PDIP Legislator Urges Government to Prioritise Pioneer Ship Services in Underdeveloped Regions

A member of the House of Representatives (DPR) Commission V from the PDI Perjuangan faction, Irine Yusiana Roba Putri, has urged the government to prioritise the use of additional budget allocations for pioneer ship services to guarantee connectivity for communities in underdeveloped, frontier, and outermost (3T) regions. According to Irine, the additional budget recently agreed upon by the DPR and the government must first be directed towards ensuring that basic transport services in areas with the highest levels of access difficulty continue to operate. “A pioneer ship programme like this is a very basic service and is greatly needed by communities in remote areas. If it is stopped, it is tantamount to isolating them,” Irine stated at the DPR Building in Senayan, Central Jakarta, on Monday (20/7/2026). Irine explained that pioneer ships are not merely a mode of transport, but a means of ensuring that communities obtain basic services, ranging from education to healthcare. She emphasised that infrastructure development must also be measured by its benefits in facilitating public access to hospitals, schools, and other public services. “We will try to find solutions that we can push to the government, so that the basic rights of the community regarding the fulfilment of public services are truly present among them, especially for remote residents in archipelagic regions,” she concluded.