goodmorningpapua.com – There are different terms for referring to an area in Papua. If most of the regional governments have the province, district / city, sub-district, sub-district, community, to neighborhood, in Papua there is also the term ‘District’.
A Papuan Archeology Center researcher Hari Suroto said that district is the name for a sub-district [kecamatan] in Papua. In Papua, in his opinion, the term village is not familiar. A scope of government under the district is a village for a regency or Kelurahan for an urban area. The village head is elected by the residents, while the head of Kelurahan is a state civil servant appointed by the mayor or regent.
For example the city of Jayapura. Although it is called a city, there are also villages on the edge of the city or on the border with New Guinea. Meanwhile, Jayapura Regency also has a sub-district [kecamatan], but only in Sentani District.
Hari Suroto, who is also a lecturer in archaeology at Cenderawasih University, explained that the term ‘distrik’ or ‘district’ is a legacy from the Dutch who once ruled at Papua until 1962.
During the Dutch era, the government for the district was onderafdeeling headed by a controleur. Controleur got responsible to the resident assistant as head of afdeeling.
The Dutch government calls Papua the Nederlandsch Nieuw Guinea headed by a governor. There is a unique governor because of he is an anthropologist. J van Baal served as a Governor of Papua from 1 April 1953 to 1 May 1958.
J van Baal established the Voor Bevolkingszaken office in Hollandia, as Jayapura City was then called. In this office, J van Baal assigned Dutch scientists from all fields for doing a research on Papua. They used this knowledge to design Dutch government policies in Papua.