Gathering in a particular community is one of the common things people often do. Most of these communities were formed as a place to share opinions with others who share the same sentiment. This also became the basis for forming Papuan Children’s Literacy or LAP.
In each of its meetings, LAP always discusses important issues that are currently happening. For example, such as a dialogue was held Saturday, 8th April 2023, in Makassar City. There were also many representatives of Papuan students in Makassar City that attended the dialogue.
The Ramadhan Gathering Agenda
The main agenda of this LAP gathering is to establish friendships in the month of Ramadan. At the same time, they opened a dialogue about the general elections, which will take place very soon. They also talk about the problems that arose related to the post-special autonomy conditions in Papua.
In general, the theme and the main idea of the gathering of Papuan Children’s Literacy in Makassar City centered on this problem. The gathering title is “Encouraging the Acceleration of Development and Welfare of the Papuan People and Addressing Democracy in the 2024 Local Elections.”
At least three main speakers were present in the LAP’s dialogue at Perintis Kemerdekaan VII. The first one is Ridwan Kambori, the President of LAP. Then, there is Damianus M Werre, as a UIM Student representative. The last one is Randi Elvis Rumi, UNHAS student representative.
In the dialogue, they discussed the progress of the development and welfare of the people of Papua in special autonomy, especially in the Jokowi era, for the last few years. So far, these things are continuing to move in a more positive direction, even just before the simultaneous elections in 2024.
“Many Papuans still love the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia. Hopefully, the security and order situation can be maintained in the future,” Kambori explained.
Students and Youths Need to Play an Active Role
However, to be able to make this happen, students and youths need to play an active role in it. Ridwan Kambori, the President of LAP, said that youths need to participate in making the general election in 2024 with integrity and the best quality possible. One of the ways is to love nationalism.
This is because the people of Papua need youth leaders who love their homeland to embrace them. That is why the youths need to have a sense of nationalism and be able to read the existing democratic system. In addition, the synergy between the government and the community is no less important.
According to him, regarding war strategy, the key to annexing a country is to control its strategic areas, for example, Papua. Because it is already common knowledge that Papua indeed does have abundant natural wealth. Lately, this kind of conflict is very complex and hard to read.
Furthermore, from the perspective of Papuan students, other issues are no less important to discuss. They explained the problem that often occurs in Papua, which is a large amount of the special autonomy fund. However, unfortunately, the fund is still considered not to be on target.
Students need to play an active role in overseeing these funds’ use so they can be used properly. That way, the people of Papua will be much more prosperous.
During the discussion with Papuan Children’s Literacy, Damianus M Werre, a representative of UIM Makassar students, explained: “Papua is part of us. So, the mentality about the ideology of Merah Putih must be instilled from an early age.”
