I planned to go on foot from Tais westward to Bula, PNG\'s last village before the Indonesian border. But Sisi did not allow me to do that because there were many enemies of Sisi there,.
By
AGUSTINUS WIBOWO
·5 minutes read
AGUSTINUS WIBOWO
Children in Tais, Papua New Guinea.
On 17 August 2003, Sisi Wainetti with her older cousin, Paulus Waibon, crossed the border for the first time from Western Province, Papua New Guinea, to Merauke, Indonesia. They were excited, there was news that Papuan independence would be celebrated on that day.
However, they were very surprised because what they discovered was a celebration of the independence of the Republic of Indonesia. People with various skin colors danced traditional dances or enjoyed dangdut music in the field. Red and white flags were flying everywhere. A question appeared in Sisi\'s mind: Why was there no Papuan flag?
When she first heard the rumors in PNG about the Papuan independence event, Sisi thought there could be nothing better. The independence of the state of Papua, in Sisi\'s imagination, was about ending the boundary line between the Western Province and Merauke that separated them. All Papuans on the east and west sides of the border would unite in one new Papuan state.
But the "Papua" that Sisi meant did not include all of PNG. Prior to independence, PNG consisted of two different colonies, namely the Territory of Papua in the south and the Territory of New Guinea in the north. “Papua” for Sisi was just the southern half of PNG.
Sisi believed that if the State of Papua was formed, then their Papua would be separated from New Guinea. "The United Papuan State is only for us the Papuans, not for the New Guineans," said Sisi.
***
Like most PNG people, Sisi and Paulus at the beginning really hated and at the same time were afraid of Indonesia.
The stigma began in the 1980s when there was a massive wave of refugees from Indonesian Papua to PNG. From the refugees, Sisi heard that Indonesian soldiers killed black people thereby making them flee to PNG. The story made Sisi believe that the Indonesian army had to be cruel.
AGUSTINUS WIBOWO
Sisi (grey T-shirt) in Tais, Papua New Guinea.
Therefore, when she came for the first time to Papua Indonesia in 2003, Sisi was highly fearful. Her body trembled every time she saw Indonesian soldiers in Merauke. She was so scared that she could not even sleep for a whole week. But after a month living in Merauke, Sisi found that the Indonesian soldiers had never harmed her. Sisi even hanged out with them intensively and her main friends were soldiers from Java.
Sisi really liked Merauke. "There security is much better than PNG, there are no raskol [criminals]," she said.
Another thing she liked was the hustle and bustle of the city. “There everyone is busy working, everyone has money. But here [in PNG] kitorang [we] have no work, Sisi also has no work."
We sat conversing at Paul\'s house at the end of Tais village. He was one of three people in this village who had solar panels so that he could play music tapes in his home. The melodious music that became the background for our conversation was the sad songs of Paul\'s favorite Indonesian singer, Ebiet G Ade.
Sisi turned on her cell phone. At Tais there was no signal so the only function of the mobile phone was to play music. She showed him her favorite video, two young Ja-Mer (Javanese Merauke) who danced on the edge of the bridge, singing a Malay rap song with a Papuan accent. “Mau bilang sayang, mau bilang cinta, tapi ternyata kau orang pu mama…” (Want to say I like you, want to say I love you, but it turns out you are a mama’s boy...)
They longed for Merauke. "We are waiting for Indonesia to build a toll road from Merauke to Daru," said Paulus.
AGUSTINUS WIBOWO
A woman from Tais, Papua New Guinea, brings wood for cooking.
***
Starting from hating Indonesia, Sisi was now proud to call herself “half Indonesian”. That had a point. Her father\'s mother was from Kondo, Indonesia\'s easternmost point, about 100 kilometers southeast of the city of Merauke. Sisi’s grandmother moved to the east side of the border in the 1960s, before Papua came under Indonesian control.
Sisi used to live in Merauke for two years and was fluent in Indonesian. That was why Sisi then did odd jobs to help Indonesian traders who came to PNG for business, but illegally. Indonesian traders bought agricultural produce or caught fish. Sisi became a broker and translator.
The problem was the fact that Sisi often committed "fraud". She had the heart to buy 1 kilogram of crabs from PNG villagers at only Rp 50,000, by giving them some flour and oil from Merauke. The worst of all was the fact that Sisi used to promise to give a computer for shark fins, but all she gave was a portable DVD player from Merauke.
Eventually, more and more traders came from Indonesia and dared to interact directly with PNG villagers. On the other hand, PNG residents in the Sisi area were also starting to speak Indonesian and understood the price of goods. Sisi then lost her job as a broker.
I planned to go on foot from Tais westward to Bula, PNG\'s last village before the Indonesian border. But Sisi did not allow me to do that because there were many enemies of Sisi there, namely the victims she tricked.
