The Papuan People Are Positive For Otsus

Papua Special Autonomy has brought many benefits to the community. Thus, the people are highly anticipating the government's plan to continue the Papua Special Autonomy.

The central government will give a strong signal that Otsus will be extended another 20 years, namely in 2022-2042. The first special autonomy was completed at the end of 2021. This signal was conveyed by President Joko Widodo, the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Mahfud MD and the last by the Minister of Home Affairs (Mendagri) Tito Karnavian when visiting Timika last July.

Following up on the news regarding the extension of Otsus, President Joko Widodo communicated directly with a number of Papuan leaders on July 30. Jokowi ensured that the special autonomy in Papua would be extended.

As regions with special autonomy status, Papua and West Papua do receive large budget support for regional development. Two components of expenditure that are quite large for the 2 Provinces in Tanah Papua are the special autonomy fund and the additional infrastructure fund (DTI). The amount of the special autonomy fund has been regulated in law, while the DTI is determined based on an agreement between the government and the DPR every year.

On a per capita basis, each resident of Papua receives a state budget of Rp. 14.7 million. This is many times what the population of Java Island receives, which is under Rp. 4 million on average. Due to the issue of the exploitation of the Papua economy by Jakarta, this does not make sense.

During the era of Special Autonomy, the funds that were transferred from Jakarta far exceeded what was received from Papua. Taxes and non-tax state revenues (including formidable oil and gas profit sharing funds or PT Freeport dividends and royalties) in 2019 will not reach IDR 25 trillion, while the central government has allocated IDR 66.1 trillion for the provinces of Papua and West Papua.

Despite getting mixed responses from the community, the Papua Special Autonomy Fund actually had a positive impact.

Rev. Alexsander Mauri as Secretary of the Jayawijaya FKUB said, despite the rejection from the community, the Papua Special Autonomy Fund had a positive impact. It's just that, there is no appropriate regulation in managing it properly.

In order for the Papua Special Autonomy Fund to be right on target, Mauri asked the central government to be firm in its use in the regions. Moreover, there is no law enforcement for officials in Papua, regencies, cities in Papua in the use of Otsus that is not right on target.

He also hopes that government elements, indigenous peoples and agarma are involved in the management of the special autonomy fund.

Of course, this problem needs the government's attention, so that the revision of Special Autonomy Volume II needs to be continued while still improving the existing system.

On a different occasion, the Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs, Mahfud MD, stated that the government had no intention or plan to end the special autonomy status (otsus) in Papua. The reason is that this status is an order from Law Number 21 of 2001 concerning Special Autonomy for Papua.

He said that in an extension later, the government would control tighter administrative matters for the Special Autonomy fund. This is intended so that the special autonomy funds can be right on target and are indeed aimed at the development of the Papuan community.

The former head of the Constitutional Court said that the government did not use a security approach in advancing Papua. The government remains on the current policy, namely the comprehensive development of Papua.

A comprehensive approach will be adapted to the security situation. If a riot occurs, the government will take security measures.

Otsus is a process of building body and soul. Therefore, the good things that have been obtained from special autonomy, such as in the education sector which is an investment in human resources, continue to be improved.

The implementation of Otsus also received support from Papuan community leaders, one of which came from the Yalimo community leader in Jayapura City, Soleman Eselo, who admitted that the implementation of Otsus Papua really helped highland people succeed in various fields.

Since 1981, Soleman has served as an educator and many of his students have now become officials. With the special autonomy funds, his party has received a lot of assistance, maybe if there is no special autonomy, the building where he educates students is still damaged and ugly. So he also requested that Otsus be continued in order to develop Papua.

The development and progress of Papua is certainly one of the things that the current government wants. The revision of Special Autonomy Volume 2 is still needed so that the easternmost region of Indonesia has a competitive edge with other Indonesian regions.