Be mindful when comprehending the recent movement of Papuan Lives Matter
The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement has recently just revived due to the viral video and news about the death of a man named George Floyd. It is reassuring that the case has been handled arguably well, as several police officers have been recently charged for murder.
However, it is interesting to see how this case has enthused people, especially in the US, to reinvigorate the BLM movement, which this time has gone far more profoundly.
Consequently, powered by the turbo-fast information sharing in this social media era, the BLM has generated some strong impetus to many other groups of people in the world to regain their voice. One of them is the Papuan Live Matter (PLM) movement, which mainly runs in social media.
The movement, to some extent, made a variety of issues of marginalization of Papuans suddenly gain much more attention of the public, which may include all stream to two main issues: racism and injustice.
Not unique
Running alongside the BLM, the PLM can be understood as an advocacy movement for the underprivileged Papuans. It resonates with how the issue of privileged vs. underprivileged that goes along the BLM.
In the context of the movement, a people be underprivileged because they suffer from discrimination. They may be racially profiled and have less convenient access to essential services like health and education. In the end, they do not have the same opportunity with other peoples to advance.
In Indonesia, it can be easily identified that a lot of Papuans, especially those who live in the Papua regions, West Papua and Papua Provinces, are still underprivileged, or in other words, marginalized. School and health service accesses are not distributed well, the poverty rate is high, and the human development index is low there.
However, for Indonesia, such ‘underprivilegedness’ is not unique for Papua. There are a lot of other areas and provinces that are poor. Some cities in Java, hope this may not surprise you, are even poorer than cities in Papua like Jayapura, Sorong, and Manokwari.
While Papua is endowed with the massively beautiful nature, there are a lot of other regions in Indonesia that are arid, and water is sparse. In terms of government transfers, Papua receives some significant allocation of funds, which in per capita, maybe the highest among other provinces in Indonesia. Mismanagement is there, but that is not the focus of this piece.
Unavailable in English
Before the Papuan live matter movement arose, I have seen how racism towards people with darker skin has been, unfortunately, a long, historical part of Indonesians’ daily lives. Regardless of their ethnicities, people, especially kids with dark complexions, have been victims of racism for traditionally long.
You can go around many kampongs in Indonesia and ask just general people whether they want to have kids with brighter skins or the darker ones. One can easily find that they want their offspring to have lighter complexions. I cannot explain the exact reason why, but I can assume that the massive figures they can see on TV shows and magazines have light skins. For example, there have been not many news anchors from national TVs around if you can spot.
But does that make all Indonesians racists? Are they all apathetic from willing to help others, especially those underprivileged, which in this case include the Papuans? I doubt it.
In Indonesia, we have heard that Papua is just like other provinces that are open to people’s migration and movement. As such, the flow of professionals to the most eastern region in the country seems never to stop. Many health practitioners and teachers from outside of Papua have been working there, mostly voluntarily. Some of my friends joined a program called Indonesia Mengajar, teaching kids in remote areas there.
In this sense, far before the PLM, there has been a massive flow of great help from voluntary teachers and health practitioners to Papua. There have been programs that help build public schools, libraries there. Some universities developed programs that send their students regularly to help with things like education and health services in Papua.
It is just unfortunate that such fascinating and positive news and info are rarely found or published in English. As a result, only a few could know that both local and even foreigner volunteers, like young educators and general practitioners, have come to Papua to help provide the kids and the youths there with better education and health services. These outsiders have been received and welcome well in Papua.
Again, it is unfortunate that such warm, inter-ethnicity interconnection has rarely been written and published in English. In the worst-case scenario, though, it is regrettable that international people could think such info is falsehood.
Papuans, especially the youths who study outside of Papua, have been mostly well-received by the locals. Well, some issues have also arisen. For Papuans studying and working outside of Papua, racial profiling may be experienced. It is a fact that all Indonesians cannot deny.
However, such cases inevitably cannot undermine the fact that the reception of diversity across Indonesia keeps improving. A private vocational school in Pangandaran, West Java, for example, has been giving full scholarships to several Papuan kids not only to study there but also promote Papuan culture to other people of other ethnicities there.
All those endeavors are not perfect, of course. Those volunteer teachers have yet to reach all areas in Papua. Due to many reasons like safety, security, and distance, these volunteers may have a limited time of dedication.
