Mulia part 2

Mulia airport

 Whenever I mention Puncak Jaya, people would instantly think of the highest mountain peak. It’s a confusion that happens frequently. 
The peak, or sometimes called Mount Carstensz by the mountaineers, is the highest peak in Indonesia. Standing still 4,884 meter above sea level, the summit is known for the glaciers on its slopes and frozen temperature that will bite your fingers off.  
It lies in the Sudirman Range within Puncak Jaya regency, which consequently leads to bewilderment; that Puncak Jaya stands for a mountain yet also a regency.

Back in the early days, Puncak Jaya was a district that belongs to Nabire regency. Subsequently, it  detached, and became an independent regency with Mulia as its capital.

While the mountain is well-known for being snowy, the regency is notorious by being the home of separatist movement called OPM (Free Papua Movement).

As I stepped in Mulia, the capital of the regency, my eyes were struck by a blue building. It’s the new airport structure that stood amid the greenery. It hasn’t being opened officially yet, but honestly I’m impressed because I never thought that a place this ‘remote’, will have a considerably decent airport like that. It made me think that Mulia (and Puncak Jaya) might not as ‘left behind’ as I assumed.

The capital is divided into Kota Lama and Kota Baru. Black asphalted boulevard connects both part of the city. 
Mulia itself is a curvy region. Kota Lama, where the airport and market are, is situated in the lower part of the hill. While Kota Baru, where most of the government offices are, lies in the upper part.

On my way to the office, we passed through traditional market, public schools, shops, and houses. Most of buildings are made of wood, or at least semi-wooden. Bricks are hard to get in Mulia, and if there’s any, the price is ridiculously expensive. They are brought from Wamena or Jayapura, and then transported to Mulia. 

Other than that, some indigenous still live in honai, traditional huts made of rough woods with sago palm leaves covering the roof.

Market at Kota Lama

The boulevard

Honai, the traditional huts

Distribution system in Mulia are done through cargo airplane and trucks from Wamena, causing prices to double up when it reached the area. Imagine how difficult it is to survive in a place where everything's are damn expensive. 

Population is dominated by Dani and Lani tribe, though a lot of immigrants has resided as well in the region. Mainly came from Java, Sulawesi, and North Sumatera, they work as trader, ojeg driver, nurse, or civil servant. Some of Dani and Lani ethnics are only able to speak the traditional Lani language and still live in the remote villages spread up on the hill. Lots of them are illiterate, relying on selling vegetables or woven stuff in the market to make ends meet.

The Dani and Lani are also famous for having a pair of strong foot. Since they were little, they’ve been accustomed walking far, climbing up and down the hill barefoot. It’s even very common to see kids and women carrying loaded noken (traditional woven string bag) around their head, walking fast on a steep road. An impossible scene for a metropolis being.

Beside by foot (yes everybody walks in Mulia ), people heavily relied on ojeg to go from one place to another. In fact, ojeg is the only public transportation available. One way trip usually cost Rp 10.000 and a little further is Rp 15.000 – 20.000. In this case, ojeg becomes a promising career for immigrants, leaving ojeg drivers mostly Javanese or Sulawesinese.

The vehicle in Mulia is clearly dominated by motorcycles, though you can still find small kin of cars. Most of them are 4x4 semi trucks, used as civil servants’ official cars. The difficult nature of Mulia has make it impossible for fancy sedans or comfortable MPVs to get through.

Getting a car to Mulia is a complicated task as well. After bought it, you need to transport it to Wamena before hiring an experienced chauffeur to drive the vehicle to Mulia. Not only a rally-alike route, but passing through the formidable area of Tinggi Nambut and 10 hours of  rough stony road that await. To put it simply, it takes a lot of effort (and cost) to have a car in Mulia. And this explains why most of the cars are state-owned.

Speaking of Tinggi Nambut, this malignant area is one of the place you must cross when you’re driving from Wamena to Mulia (and vice versa). It’s known to be harmful; an area of thick vegetations where unseen separatist member is keeping an eye for everybody that passes. It’s so dreadful, my friend told me how reluctant she was to fly to Wamena, fearing when the plane goes by Tinggi Nambut, the separatist will target at it and start to shoot.  Ouch.

