Jakarta, CNN Indonesia – The Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) has launched a website designed as a Papuan information center, which publishes the studies conducted by LIPI researchers on Papua.
Head of National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) Tri Laksana Handoko inaugurated the website, papua.lipi.go.id, on Monday. He hoped that the site would continuously provide comprehensive information about Papua.
“We expect [the website] to provide a database that can support the government at making better policies for Papua in the future,” Handoko said.
The website is claimed to be a public database so that the community can access the research on Papua conducted by LIPI’s Deputy for Social Sciences and Humanity since the 1970s. The studies are varied from political to cultural issues. The topics of marginalization and discrimination are largely discussed.
Among the notable studies are Customary Research as the Foundation of Coastal Management (PMB-LIPI), Socio-Demographic Change in West Papua and Marginalization (P2K-LIPI, 2019), Management of Papua’s Forest Resources (PMB-LIPI, 2019), and Languages in Papua Threatened to Extinction (PMB-LIPI, 2017-2019).
“Research on Papuan Muslims was also carried out by P2P-LIPI. The result of the study recommends the Papua land to be an area that is inclusive and more tolerant of Muslim communities and immigrants,” said LIPI.
Another noteworthy topic is the failure of development in Papua, as discussed in the Studies on Infrastructure Development (P2P, 2018-2019), Basic Education and Health Issues (P2K-LIPI, 2019), Development of the Outer Islands (P2P, P2K, 2019), and the Papua Special Autonomy (P2P-LIPI), as well as Traces of Indonesian Nationalism in Boven Digul (PMB-LIPI, 2013). Meanwhile, the topic of state violence and human rights violations was only carried out by the Papua Road Map Team in 2009.
“Not to mention the data-sharing project carried out by LIPI before 1998 related to the development and culture in Jayawijaya and Biak Regencies,” said LIPI.
LIPI said that the documentation of research on the society, culture, and biodiversity in Papua had been done by a number of institutions such as papuaweb.org by the Canberra-based Australia National University and papuaerfgoed.nl, which publishes researches by scholars and missionaries from the Netherlands and other European countries since the Dutch colonial period.
However, LIPI said, the papuaweb.org had not been updated in the last ten years, while a lot of studies published in papuaerfgoed.nl were written in Dutch which would be difficult for readers who do no master the language.
