goodmorningpapua.com – A head of the Papuan Religious Harmony Forum (FKUB), Pastor Lipiyus Biniluk, met President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) at the Presidential Palace, Jakarta, Monday, September 19, 2022. The head of state meeting with Lipiyus was held amid a number of problems occurred in Papua, from protests from the New Autonomous Region (DOB) to cases of mutilation of civilians.
Lipiyus looked out of the palace guest door at around 14.25 WIB. But when confirmed, he was reluctant to go into detail about the contents of his meeting with Jokowi. “Yes, we also have personal matters. The most important personal matters, I don’t want to say, but they are extraordinary. For this nation,” he said.
When it was confirmed whether Lipiyus had received an offer to fill the position of a member of the Presidential Advisory Council (Wantimpres), he denied it.
One position in the Wantimpres will soon be vacant because Muhammad Mardiono, who is now the Acting Chairman of the United Development Party (PPP), will leave.
“I’m sorry, I’ll never be anything. I’m like this but giving input to the country’s leader as an obligation of a pastor, that’s all,” he said.
This is not Jokowi’s first meeting with Lipiyus. In his first year as president, the former governor of DKI Jakarta invited a number of religious leaders in Papua to the Palace, on Friday 24 July 2015.
At that time, Lipiyus said that culturally, the Papuan people hold the custom that it is forbidden to burn places of worship. “Any place of worship that belongs together, from any religion, can sit together.” Lipiyus said. “So if you burn a place of worship, then it’s illegal. Papua is a Christian majority, they guard it.”
Lipiyus held a meeting with Jokowi, a week after he met with Pangdam XVII/Cendrawasih Major General Muhammad Saleh Mustafa in Sentani, Jayapura, on September 13, 2022. This was Saleh’s first meeting after the handover of the position of Pangdam on September 3.
“I heard this myself, the government heard requests from below, I went to Merauke to ask, I went to the middle mountains, groups came to me asking for (regional expansion),” Jokowi said on August 31, 2022.