Our new paper shows how Indonesian-language disinformation promoting government narratives on special autonomy has swamped Twitter since February 2021.
David Gaveau, International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Douglas Sheil, Wageningen University
Many are concerned that the highway is being built to benefit powerful commercial interests and not Indigenous people and will accelerate forest loss as seen in Sumatra and Kalimantan.
Papua, one of Indonesia’s most rural provinces, struggled with online learning during the COVID-19 crisis. Interestingly, it may just be the right moment to invest in Papua’s education technology.
Tensions have been building over the last month following the killing of an Indonesian intelligence chief. The government has vowed to ‘chase and arrest’ all armed militants in the region.
Indonesia has frequently obstructed global human rights enforcement by rejecting proposals to strengthen the UNHRC and blocking the council’s requests to assess the human rights situation in Papua.
International political dynamics sabotaged West Papuans’ attempts to ride the waves of decolonisation efforts by Asian and African countries throughout the 1940s to the 1960s.
The prevailing hyper-nationalism in Indonesia today betrays the modernist idea of nationhood which inspired the nationalist movement in the archipelago a century ago.
By limiting access to social media and the internet, the government hurts the right to free speech of not only Papuan residents but also all Indonesians.
Violence has returned to West Papua over the arrests of students for allegedly desecrating a flag. So much for the new push for reconciliation under Indonesia President Joko Widodo.
Both the government and the opposition still consider Papua as a problem caused by a lack of economic development and which has nothing to do with politics.
A researcher on social economic issues in Papua calls for more research on Papua that can contribute to find solutions for complex problems in Indonesia’s easternmost region.