“Kenapa Jaringan Internet Di Putus? (red)” Ditangkap dari video Pemutusan Jaringan Internet di Papua dari West Papua Updates (WPU), digunakan dengan izin WPU.

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Awal bulan Juni 2020, Pengadilan Tata Usaha Negara (PTUN) menyatakan Pemerintah Indonesia, dalam hal ini Presiden RI dan Kementerian Komunikasi dan Informasi (Menkominfo), telah melanggar hukum atas tindakan pelambatan (throttling) dan pemblokiran internet di beberapa wilayah di Papua dan Papua Barat pada tahun 2019. Kasus yang terjadi selama kurang lebih satu bulan dari tanggal 19 Agustus hingga 28 September 2019 ini diajukan ke PTUN oleh koalisi kelompok masyarakat sipil yang ada di Asia Tenggara.

Kemenangan Tim Pembela Kebebasan Pers atas gugatan pada Menkominfo dan Presiden RI, menjadi contoh baik menyikapi cara pemerintah menerapkan otoritasnya dalam pengelolaan Internet. Proses yang panjang, mulai dari pertemuan tatap muka dengan Kemkominfo, memenangkan petisi daring, rupanya masih harus dibawa ke jalur hukum.

Putusan ini menjadi sangat penting mengingat selama ini, kebebasan pers dan kebebasan berekspresi di dalam maupun tentang Papua berada dalam status quo narasi hiper nasionalisme. Narasi ini memaksa Papua untuk tunduk pada Indonesia dan menuduh semua upaya untuk membela hak-hak warga Papua, serta protes terhadap rasisme dan diskriminasi yang mereka alami, sebagai “separatis”.  Pada akhirnya, pemblokiran internet ini adalah upaya untuk membungkam protes melawan rasisme dan diskriminasi terhadap warga Papua.

Pemblokiran Internet pada 2019

Selanjutnya, dalam siaran pers 27 Mei 2019, Rudiantara menyebutkan tiga langkah yang dilakukan pemerintah, antara lain:

1. Menutup akses tautan konten atau akun yang terindikasi menyebarkan hoaks
2. Bekerja sama dengan penyedia platform digital untuk menutup akun
3. Membatasi akses terhadap sebagian fitur platform digital atau berbagi file

Tak hanya melalui Kemenkominfo, Menteri Koordinator Bidang Politik, Hukum, dan Keamanan Wiranto pun menyatakan telah membatasi akses media sosial untuk pengguna internet di Indonesia.

Artikel ini ditulis dan diedit oleh Fendi Widianto, Nikholas Borang, Pitra Hutomo, dan Kathleen Azali dari EngageMedia. Untuk mengetahui lebaih banyak cerita tentang Papua dan Papua Barat, silahkan kunjungi PapuanVoices.net.

“Why was our Internet connection shut down? (edited)” Screengrab from the video “The Internet Shutdown in Papua”  by West Papuan Updates, used with permission.

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Earlier this month, the Jakarta State Administrative Court declared as illegal the internet shutdowns in Papua and West Papua enforced by the Indonesian government in 2019. The case on the month-long shutdown, from August 19 to September 28 last year, was filed by a coalition of civil society groups working in Southeast Asia. Part of the coalition is SAFEnet, which was present at the Coconet digital rights camp.

The victory of the Press Freedom Defender Team over the lawsuit against the Minister of Communication and Information and the President of the Republic of Indonesia, is a good example of how citizens can respond to government’s unlawful management of public communication infrastructure like the Internet. The long process, starting from the face-to-face meeting with the Ministry of Communication and Information, to creating an online petition, eventually had to be brought to a legal route. The Press Freedom Defenders Team includes SAFEnet, which was present at the second Coconet digital rights camp.

The ruling is also even more important in the context of debates in freedom of the press and freedom of expression in and about Papua are framed within the hyper-nationalism narrative of the status quo. After all, the shutdown was implemented to quell the protests against racism and discriminations of Papuans.

Internet bans in 2019

This internet throttling was triggered by the announcement of the 2019 Presidential Election results in April 2019.

In another press release, Rudiantara outlined the three steps in which the Indonesian government implemented the throttling:

1. Block access to content links or accounts that had been indicated to spread hoaxes
2. Work closely with digital platform providers to close accounts
3. Limit access to some digital platform features or file sharing

Aside from the Ministry of Communication & Informatics, the Coodinating Minister of Politics, Law and Security, Wiranto, also stated that the government had limited the access to social media to internet users in Indonesia.

This article was written and edited by EngageMedia’s Fendi Widianto, Nikholas Borang, Pitra Hutomo, and Kathleen Azali. For more stories on Papua and West Papua, visit PapuanVoices.net.

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Amid the current COVID-19 pandemic, health recommendations need to be conveyed to communities in remote areas that are separated both by distance and by the minority languages they speak. One medium that can be used to convey public messages is through song. If dissemination takes into account local culture, language and context, it is more likely the message will reach the target audience.

Using songs as a communication platform to raise people’s awareness about issues has been a method often employed by the Indonesian government. For instance, songs about the importance of personal hygiene and health, songs about the importance of vaccinations and the danger of illegal drugs have been effectively disseminated to the public in the past.

