"Instead, all students from Biak must remain focus on their endeavors to finish their studies"Biak, Papua (ANTARA) - The Biak Numfor District Government has urged its students currently studying at various universities on the islands of Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Maluku not to get provoked by misleading issues.
"Instead, all students from Biak must remain focus on their endeavors to finish their studies," First Assistant of the Biak Numfor District Government Friets G.Senandi said here on Sunday regarding the official letter of the district's head, Herry Ario Naap.
Referring to the letter number 100/247 dated on September 12, 2019, Senandi said any student from Biak Numfor who get provoked by the calls for returning home would not be guaranteed to be admitted at universities in Papua Province.
The district government, as revealed in Herry Ario Naap's letter, would neither allocate a budget used for sending them back to the cities where the universities that have received them are located, he said.
The central government has actually guaranteed their safety and security in the cities where they reside while pursuing their study at the local universities, Senandi said.
An exodus of native Papuan students currently studying in various reputable universities outside Papua and West Papua has become a problem that both regional governments in the two provinces and central government should resolve in the aftermath of violent protests against the Surabaya incident that occurred in August.
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Some 700 native Papuan students recently returned home despite the guarantees by every provincial police chief for the safety and security of all indigenous Papuan students currently studying outside their hometowns.
A majority of the returnees were previously studying in Manado, North Sulawesi Province, according to Papua Police Chief Inspector General Rudolf Rodja.
Rodja regretted the decisions of the returnees, saying that the national police chief had ordered all regional police chiefs to guarantee the safety of the students so that they could direct their undivided attention to completing their studies.
In response to the exodus of some 700 native Papuan students, the central government has encouraged them to return to the cities or towns where they are studying.
The Indonesian military commander has even kept on standby two units of Hercules C-130 aircraft for transporting the returnees from Papua and West Papua to the provinces where they are studying.
The exodus has stopped, and the government is keen to send them back to their universities, according to Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Wiranto.
Educating the indigenous Papuan students at various prestigious universities outside their homeland is important because they will receive good quality higher education and make friends with their peers from different socio-cultural backgrounds.
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Translator: Muhsidin, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
Copyright © ANTARA 2019
