goodmorningpapua.com – The independence of the Republic of Indonesia has entered the age of 77 years. However, there are still many people in remote areas of West Papua Province living in limitations.
One of the veteran fighters of the Republic of Indonesia in Papua, R Ramandey said that local governments, both provincial and district and city, are obliged to make improvements to all sectors of life equally.
In particular, improving the quality of education and health for native Papuans.
“In the inlands and the mountains, there are still many people having difficulties,” said Ramandey when met by the media at the Sanggeng Stadium, Manokwari Regency, Wednesday (17/8/2022).
In 2021, the Central Statistics Agency reported the West Papua Human Development Index (HDI) of 65.26, an increase of 0.17 points compared to 2020.
This means that the HDI of West Papua has crawled from the low to medium category. However, West Papua’s HDI level still occupies the second lowest position in Indonesia.
Ramandey assessed that many programs have not touched the problems of the lower classes of society.
The momentum of the 77th Anniversary of the Independence of the Republic of Indonesia must be translated by the local government through a program to improve the quality of Papua’s human resources (HR).
“If you want to make a program for the community, first ask the community. What do the people need,” he said.
In his opinion, the central government has allocated a special autonomy budget (Otsus) to accelerate the development of human resources and infrastructure in Papua.
However, the management of these funds has not been carried out according to the principles of benefit, namely education, health, people’s economy and infrastructure.
“If the community is healthy, they can enjoy school facilities well, yes, they can be smart,” he said.
So far, he continued, the government has focused on building infrastructure in urban areas. Meanwhile, in rural areas, people still experience difficulties in accessing basic services.
“This is a fact happening in Papua,” said Ramandey.
He hopes that the local government will evaluate all the work programs that have been launched.
Then make innovations and breakthroughs by paying attention to the needs of the indigenous Papuan people.
“Observe again, then make a program that touches the root of the problem to the interior,” he explained.
For your information, R Ramandey is an Army soldier who served in Battalion 751 Arfai, on January 1, 1968.
After serving for 13 years, Ramandey was transferred to Battalion 751 Jayapura. In 1998, R Ramandey retired and returned to Manokwari. At that time, Kodam XVIII/Kasuari had not yet been established in Manokwari.