Every week thousands peoples comes to West Papua – Suplied
Jayapura, Jubi – Papua’s Head of Manpower and Population Affairs Department, Yan Piet Rawar, defended government policy on population, saying the province is not the only one facing demographic problems.
He said demographic challenges were not only a national issue, but an international one as well. To address this issue, indigenous Papuans should be empowered.
“For example, why the mapping on the number of Papuan population is needed? It is to solve the problem and to find out the root of problem as well as the number of population. But these data couldn’t be applied for discrimination. Data on indigenous Papua and others must be accurate to answer the problem in Papua,” Rawar said on last week.
Regarding to the pressure of Commission IV of Papua Legislative Council over Manpower Office to immediately socialize and implement the Special Regulation on Population No. 15/2008 is the right step, Rawar said. But it should be done through affirmative steps. For example, why the rate of population growth of indigenous Papua is low. It should be connected with the aspect of health. Why the quality of Papua employees is still poor? It should be improved. “It’s needed. But the basic services, education, health are universal. Discrimination is not allowed. The health service at the hospital is universal, it’s about the human rights of everyone,” he said.
He said everyone need health and security services. And it has started; later it would be a mapping. “How many population of Papua, its dissemination and what’s the problem. But up to now we have not conducted a survey, so there’s no accurate data,” he said.
Earlier, the Vice Chairman of Commission IV of the Papua Legislative Council for Population Affairs, Nioulen Kotouki said the commission wants the Papua Manpower and Population Affairs Office to socialize and implement the Special Regulation on Population immediately.
He said this special regulation was the elaboration of the Papua Special Regulation. Its implementation does not to discriminate the non-Papua, but to protect the indigenous Papua instead. He further said the regulation is also to restrict the migrants’ wave to Papua, because more and more migrants come to Papua would increasingly marginalize the indigenous Papuan. (Arjuna Pademme/rom)
