goodmorningpapua.com – September 2019 became one of the new milestones at Papua. At that time, an agreement was made for the declaration of the Peace Land of Papua signed in Jayapura. The declaration, which was signed by community, religious and youth leaders, ended with the signatures of the Papuan Police Chief Inspector General Rudolf Rodja, a Cenderawasih XVII Military Commander Major General Yoshua Sembiring and a Papua Governor Lukas Enembe.
The reading of the declaration was conducted by the Chairperson of the Papuan People’s Assembly (MRP) Timothy Murib, which was followed by the entire audience hand in hand. Its contents include maintaining unity and unification in the Papua Land; coexisting in harmony, peace and love; and agreed not to be influenced by untrue issues.
There is nothing wrong with being Papua as a peaceful place. The plurality of its people, with various tribes, cultures, and religions, has remained intertwined from the past until today.
In Fakfak Regency, West Papua, for example, there is a mosque called the Patimburak Mosque. The harmonization of diversity is clearly revealed by menas of its architecture. Built by King Pertuanan Wertuar in 1870, this mosque building has a combination of mosque and church forms. It is said that the King Pertuanan Wertuar highly respects the religions in the area, namely Islam, Protestant Christianity, and Catholicism. It is these three religions that build mosques in mutual cooperation.
Another form of peace in Papua is mutual acceptance of other tribes and cultures. In this case, there is an assimilation process occuring in Papuan society. Mamat Alkatiri, a native Papuan comedian in the podcast “Papua is Us,” tells about the Alkatiri clan, which comes from Arab descent living on the easternmost island of Indonesia.
In community activities, a good social interaction is reflected in everyday life in Papua. This nature has even been passed down from generation to generation and taught from generation to generation. This can be seen from the obedient attitude towards parents and traditional figures and religious leaders. Attitudes towards others are also not spared. For example, respecting those who are older through greetings, calling father or tete to older man, mama or nene to greet an older woman, and pace-mace to address an equal male/female.
That’s a short description of the peace created on this Cenderawasih earth. Tolerance, accepting cultural differences and mutual respect, is inherent in everyday life over there. A life that blends with differences is the characteristics of the Indonesian nation which is bound in one frame of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia which cannot be separated. Of course, the peace within the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia, which has been well established, must always be maintained and preserved for the next generations.