Jayapura, Jubi – Some high schools in Kaimana, West Papua Province are reportedly forcing students to wear red-white flag emblems on their uniform.
“School authority gave us the Red-White flag emblem to be put on our uniform. I object it, because it’s weird. I won’t put it on because I think it is an oppression,” a student of YPPK Santo Thomas Aquino High School said last week.
Meanwhile a student of SMAN I Kaimana similarly said his school also distributes the same emblem to the students but most of them object it.
“The school’s teachers distributed the flag emblem without further explanation. We simply reject wearing it because we knew all Indonesian schools are not wearing this emblem on their uniforms,” he said.
Regarding to this issue, the West Papua National Committee Chairman of Kaimana, Ruben Furay said via email to Jubi on Thursday (9/4/2015) that the identity of Papuan nation represented by the Morning Star flag has been acknowledged by the entire Papuan nation. It’s not a secret. So, the Kaimana Education Office must pay attention to a program applied in the schools.
He further said if the Papuan students do not want to wear the Red-White flag emblem on their uniform, the school authorities couldn’t blame on them. (Arnold Belau/rom)