The Indonesian government has, in fact, also lacked tailored approaches to connect with the variety of ethnicities, including Papuans. The recent handling of protests in Papua has not been optimal allegedly because the government has limited understanding of the Papuan culture.
For the recent detainment and trial of several youth activists, the government could have prioritized peaceful dialogs and avoid any legal approach, especially during such social crises. Even if the legal action may be the best option, careful and firm public communication, providing robust answers for any doubts and questions from the public and the media.
In another perspective, the youth activist may have legally breached the law for masterminding and not acquiring permission before demonstrating. However, dialogs could have indeed been undertaken to avoid potential polemics.
The interpretation of the law used against these men should have been indeed tailored to the Papuan context. Indeed, victims had fallen, but the fact that Papuans were struggling for voicing their underprivileged-ness is negligible. And civilized people would know that the legal approach should be done after any dialogs have failed.
Not dissimilar
However, it should never be set aside that there have been already heaps of Indonesians that have received these bright Papuan youth well. Some youth organizations have even worked hard to introduce and promote Papuan cultures in their areas and communities.
Experts have explained that the discrimination, and even crimes, that the Papuans experienced may not be dissimilar to what has been experienced by other groups of people in Indonesia, even in Java. Racial profiling, for example, has also been experienced by almost all ethnicities in Indonesia.
Even within the same ethnicity, those who have darker skins have been a target of discrimination.
The recent escalation of Papuan related issues should then direct the attention of the public and the government to help upgrade the skills of the youth to be better leaders for the regions later. By better, it means that Papua should be able to breed a generation of leaders that can deal well with the government to fight for their rights constitutionally through dialogs and negotiations.
Of this potential leader’s regeneration, there has been a massive exodus that is happening in Papua lately. This migration is related to the bright Papuan youths who can now be found studying in many great education institutions both in Indonesia and overseas.
Both BLM and PLM show that the underprivileged are indeed politically and economically marginalized, but they are not intellectually. In this digital era, people are far more legal savvy that they know their right to deserve equality in many aspects of life.
Demanding reasons
Our society, including the Papuans, keeps on growing that people demand reasons for whatever situations they are facing. If they are feeling comfortable with this life, they may have enjoyed the power of democracy and the rule of law in their society.
But for those who are not yet, they demand reasons, especially those who live in a democratic country like in Indonesia, why democratic values and the rule of law have yet to serve them.
To this end, there are crucial challenges ahead are to tackle. For those who deem themselves underprivileged, in this case, the Papuans and other marginalized groups and ethnicities in Indonesia should work together to power them with the most updated knowledge continuously.
They also need to work hard and together on breeding a generation of leaders that can persistently stand up for them and negotiate with, if not fight, the government in a constitutional matter. Papua and West Papua indeed now have a more globalized and knowledgable youth generation, but to make them leaders needs persistent cultivating and developing.
For the government, they should understand that in this democratic era, they are not the superiors of the people. The people may, in some cases, be more knowledgeable and resourceful than the government.
So, governing the society must come from a perspective that they are indeed serving the people, catering to their needs, and help them advance to become a better society. If staying in the government means that they want to be respected and even served, well, such a government deserves a chaotic community or country to govern.
But if there is any case where the government is the more resourceful one, advancing the society’s adoption to the keep-on-updating knowledge is vital. Keeping the superiority of the government may look more carefree, but that option is, as experts believe, fated to corrupt and doomed to fail.
In the end, I would see that ‘privileged-ness’ and ‘underprivileged-ness’ are the nature of our life. But human civilizations always come to find the balance. They rise by ensuring that all people, regardless of their looks and complexions, deserve the same rights to live and to prosper.
If you find this piece is attempting to find a better and mindful way of understanding the recent social media movement of BLM and PLM, then thank you. But if it looks criticizing either the PLM activists and the government of Indonesia, well, I hope you know that this criticism does not mean hatred, but instead interest and love to see how the movements could end up with a better outcome.
This little discussion should shed a bright light that Papuan lives have mattered for Indonesians far before the current social media-based movement turned up. The current campaign, though, should be seen as a gentle reminder that endeavors of uplifting those the underprivileged are indeed a long journey.
The undertaking takes not only government responsibility but also all people’s participation who want to see a better future of their multicultural society. (*)
Muhamad Rosyid
