Merauke Community Leaders Support the Expansion

The community leader of Kimaam in Merauke Regency, Paskalis Imadawa, stated that he supports the expansion of the new autonomous region and the implementation of Special Autonomy (Otsus) to accelerate development in Papua Province.

According to him, the presence of the new autonomous regions will accelerate the development process in the regions, especially in South Papua, because so far the span of bureaucratic control is quite far so that it hinders the development process in the regions.

"The new autonomous regions, one of which is South Papua Province (PPS), must be supported, because the reach of Papua Province is very wide but with expansion it can bring services closer to the community. And I think the Merauke people need district and provincial expansion," said Paskalis Imadawa, Wednesday (31/03/2021).

He added that as a community leader who also understands the world of politics, Paskalis admits that he knows a little about developments in Papua, especially the issue of expansion. And the discourse of South Papua Province is the longing of the people, so there is great hope that these aspirations can be realized by the central government. "When can we get assistance (empowerment) from the center, when can we receive it? I think there is no reason for us to reject the province of South Papua, and that is obligatory, it must be entered in the near future, "he said.

For this reason, Paskali asked the central government, Papua Province and Merauke Regency to immediately push so that the process of forming the Province of South Papua could soon be realized with the hope that people's lives would be better.

Meanwhile, related to the sustainability of Otsus Papua, Paskalis Imadawa said that Otsus is for the welfare of indigenous Papuans, but it is very sad that recently the issue of rejection of Otsus has developed, even though what needs to be done is an evaluation so that in the future Otsus can be addressed better.

"Actually rejecting the special autonomy is not necessary, what we have to pursue now is the evaluation of Otsus. It is evaluated, so that officials do not play behind the scenes, officials from Papua, they must be evaluated, if they are found to have misappropriation there must be dragged, punished," said Paskalis. Imadawa. It is said that the evaluation and improvement of the implementation of Otsus is the main thing, and must be done so that various government programs can be absorbed down to the grassroots people who are below, because so far what has happened is the opposite, not right on target.

"Special autonomy only needs to be fixed and evaluated so that the program really touches indigenous Papuans. Do not let certain elements of government cut special autonomy funds, so that what reaches the community does not match the existing expectations," he concluded.

Paskalis suggested that the government could form a separate agency or institution that manages various programs in the name of Papua's Special Autonomy, and thus, the Otsus fund would be more targeted, targeted and its absorption could be in accordance with its allocation, and reduce the potential for misuse of special autonomy funds.

SOURCE: https://rri.co.id/jayapura/polkam/1011993/tokoh-merauke-dukung-pemekaran-dan-pelaksana-otsus-papua