Jakarta – The governor of the government's policy think-tank the National Resilience Institute (Lemhannas), Andi Widjajanto, says that the violence in Papua has tended to increase under the leadership of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.
Widjajanto said this finding was obtained from the first round of several studies that will be conducted by Lemhannas. This year, Lemhannas plans to conduct a total of seven rounds of studies on Papua.
"The findings do indeed show that in terms of the data on quantity, acts of violence in Papua are still tending to increase, during the era of Pak [Mr] Jokowi they have even tended to rise, that was the first finding", said Widjajanto during a Communication Forum under the theme Mitigating the Risk of Crisis in 2023 at the Lemhannas office in Jakarta on Wednesday February 22.
The second finding, Widjajanto explained, was that the acts of violence in Papua do not tend to follow a pattern, except in relation to location. He said that this is of concern.
"If it's location we know, the model, the largest number are where, in which regency, which region, there's a pattern, but aside from the location there isn't any pattern", said Widjajanto.
"Carried out in which month, carried out because of what, by which group, attacked what, there isn't any pattern, and that's what's worrying because there isn't any pattern", he added.
The other finding is that there is no correlation between economic or social indicators and acts of violence in Papua.
"For example, the rise and fall of the gini ratio with acts of violence, there isn't any correlation. Otsus [Special Autonomy] funds with acts of violence, the data shows there isn't any correlation. Poverty levels, there's no correlation, open unemployment, there's no correlation", said Widjajanto.
Because there is not pattern or correlation with these socio-economic indicators, Lemhannas is still looking for a treatment for Papua.
"There were no correlations in the findings, meaning we don't yet have a treatment for Papua, what kind of treatment must be found for Papua, that's the Ibu [Mrs] Deputy's homework for the next six rounds (of study), how to find a treatment for Papua", he said.
Widjajanto said that the organisation will explain the findings of the study at a meeting about Papua at the Presidential Staff Office. "On Thursday there will be a Papua meeting at the Bina Graha [building], we've been invited to attend to explain our findings", he said. (yoa/bmw)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Gubernur Lemhannas: Aksi Kekerasan di Papua Meningkat di Era Jokowi".]
