A challenging trip to the isolated mountain tops

A challenging trip to the isolated mountain tops

By Neles Tebay

MULIA, Irian Jaya (JP): Puncak Jaya, in the central highlands
of Irian Jaya is well-known as an exotic remote place popular for
its snow-covered mountain peaks.

The spectacular mountains and valleys, the cool weather, and
virgin forests are an enormous tourist attraction for the
adventurous with the time and money to spend their holidays in
this isolated natural resort with few modern amenities such as
hotels.

When Paniai regency was divided into three new regencies on
Oct. 8, 1996, Puncak Jaya became a separate regency with Mulia as
its capital. The other two regencies are Paniai and Nabire.

Like other regencies in the vast but sparsely-populated
territory, Puncak Jaya is an isolated paradise. There is no road
linking it to other regencies.

The mountainous regency has a population of about 70.000
people scattered throughout the valleys.

According to Henoch Ibo, a government official who has been
working in the region for more than 16 years, the main challenge
in the regency's development is transportation.

The regency can only be reached by light aircraft, like
Cessna, mostly owned by the Protestant Church's Missionary
Aviation Fellowship (MAF) and the Catholic Church's Association
Mission Aviation (AMA). It takes about 90 minutes by plane from
Jayapura to Mulia.

The majority of the 70,000 population embraces Christianity
and are Protestants, which was introduced to them by American
missionaries more than 20 years ago.

Not all the airstrips in Puncak Jaya are paved. Pilots must
have the skill and courage to land the aircraft on a grassy
field.

The small plane can carry a maximum of 400-kg per flight. If
the local government wants to drop more than 20 sacks of cement
with a total weight of 1,000 kilogram from Jayapura, it needs
three sorties.

This means that the government should charter three flights
from Jayapura. Each flight costs Rp 4 million. So it would cost
Rp 12 million to have 20 sacks of cement from Jayapura.

Foodstuffs like rice, sugar, and other basic commodities like
kerosene will also have to be brought in by plane.

Another challenge is the cold weather. In Mulia, the weather
ranges between 10 and 14 degrees Celsius during the day and it
drops to 5 to 6 degrees at night.

People from other low-lying areas accustomed to hot weather
often find it difficult to adjust themselves to this weather.

"During my first days here, I did not dare take a bath,"
recalled Jules Rumakewi, a government employee. "I did not even
touch water ... it was just too cold, like ice."

Telephone lines do not exist. "There are no phones, so we are
very isolated from other parts of the world," Ibo said. Therefore
the postal service is vital.

Puncak Jaya was introduced to formal education only in the
1970s when the Indonesian government built INPRES primary schools
there. Since then every village has an elementary school.

Puncak Jaya regent Andreas Philipus Coem said although there
are school buildings, education is in a sorry state. Teachers are
lacking and textbooks are something of a rarity.

"Don't talk about the quality of education because the schools
are lacking books and other basic facilities as well as
teachers," Coem said.

The government has built junior high schools in every
subdistrict (kecamatan) but few students attend because they do
not want to live apart from their parents in the village.

Those who want to purse their studies at senior high school
have to move to Wamena, the capital of Jayawijaya regency, or to
Jayapura, the capital of Irian Jaya, or Nabire, the capital of
Nabire.

Few parents can afford the money to send their children to
senior high school because the airfare is already very expensive.

In 199, the government set up a senior high school in Mulia,
but, again, there is only one teacher there. Like other schools,
it lacks textbooks and other facilities. The government is just
too poor to transport them from Jayapura.

Health services are just as poor, according to Wirda Fakaubun,
another government official.

In fact every subdistrict already has a clinic (Puskesmas) but
the lack of medical personnel and medicines have made them
ineffective.

"There is only one doctor serving the Ilaga district," Wirda
told The Jakarta Post.

Residents who are seriously ill or those in need of surgery
have to be admitted to a better equipped clinic in another
regency by plane. People living deep in the jungle practically
receive no health services at all.

Unlike regencies in Java or other better-off provinces, there
is no state-run hospital in Puncak Jaya. The problem of poor
health services explains why traditional healing remains popular.

Road and airstrip

In order to overcome its geographical isolation, the Puncak
Jaya administration is building a road linking Ilu, Mulia and
Sinak subdistricts.

"The road linking Mulia and the other subdistrict towns will
enable better public services because it will cut transportation
costs. It will also allow residents to market their produce,"
Coem said.

"The provincial and central government should support the
effort of the local government to build roads linking all
districts in the regency."

The regent is seeking to have a larger airstrip built in
Puncak Jaya for bigger planes, such as Hercules military
transport aircraft which can carry more commodities in a single
flight.

"We need help from the central government," the regent said.