|
|
|  |
 |
| History |
|
THE HISTORY AND JOURNEY OF THE PAPUAN NGO's COOPERATION FORUM (FOKER LSM PAPUA )
The initiative to form the Papua’s NGO Cooperation Forum (Forum Kerjasama Lembaga Swadaya Masyarakat Papua), known as FOKER LSM Papua – henceforth simply FOKER – emerged from a wide range of discussions among several NGO activists in Papua – at that moment Papua was popularly known as Irian Jaya. This range of discussions started early 1989 and was preceded by the release of a presidential policy, “Go East” on April 4, 1989 which dealt with regional extensions oriented development on eastern parts of Indonesia. The NGO’s activists worried that this policy would lead to a major exploitation of natural resources in Papua. Their worry was based on past experiences with the development programs introduced by the Indonesian government which showed a tendency to systematically disregard Papuans to take part in public issues; political, economic, social and cultural aspects. Furthermore, the activists reflected on the exploitation process that has been undertaken in western parts of Indonesia that lead to a marginalized local community. The NGO’s activists were of opinion that the Papua’s people should be given a central role and become the main purpose of the entire development process taking place in Papua. The role of the community is essential to achieve development goals. The reality shows that the sufferings and the poverty Papua has been experiencing is caused by a structured process where the community has not been given the chance to participate in any decision making process. As a result, their rights to gain access to natural, economic, political, legal, and cultural resources are limited and even ignored. The first round of discussions took place in Jayapura on March 27-28 in 1990. The meeting was attended by Papua NGO’s activists: Bambang Widjoyanto and Budi Setyanto from the Legal Aid Institute (LBH) in Jayapura , Thaha M. Al Hamid from PPM Jayapura, Budi Subiyanto and Roy Tjiong from the Bethesda Foundation in Jayapura, SP Morin, Cliff R. Marlessy, and Tony Rahawarin from the Foundation for Rural Community Development (YPMD ) in Jayapura, George Aditjondro from the Satya Wacana Salatiga University, Aristides Katoppo from the Suara Pembaharuan newspaper in Jakarta, Filiks Wambrauw and Max Prawar from regional church organization in East Biak (Klasis Biak Timur), Robby Helwedery from Labouring Partners (Mitra Karya) in Merauke, Sister Benedicta from the Catholic social department in Asmat (Delsos Asmat Diocese), John Nakiaya from Office for Justice and Peace (SKP) Enarotali, Herman Tebay from Sinepup in Wamena, Didimus Tebay from P5 Moanemani, Max Fofid from the St. Francis Foundation (Yasanto) in Merauke, Max Mahuse from Yapsel in Merauke, M. St. E. Kilmaskossu from the Center for Environmental Studies (PSL) from the Cenderawasih University in Manokwari, Maria R Ruwiastuti from the Community Health Foundation (YKPHM ) in Jayapura and Brother Theo van den Broek from the Catholic church Jayapura Diocese. In this discussion the participants agreed to ‘join hand in hand" to prepare several strategies to stimulate the involvement of the Papua’s people to control the resources (political, economic, law, and socio-culture). To make this strategy successful, an Alert Committee was formed with main jobs were to manage and oversee several programs and activities. The programs mandated to the Alert Committee were to identify and analyze the issues in Papua and then prepare and promote human resources to conduct advocacy. A year later after the Alert Committee was established, a second round of discussions was held in Jayapura on August 28-31, 1991. The agenda was to evaluate the performace of the Alert Committee. Based on the evaluation, it was agreed to hold a discussion forum and was attended by : Bambang Widjoyanto and Budi Setyanto from the Legal Aid Institute (LBH) in Jayapura, Paul S. Baut from YLBHI Jakarta, Thaha M Al Hamid from PPM Jayapura, Roy Tjiong from the Bethesda Foundation in Jayapura, Cliff R Marlessy, from Foundation for Rural Community Development (YPMD) in Jayapura, Tony Rahawarin from the Catholic social department (Jayapura Diocese, S.P. Maryen from the East Biak church organization (Klasis Biak Timur), Robby Helwedery from Labour Partners (Mitra Karya ) in Merauke, Sister Benedicta from the Catholic social department (Asmat Diocese), John Nakiaya from SKP Enarotali, Herman Tebay from Sinepup Wamena, Didimus Tebay from P5 Moanemani, Max Fofid from the St. Francis Foundation (Yasanto) Merauke, Max Mahuse from Yapsel Merauke, Max J Tokede from the Center for Environmental Studies (PSL) of the Cenderawasih University in Manokwari, Jacobus Wogim from the Community Health Foundation (YKPHM) in Jayapura, and Brother Theo van den Broeck from the Catholic church Jayapura diocese. The evaluation showed that the working team model previously chosen was not effective enough to carry out the agenda, perceived as important tasks to be undertaken. Finally, on August 3, 1991, the Alert Committee was transformed into a networking forum for NGOs in Papua. Then, this Forum was formally declared as “Forum Kerjasama LSM Papua (Papua NGOs Cooperation Forum ) or FOKER. Thus, FOKER was founded by : 1). 11 NGOs representatives of NGOs, The Legal Aid Institute (LBH) in Jayapura, The Foundation for Rural Community Development (YPMD) in Jayapura, The Foundation for Community Health (YKPHM) in Jayapura, YKB Jayapura, PPM Jayapura, Inau Jaunggi Jayapura, YMK Merauke, The Santo Fransiscus Foundation (YASANTO) in Merauke, YAPSEL Merauke, YP5 Maonamani, Yayasan Rumsram Biak, and 2). 6 local church representatives; Delsos Jayapura Diocese, Delsos Asmat, Delsos Merauke, Delsos Sorong, Research and Development Synod Department of Evangelical Protestant Church), East Biak church region, and 3). 1 University representative;PSL (Center for Environmental Studies) of the Cenderawasih University in Manokwari.***
|
