarity over the incident as independent verification by media is restricted.

Papuans are not the only ones complaining about corruption and suspected rigging in local elections.

But addressing the wide corruption loopholes and repeated flaws in Papua’s local elections — including a glaring discrepancy between registered voters and population data, as cited again in the latest report of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict — are just a few of many urgent corrections, if indeed Papuans are considered equal to other citizens.

(http://www.thejakartapost.com/academia/2017/11/24/editorial-not-so-happy-otsus-day.html)

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EXTRICATING NDONESIAN CHILDREN FROM ISIS INFLUENCE ABROAD

Indonesia urgently needs to revisit the possibility of repatriating the neediest of its young citizens stranded abroad, whose families had earlier joined ISIS. Most of these children are in camps in northern Syria but there are also small numbers in the Philippines, Afghanistan and Iraq. “Extricating Indonesian Children from ISIS Influence Abroad”, the latest report from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) argues that the government could begin by bringing back small groups of unaccompanied children under ten years of age, who pose minimal security risk and are most vulnerable to deteriorating conditions in the camps.“The problem is that health and security conditions are worsening by the day in the Syrian camps, and the children are growing older,” says Dyah Kartika, IPAC analyst. “They need access to schools, a nurturing environment, and medical attention. If the government waits too long, the children will be further exposed to ISIS ideology.” The new report examines a 2019 list of Indonesians in camps and prisons run by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Indonesian government has been trying to verify their citizenship, but with pseudonyms, misspellings and bad transliterations, it is a daunting task. At the time the data was collected, between March and June 2019, there were 555 Indonesians in SDF camps and prisons, including 367 children. Among the children, approximately 277 were under the age of ten and 34 were unaccompanied. In June 2021, there are fewer than ten children who are both unaccompanied and under the age of ten that could be prioritized for return. Bringing back children of ISIS families is no easy task. The report analyses the main challenges faced by the Indonesian government. These include definitional issues, bureaucratic competition, the difficulty of verifying nationality, evaluating the toll of exposure to conflict, assessing security risk, and finding relatives or others willing to provide care once the children are returned. In addition, COVID has meant stringent restrictions on travel, placing further obstacles in the way of repatriation. There are several models for rehabilitation of children exposed to violent extremism in Indonesia that could be modified to accommodate the needs of children repatriated from abroad. The report examines these models and argues that the government does not need to have every detail of rehabilitation programs in place before it starts extricating children from ISIS influence. It can start by bringing back the most vulnerable children and then modify programs as needed.

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Not So Happy ‘Otsus’ Day