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.