I went on board a pickup truck belonging to an Indonesian trader, which was full of tilapia fish from PNG.
By
AGUSTINUS WIBOWO
·5 minutes read
AGUSTINUS WIBOWO
Indonesian soldiers guard the international market on the Indonesian side.
After four days of staying in a border forest camp full of anopheles mosquitoes and with food supplies running low, I managed to get onboard a boat to the nearest Indonesian village. Coincidentally, that day was a market day, a time when Papua New Guinea (PNG) fishermen flock to the "international market" on the Indonesian side.
I jumped off the motorboat, which was moored at the edge of the swamp, setting foot in the middle of the open market. Watching the soldiers, the hustle and bustle of Asian-looking merchants and hearing conversations in Indonesian, I felt again the relaxed friendliness I had longed for.
Finally, I was home.
Only about 30 kilometers from the PNG border, I felt as if I were suddenly thrown from Papua directly into Java.
I went on board a pickup truck belonging to an Indonesian trader, which was full of tilapia fish from PNG. The long dusty road through the oil palm plantations took me to a completely different world. Only about 30 kilometers from the PNG border, I felt as if I were suddenly thrown from Papua directly into Java.
Asiki is a small town in Papua, equivalent to a village in Java, with narrow asphalted roads littered with potholes where motorbikes and public transportation occasionally pass by. There are big mosques, big churches, dilapidated houses with rusty metal rooves scattered in a chaotic manner, interspersed with Ponorogo and Tegal stalls. The Javanese language noisily dominates the conversation.
The border line separates history. In Papua across the border, the history that influences their lives is Australian colonialism. Meanwhile, Papuan lives on the western side of the boundary cannot be separated from the history of Indonesia and Dutch colonialism.
ISTIMEWA
Agustinus Wibowo took a pickup to Asiki, Boven Digoel.
Asiki is part of the Boven Digoel regency, which during the Dutch colonial period was used as the location for its concentration camp for expelled leaders of the Indonesian independence movement. Bung Hatta and Sutan Syahrir were exiled to this area in 1935.
Whoever was expelled here, almost certainly could not escape.
The name Boven Digoel in Dutch means “Upper Digul”, the upstream area of the Digul River. In the early 20th century, the Digul concentration camp was still surrounded by wilderness, with rivers and swamps full of crocodiles. Whoever was expelled here, almost certainly could not escape.
But as time went by, this area was longer hidden as it became one of the destinations for the transmigration program.
For most Indonesians, Asiki is probably just an ordinary district town. It has electricity
(though not yet 24 hours), cellular signal (even though still weak), it has a busy market and even banks and ATM machines. This is a place that people from PNG in the border area tell me about with great admiration.
AGUSTINUS WIBOWO
The pickup truck that Agustinus Wibowo was traveling in entered Asiki, Boven Digoel.
One of the factors of the progress is, of course, the presence of newcomers. The arrival of newcomers brings cultural exchange, the transfer of technology and economic activity. That is, I think, the specialty of Indonesia with all its diversity.
***
Indonesian diversity is what saved me. After months of living in PNG, I came to Indonesia without any rupiah, and to make matters worse, the ATM machine in Asiki happened to be out of operation due to a power breakdown. But fortunately, a Javanese trader generously invited me to stay at his house and a Makassar Chinese travel entrepreneur gave me a free ride to Merauke.
In his car, I also saw Indonesia. There were two Javanese women in headscarves, one man from Wonosobo, and a Papuan woman, all busy arguing about political intrigue in Jakarta. Meanwhile, the music that accompanied our journey was Batak, the language of which no one in the car understood.
Transmigration and development had indeed brought progress to Papua, Helena, a government employee, admitted. But she expressed concern that the way of life in her area, which was increasingly following that of Java, would in the long run erode their Papuan identity. Even now, said Helena, many Papuans were no longer fluent in their local language.
AGUSTINUS WIBOWO
Entering Merauke, Papua.
As a government employee, Helena conducts a lot of travel to the interior of Papua. Wherever she goes, she always eats sago. "I purposely show this to the locals, so they remember, we are still Papuans," she said.
***
The road from Asiki to Merauke has mostly been asphalted so that the distance of about 300 kilometers only takes eight hours. Meanwhile, across the PNG border, there are almost no roads, so to cover the same distance I had to sail down the Fly River in the interior for three weeks.
In Merauke, a city in the far east that has become an important element in the mantra of Indonesian nationalism, I ended my journey to get to know my own country.
In this cross-border journey, I discovered that the border between the two countries was like a mirror: what happens on the east side of the boundary is actually a reflection of what happens in the west. On both sides there are stories of pride in identity, ties to the land, dreams of independence and prosperity, and about injustice and powerlessness.
I have learned many new things, and many of my old beliefs have been torn down. However, there are still many unanswered questions and historical mysteries that remain dark.
AGUSTINUS WIBOWO
Foto 63. Foto hanya untuk tulisan perjalanan Agustinus Wibowo
One chapter of the journey has indeed ended, but I believe, this journey is still long.
Look forward to the next serial articles on Kompas.