As for gasoline supply, Mulia has no actual gas station. They only have one licensed agent with limited stock. Every morning, hundreds of motorcycles and cars queue to get fuel with subsidized price. If they were late, expect to face bitter consequence; filling up the tank with unsubsidized 20.000/litre gas. Furthermore, the fuel’s availability really depends on the plane schedule. Sometimes, there are days when gasoline becomes very rare. It’s the days when thick clouds surround the hill and no planes can get in.

 Gasoline queue

I spent almost three weeks in Mulia. Not even a day elapsed without wearing sweatshirt or jacket. The temperature can be very mean, ranging from 10 degree in the morning, going up 15-20 during the day and quickly falls to 8-10ish degree when the dark arrives. Moreover, the ritual of bathing has become something that takes up lots of courage.  The first water splash feels like a paper cut that gives you constant shivering. A very logical reason to reduce the frequency of bathing, because once is enough and twice will only make your life miserable.

My first week in Mulia was the time when I missed the city life the most. 

First of all, electricity has been acting up those days. The hydroelectric power plants didn’t work well, leaving some areas without supply (including my office). Couple of times we only had two hours of electricity per day. No wonder that people usually has  spare of energy source.  Knowing they can’t depend on the state-supplied power, they ended up buying accu, generator, or have solar panels planted on their roofs.

Secondly, the internet signal is heartbreaking.

Just so you know, Telkomsel is the only provider who has BTS in Puncak Jaya. Forget about Satelindo or XL, people in Mulia knows only Telkomsel.  I brought along my Flash, with a mission to prove the superiority of Telkomsel that claims to reach every regions in Indonesia. After days of experiencing, I have come to conclusion that it does reach Puncak Jaya, but with a pitiful quality which equals to spend 15 minutes to open gmail. Subsequently, I lost my patience I decided to open email every 4 days, and surfed through blackberry (which turned out to be more reliable than surfing through the laptop).

Lastly, the lack of options of interesting places to go during the weekend. Zero. Nada. People just stay at home and go to church. I’m dead.

Telkomsel's tower

During the stay, security has been a major issue. Open fire between separatist and military occurred several times, causing wounded, (even dead) victims from military side. Some churches were reported to fly the forbidden Bintang Kejora (the Morning Star) flag.

When such events happened, the night will become dreadfully quiet. Nobody goes out after the sun goes down. Vice regent prohibited schools and offices activities. Satellite phone was turned on during the night and an exit plan was discussed. The district has lost its pulse.

Security situation got even worse, as the independence day approaches. Incidents appeared more frequently, leaving people with such fear.  

In the morning of independence day, I was heading to the city yard to attend the ceremony when I heard gunshots. It was from the jungle on the hill. I didn’t try to look up, instead I just kept walking. During the ceremony, I was nervous as hell, afraid that raid will take place.

But thankfully everything went well.

The ceremony was led by the vice regent, substituting the regent that seemed to be busy working on his governor candidacy. Some particular competitions were held afterwards and people enthusiastically participated.

Within weeks, my assumption about Mulia (and Puncak Jaya) as a developed area, slowly evaporated. 

I personally think that a capital should reflects the progress of a regency, the development that a district has accomplished with a well-built system.  But it seemed that Mulia has failed to impress me. And I have my reasons. 

It starts with the non existence of  potential economic source that can be depended on; no natural resources nor agriculture sector  nor promising industry. Money support only comes from APBD. Then goes with the fact that lots of its people are still illiterate, and live in a poor standard. Goes further with the health services coverage that is limited and far behind compared to the national standards. It goes way further with the limited capacity of the district hospital; the only specialist available are dentist (which can’t even perform plaque removal due to inadequate facility) and mother & child specialist. 

And yet to score it all, the regency's current status which is under close custody of Ministry of Domestic Affairs, after failing to perform in an assessment evaluation done last April (it is said Puncak Jaya is given 3 years to fix things up, or it will be re-integrated with the previous chief  regency, Nabire).

Knowing the situations, I started to pity this area and its people. 

How many more years needed to see a well-developed Mulia? Is it 5 years? 10 years? 20 years? 

If this regency has no ambitious  leader with compelling vision, even 20 years won’t be enough to change its condition.

What a Poor Mulia.

You know, the word 'Mulia' if translated to English is 'dignified', 'noble', or 'honorable', while the name of  'Puncak Jaya' means 'the peak of glory', 'the peak of success', or 'victorious peak'.

I guess good names don’t always come with good luck.