Indonesia is one of the most multi-lingual nations in the world, with over 700 languages (almost half of which are now considered endangered). Songs sung in the national Indonesian language (Bahasa Indonesia) are not effective in reaching communities where it is not the first language or commonly spoken or understood by the community. Songs that convey a message from the government need to be able to speak to each community in their own local language with consideration to their own local cultural context, using a bottom-up culturally appropriate approach, rather than a top-down blanket nationalistic approach.

This bottom-up strategy can have other positive effects, such as finding contemporary contexts for existing traditional local cultural forms of expression. If this method is supported by central governments it can encourage, facilitate and empower local traditional cultures to be adaptive and rapidly respond to current national/global issues according to their own language and unique cultural context.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been challenging to widely disseminate health recommendations, particularly to very remote areas. However, this has become an opportunity for Jekshon, a young Marapu man, to meet the challenge by using Sumbanese traditional songs in the Kambera language. Jekshon is not only a singer-songwriter, but also a ritual speaker (wunang), a crafter of traditional musical instruments, and a builder and farmer from Kamanggih in East Sumba, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia.

Jekshon thus created a song called “Rimanya na wiki nda” to encourage people, especially in East Sumba, to fight against COVID-19 collectively, by avoiding large crowds, staying home, and practicing personal hygiene. As a result, Jekshon has been invited by local government leaders to perform the song at several official government events and also at local health clinics/hospitals.

Here are some lyrics from Jekshon’s song:

Cultural sustainability through songs

Supporting and sustaining local cultures in a country as diverse as Indonesia is vital for many reasons including, but not limited to, the following examples: It can renew confidence in marginalised minority communities, it can create opportunities for culturally responsible and sustainable tourism, and it can be readily integrated into educational programs to encourage the inter-generational transmission of cultural knowledge.

Sumba Integrated Development (SIDe) is one of the organisations in the Indonesia Inklusi Learning Network, which has initiated a VOICE Empowerment project for the Marapu community in East Sumba. Their project aims to work in collaboration with the Marapu community to organise workshops and local performance events. Their aim is to:

Women’s representation is one of the priorities of SIDe’s Marapu community project. This project requires equal participation from women, in a field of traditional music which is generally male-dominated, under the guidance of Ata Ratu. Ata Ratu is one of East Sumba’s most beloved female role models and most talented singer-songwriters, and as such, has been appointed by VOICE as a community facilitator for the areas in East Sumba supported by the program.

Younger Marapu girls are supported and guided by Ata Ratu and the female Marapu elders to transfer knowledge about song and dance in order to sustain Marapu traditions. Women’s participation, as an embodiment of gender equity, and inclusivity is critical to the community

Aligning with the vision of Indonesia Inklusi network, SIDe holds the ethical principle of “first voice” to ensure the cultural bearers are empowered and actively collaborate or guide the activities of the program. All the Marapu songs recorded are published using the local language (Kambera) along with Indonesia and English language translations. This is to help to amplify the voices, stories, songs, and the rich culture of the East Sumbanese Marapu community to many other places in the Indonesian and English speaking world.

Like Jekshon, Ata Ratu has also written a song about another important aspect of this pandemic: the inability of stranded populations of migrant workers to return to their home villages because of the travel restrictions due to COVID-19. Ata Ratu directs her song “Mbawa Rimangu na annanduma luri mu” to the diaspora of Sumbanese people who have left Sumba to look for work or study opportunities in Bali, Jakarta and Jogjakarta, but can no longer return to Sumba because of the travel restrictions. Many of these Sumbanese people have lost their jobs and are experiencing economic hardship and psychological stress from this situation.

Here are some lyrics from Ata Ratu’s song:

Songs as bridges in the time of COVID-19

In the East Sumbanese Marapu community, songs are written in traditional poetic couplets called Lawiti. Lawiti comes from the fast-paced ritual speech spoken by priests and ritual speakers (wunang) that accompany all Marapu ritual in Sumba. Sumbanese songwriters, like Jekshon and Ata Ratu, improvise by stringing together appropriate successions of Lawiti spontaneously in line with the specific purpose of a song.

Songs are a common and appropriate medium to disseminate information in the Marapu community. By presenting the current COVID-19 issue to the local community through the medium of the traditional folk song, both Ata Ratu and Jekshon have created a new contemporary context for the traditional songs that is relevant to protecting the health and wellbeing of the East Sumbanese Marapu community and diaspora during this pandemic.

Jekshon’s song was released through his YouTube channel with help from SIDe. Since then, his video has been viewed more than 700 times in both English and Indonesian translations. Ata Ratu’s song has been viewed over 400 times in 24 hours on her YouTube Channel. These songs have both been distributed from handphone to handphone via Bluetooth sharing, or ‘share it’  (a filesharing application). The audio has been downloaded from YouTube and is being played on the public address systems of local markets around East Sumba. SIDe are also distributing the song via mini SD cards (for handphones)  and flash disks at local market hubs.

“Rimanya na widi nda” and “Mbawa Rimangu na annanduma luri mu” have both become a bridge for the Marapu community to directly communicate and receive information and relevant health recommendations from the World Health Organisation and national and local governments in a culturally familiar and appropriate context. These songs show that traditional local culture is an effective medium to communicate current global and domestic issues to minority language communities or any marginalised groups.