Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T09:03:02.637Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

10 - Papua under the Joko Widodo Presidency

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 September 2019

Richard Chauvel
Affiliation:
Honorary Fellow, Asia Institute, University of Melbourne
Get access

Summary

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has shown more interest in Papua than any of his predecessors. He campaigned in Papua as a candidate in 2014. He won a strong majority of the vote in both Papuan provinces, with levels of support among the highest in the country. As president, Jokowi has visited Papua more often than earlier presidents and he has visited Papua more frequently than any other province outside Java.

Jokowi's appeal to voters in Papua was easier to explain than his interest in Papua. During the campaign he had discussed the possibility of a political dialogue, raised the prospect of addressing human rights issues and his informal political style was thought to appeal to the voters. Jokowi also had the great advantage of not being Prabowo Subianto, his opponent in the 2014 Presidential campaign, who is remembered in Papua for his record of human rights abuses in 1996 (IPAC 2014). There was little in his background in business or as mayor of Solo and governor of Jakarta to suggest why Jokowi should show an interest in one of Indonesia's most intractable issues.

During a visit to New Zealand in March 2018, Fransiscus Orlando, a Papuan student, asked the president what motivated him to make so many visits to Papua. Jokowi related how Papua had been neglected for far too long, but it was part of the Unitary State of Indonesia (NKRI) and had to be paid attention. He recalled his visit to the highland district of Nduga in December 2015.

At the time the head of the military had advised against the visit because Nduga was the most dangerous region. I flew there by helicopter because from Wamena to Nduga required four days and nights of travel through the jungle. In the Nduga district there was not one meter of sealed road. This made me very sad. It is my motivation to develop the infrastructure and human resources to the same level as other provinces (Sekretariat Kabinet Republik Indonesia 2018).

Nduga district strongly supported Jokowi in the 2014 election, but it has come to represent many of the problems the Jokowi's government confronts in Papua, beyond the poor infrastructure noted by the president.

Type
Chapter
Information
Continuity and Change after Indonesia's Reforms
Contributions to an Ongoing Assessment
, pp. 213 - 237
Publisher: ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
Print publication year: 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×