WITH OTSUS, PAPUA COMMUNITIES CAN LIVE PROSPEROUSLY

The DPR has officially ratified the second amendment to the second amendment to Law Number 21 of 2001 concerning Special Autonomy (Otsus) for the Papua Province to become a law (UU). The decision was made at the Plenary Meeting of the Closing Session Period V for the 2020-2021 Session Year, Thursday (15/7).

A total of 18 articles have been amended and two new articles have been added. He hopes that this revision will not repeat the implementation of the previous Papua Special Autonomy Law which is considered to have many shortcomings.

There have been a number of crucial revisions to the previous law. Among them are Article 28 which previously allowed the establishment of local political parties in Papua to be removed. This article is a compromise against the demands for a referendum on Papuan independence when the Special Autonomy Law was formed in 2001.

In addition, in Article 34 the Papua special autonomy fund was increased to 2.25 percent of the National General Allocation Fund (DAU) per year and paid until 2041

Another crucial revision is Article 76. The central government and the DPR can now divide the territory of Papua without the approval of the Papuan People's Assembly (MRP) and the DPRP as previously regulated. The central government claims this revision is based on the Papuan people's proposal for expansion.

Yakobus F. Ramar, Head of the Oransbari District, said that Otsus should not only be judged from the amount of money received, but more than that, Otsus could be in the form of community economic empowerment programs and programs to improve the quality of Papuan human resources. "With the continuation of Otsus Volume II, we hope that we will try to propose a program to the local government in the form of IT courses/training to create modern Papuan human resources," said Yakobus.

Regarding the Otsus management scheme, it must go through a submission system, continued Yakobus, he strongly agrees with this because so far in Otsus Volume I, there have been efforts from the village head who is also the chief of the tribe to assume that the Otsus funds are only for the village head. It is hoped that in the future, Otsus can make a major contribution to improving the quality of Papuan human resources.

Yakobus invites the Papuan people to support and contribute to the success of the implementation of Otsus Volume II for the sake of development progress, improving the quality of Papuan human resources and the welfare of the Papuan people.

SOURCE: https://melanesianinfo.com/dengan-otsus-masyarakat-papua-can-live-sejahtera-2/