Papua, PON, and the Presidential Instruction on Welfare

In October 2021, the XX National Sports Week (PON) will be held in Jayapura and several other cities in Papua, such as Merauke, Timika, and Biak. PON Papua is not only a momentum for athletes to compete in various sports, but also has a strategic meaning both for Papua and especially for the Indonesian nation and state. PON not only competes for sports achievements, but also enhances development achievements on Earth of Cenderawasih.

The implementation of PON shows the government's consistent role in developing Papua, even its commitment and determination to accelerate the development of the welfare of the Papuan people, especially the indigenous Papuans. Acceleration of development as evidence of Indonesia's achievements is not only in the eyes of the domestic public, but also evidence to the international community.

For this reason, the implementation of the PON coincides with President Joko Widodo's commitment to accelerate the development of welfare in Papua and West Papua as part of the Indonesian people. This acceleration is stated in Presidential Instruction No. 9/2020 concerning the Acceleration of Welfare Development in Papua Province and West Papua Province.

In this context, the implementation of the PON event and the declaration of the Welfare Inpres have almost identical objectives. PON means a match for sporting achievement, at the same time PON is a starting point for the reorientation of Papua's development according to the direction of President Joko Widodo at the March 11 2020 Cabinet Meeting, regarding developing Papua with new ways, new views, new paradigms, and new approaches.

That is, the Presidential Instruction on Welfare encourages the acceleration of bringing the Papuan people closer to prosperity that is not result-oriented but process-oriented. This of course requires time, perseverance, tenacity, passion, a conducive climate, as well as collaboration between philosophical, sociological, political, and technocratic work. The analogy is the preparation of an athlete to compete in the arena of competition to achieve achievements and trophies.

In my opinion, in addition to new ways, new views, new paradigms, and new approaches, PON is an indicator as well as a government "advertisement" that Papua is capable of organizing a national sporting event. Regions which have been mythized with backwardness, poverty and ignorance, have proven capable of implementing PON.

This myth is about to be dismantled through PON and at the same time the Inpres Welfare to spur the realization of prosperity and justice in the Land of Papua. The myth of backwardness and backwardness that has been synonymous with Papua, which makes the state intervene to eliminate it.

Papua is not as identified. Through PON and the Presidential Instruction on Welfare, President Jokowi wants to prove that both of them are a mandala in the struggle to achieve achievements in the field of sports, and at the same time Papua has achieved success in the field of development in order to achieve prosperity, while at the same time raising the dignity of the Papuan people.

The Papuan people are tired of living in a vicious cycle of poverty and backwardness. Tired of his life being constantly overshadowed by violence and conflict that seems to never end. The reality of backwardness, poverty, ignorance, as well as violence and conflict, are homework that must be resolved by the state.

Justice and Social Welfare
Realizing social justice is the theme of the administration of the welfare state. The founders of the nation accepted the concept of a welfare state not as an absolute truth, but combined it with the establishment of a nation that has been entrenched, namely upholding humanity, diversity, and social solidarity.

If there are still people who live in a cycle of poverty and underdevelopment, as well as conflict and violence, then Indonesia has not yet reached a plenary state, to borrow Yudi Latif's term (State Plenary, 2011). In the context of Papua, the values ​​of justice, welfare, and equality, have long been abandoned and ignored.

In the fourth paragraph of the Preamble to the 1945 Constitution, it is emphasized: (1) to protect the entire Indonesian nation and the entire homeland of Indonesia; (2) promote the general welfare; (3) educating the nation's life, and (4) implementing world order based on freedom, eternal peace and social justice.

Justice and social welfare must be interpreted by everyone in the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia as one social community. In this context, the Papuan people must proportionally accept their rights and obligations. That is why justice and social welfare are state obligations. The state's obligation to realize justice and welfare, including in Papua, is the theme of state administration. Since the welfare state was conceived by the founding fathers of the nation, this is the goal of an independent Indonesia.

Realizing social welfare in Papua requires several conditions. First, a true and valid understanding of what the aspirations and needs of the Papuan people are. People who live scattered with different and varied ecological conditions, ranging from the coast, inland beaches, lowlands, to mountains, of course, have different needs. So that in determining the type and form of the program, it must be based on the ecological conditions and the potential of its natural resources.

Second, the creation of social welfare must have an ethical weight. The twenty-year experience of Special Autonomy (2001-2021) has made people leave their independence in gardening or farming. They rely on proposals. The nature of independence has gone, turning into dependence on the distribution of the Special Autonomy Fund, Village Fund, and other funds. Every day we see that in almost district offices, people come not only to take care of administrative matters but submit proposals (proposal culture).

Third, accelerating prosperity must also integrate the local culture of the Papuan people by respecting and appreciating not only fellow indigenous Papuans, but also immigrant communities. Historical facts show that indigenous people have lived side by side with fellow immigrants from generation to generation without contradicting racial, ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds. This tradition has been around since the entry of Christianity in the 1800s. Instead, what happens is a cultural encounter that should not eliminate or dominate one another.

Based on this, in the context of organizing PON and implementing the Presidential Instruction on Welfare in Papua, there are four things that must be understood. First, we cannot live mutually exclusive or dominate each other. PON is not only a competition for sporting achievements but a means of binding brotherhood and solidarity among the nation's children. Not only among the athletes who will attend, but also with the Papuan people.

Second, the current reality due to globalization and the influence of the free market, we can become partisans of the free market but must care about the suffering of the people. Through the implementation of PON, the presence of the state becomes relevant to protect the Papuan people and the Indonesian people from being crushed by the swiftness of capitalism and globalization.

Third, imposing the will of the state with a security approach which is the old way of responding to disobedience movements, it is time to get rid of it. Use a humanist and dialogical approach to speaking in Papuan dialects and styles to resolve conflicts and violence in this region.

We must realize that the conflicts and violence that occurred in several districts in the Central Mountains due to the application of armed force will never resolve the conflict. On the contrary, it will create antipathy and hostility that is hard to forget. The PON and the Presidential Instruction on Welfare were carried out amid concerns about the displacement of children and women who were victims of the implementation of the security approach.

Fourth, what must be prioritized in organizing PON is collectivity as a reflection of togetherness without eliminating the existence of individual interests. The efforts made are balanced with the principles of gotong royong, unity and national unity. Later, when the PON event ends, it does not mean the loss of togetherness. The success of PON is the success of Papua, the success of Indonesia.

SOURCE: https://www.beritasatu.com/opini/7881/papua-pon-dan-inpres-kesejahteraan