Famine in resource-rich Papua
The reports coming out of Papua about a famine that has taken the lives of 55 people since November punctuate the suffering of a country still reeling from the recent fuel price increases.
This despite the newly gained sense of optimism following the shake-up of the economics team in the Cabinet.
Reports filtering through have been patchy due to the isolation of Yahukimo regency. What we have learned so far is that food shortages in the remote regency began as far back as August.
As is so often the case, local initiatives to help the people of Yahukimo were well under way long before the government was even aware there was a problem. In Yahukimo it was foreign missionaries, local church leaders and activists who spotted the emerging signs of a famine in August and extended a helping hand to residents.
However, the bulk of the responsibility for helping the people of the regency should have laid with the local government. The four months that elapsed from the time signs of an approaching famine first appeared and news of the tragedy became public raise doubts about the local government's ability to monitor food availability for residents, the difficult terrain in Papua notwithstanding.
It takes days, perhaps weeks, to reach the regency on foot from Papua's capital Jayawijaya, but it takes months for a famine to reach the desperate levels of the one in Yahukimo.
Signs of an impending catastrophe must have been apparent in the region since earlier this year, when the area was pounded by heavy rains that destroyed the sweet potato crops.
Had local government leaders been more alert, they could have anticipated the disaster and prevented the loss of life. Food shortages and malnutrition have become disturbingly regular occurrences in Papua in recent years. There have been at least four other recorded cases of food shortages in this vast region in the last eight years, affecting Puncak Jaya, Jayawijaya and Jayapura regencies.
Sadly, the events in Yahukimo are not the first of their kind this year. Malnutrition has affected thousands of people in West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, North Sumatra, West Sumatra and West Kalimantan. In the first two provinces, more than 66,000 children were found to be suffering from malnutrition, while malnutrition affected more than 1,400 children on Nias island in North Sumatra.
But the number of fatalities in Yahukimo has made this the most disturbing incident. In addition to the 55 people who have died of malnutrition, 112 others have become ill from related sicknesses since November, all in a regency of 55,000 people.
Some ministers have contested these figures, while other government officials have gone so far as to deny any malnutrition at all in the regency, a common tactic during the New Order regime. In the other provinces affected by malnutrition this year, public officials also at first denied there was a problem.
All of these incidents underline that something has gone terribly wrong with our food security system. They also serve as a warning that good management is desperately lacking in most regional governments.
The horrible irony of the Yahukimo famine is that is occurs in a province that is immensely rich in natural resources. Papua has million of hectares of virgin tropical forest and huge gas and mineral deposits. Some of this natural wealth has been exploited for decades, but the riches have not trickled down to regular Papuans.
A serious investigation into this tragedy is called for to prevent similar incidents in the future. If isolation is a major reason for the famine, a serious effort must be made to bring the regency, and all other isolated areas of Papua, into closer contact with the rest of the country. It is difficult to believe that there are regions that remain cut off from the rest of the country 60 years after independence.
The government must demonstrate that it is not only willing to open up and ensure access to isolated areas blessed with valuable natural resources, but also to remote areas blessed with the lives of villagers.