University of Cenderawasih (Jubi)
By Petrus Farneubun
Jayapura, 4/1 (Jubi/Scoop) During the last two months , Cenderawasih University (Uncen), the oldest and largest university in West Papua, is facing harsh criticism and condemnation. Surprisingly, such backlash does not come from state officials, Papua Legislative Council, the Papuan People’s Council (MRP) or local institutions but from students from various universities and colleges across West Papua, but predominantly from cenderawasih university’s students.
Most students claim that Uncen should be responsible for numerous problems in Papua because Uncen is the key actor in drafting of the bill for special autonomy from the start which brings more harm than good to Papuans. As it has been argued many times, special autonomy does not bring any significant improvement to the lives of Papuans. In fact, it creates a culture of dependence, massive exploitations and structural marginalization and worsely contributing to the rise of HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Current situation shows that Papuans are no longer interested in doing farming work as they used to be but dependent on govenment-supplied products such as rice.
Also, current report released by Government Central Statistics Agency (BPS) in February 2012 shows that the percentage of poverty in Papua Province and West Papua province still above 20 percent, much higher than the national average and the percentage of poor people in Papua Papua Province and West Papua province in 2011 are nationally the highest; respectively 31,24 and 28,53; and Papua has the lowest level of human development.
