In the past 10 years I have been and seen alot of our Papua new Guinea citizens been treated like criminals and been evicted like aminals and it breaks my heart when I see kids crying and mothers when everything they have built is taken down by police and dozers and there is nothing you can do about it.
Yes the first thing people will say is, “send them back to the village”. The only problem with this is most are 2nd or 3rd generation Highlanders and NGI who have been in the city since birth.
The only reason why people buy blocks and settle in settlements is because there is no other option for citizens. What are they supposed to do when rentals are so high and the cost of the proper land and house is over K400,000. Government has no solutions.
Everyone wants a proper home and our national Government must breach the gap for citizens with a policy that will give solve the following. 1 Family 1 home.
1. Aquire land in NCD and Central Province
2. Land owners and ILG clans be partners in any land development with the state in at rate share agreement.
3. Government puts all trunk infrastructure into the new suburbs, Eda Ranu, PNG power, Telikom. Roads.
4. Each family is identified and land given as equity for small working class families.
5. Government subsidies should cut first home buyers to about K150,000 per home. With BSP facilities it should be accessible since the land is purchased by the government.
I can’t wait until our citizens live in proper structured housing estates, that is the PNG dream. 2017 I put my hand up with my policy team Martin and Francis we have a working policy that will work only problem is political willingness to achieve all our dreams to own our own home.
Good night please my sisters and brothers do you live in block, renting, living with family and wantoks or do you own your own home??
Several major studies, published today, concur that virtually all current global human populations stem from a single wave of expansion out of Africa. Yet one has found 2% of the genome in Papuan populations points to an earlier, separate dispersal event – and an extinct lineage that made it to the islands of Southeast Asia and Oceania.
A new study of human genomic diversity suggests there may have in fact been two successful dispersals out of Africa, and that a “trace” of the earlier of these two expansion events has lingered in the genetics of modern Papuans.
Three major genetic studies are published today in the same issue of Nature. All three agree that, for the most part, the genomes of contemporary non-African populations show signs of only one expansion of modern humans out of Africa: an event that took place sometime after 75,000 years ago.
Two of the studies conclude that, if there were indeed earlier expansions of modern humans out of Africa, they have left little or no genetic trace. The third, however, may have found that ‘trace’.
This study, led by Drs Luca Pagani and Toomas Kivisild from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, has found a “genetic signature” in present-day Papuans that suggests at least 2% of their genome originates from an even earlier, and otherwise extinct, dispersal of humans out of Africa.
Papuans and Philippine Negritos are populations that inhabit Papua New Guinea and some of the surrounding islands in Southeast Asia and Oceania. In the genomes of these populations, the researchers discovered more of the African ‘haplotypes’ – groups of genes linked closely enough to be inherited from a single source – than in any other present-day population.
Extensive analysis on the extra 2% of African haplotypes narrowed down the split between African (Yoruban) and Papuan lineages to around 120,000 years ago – a remarkable 45,000 years prior to the very earliest that the main African expansion could have occurred.
The study analysed genomic diversity in 125 human populations at an unprecedented level of detail, based on 379 high resolution whole genome sequences from across the world generated by an international collaboration led by the Cambridge team and colleagues from the Estonian Biocentre.
Lead researcher Luca Pagani said: “Papuans share for most part same evolutionary history as all other non-Africans, but our research shows they may also contain some remnants of a chapter that is also yet to be described.
“While our research is in almost complete agreement with all other groups with regard to a single out-of-Africa event, this scenario cannot fully account for some genetic peculiarities in the Papuan genomes we analysed.”
Pagani says the sea which separates the ‘ecozones’ of Asia and Australasia may have played a part: “The Wallace line is a channel of deep sea that was never dry during the ice ages. This constant barrier may have contributed to isolating and hence preserving the traces of the otherwise extinct lineage in Papuan populations.”
Toomas Kivisild said: “We believe that at least one additional human expansion out of Africa took place before the major one described in our research and others. These people diverged from the rest of Africans about 120,000 years ago, colonising some land outside of Africa. The 2% of the Papuan genome is the only remaining trace of this otherwise extinct lineage.”
The Estonian Biocentre’s Dr Mait Metspalu said: “This endeavour was uniquely made possible by the anonymous sample donors and the collaboration effort of nearly one hundred researchers from 74 different research groups from all over the world.”
Metspalu’s colleague Richard Villems added: “Overall this work provides an invaluable contribution to the understanding of our evolutionary past and to the challenges that humans faced when settling down in ever-changing environments.”
Researchers say the deluge of freely available data will serve as future starting point to further studies on the genetic history of modern and ancient human populations.
An area nearly the size of Paris has already cut a hole in a vast stretch of rainforest on the island of New Guinea, as the companies clearing the forest insist their permits are legitimate.Indonesian government officials have alleged that permits underpinning a multi-billion dollar plantation project in Papua province were falsified, leading to the criminal clear-cutting of a vast area of rainforest.
The land is being opened up by investors whose identity is hidden behind anonymously owned companies, as part of a plan to develop an oil palm plantation almost twice the size of London in the remote region.
Officials from Papua province’s investment agency say that permits that could only have been issued by their office were falsified at a critical stage of the licensing process. While the permits bear the signature of the former head of the agency, he has reported in writing that it was forged.
Approximately 83 square kilometres (32 square miles) of rainforest has been cleared on the basis of the permits, deforestation that is described in internal government correspondence as a potential criminal act.
The allegation has been formally raised within the government on at least three occasions and multiple ministries are now aware of it, The Gecko Project and Mongabay have found.
Instead of reporting the allegation to law enforcement, however, officials have struck an agreement allowing the developers to continue operating, provided they reapply for their permits.
Informed of the case, Laode Syarif, a deputy head of Indonesia’s anti-corruption agency, said it merited an investigation.
“If the signature of the investment agency chief was forged, that’s a crime,” he said in an interview.
In a separate allegation, the head of the investment office of Boven Digoel district, Papua province, has claimed that a key permit for a sawmill built to harvest timber from the project was also falsified. The allegation was made public last month by Pusaka, an Indonesian nonprofit that advocates for indigenous peoples’ rights.
The case provides a window into how President Joko Widodo’s administration is wrestling with the consequences of two decades of poorly regulated plantation expansion.
Indonesia is the world’s top producer of palm oil, an edible oil found in everything from cosmetics to biofuels. But recent government audits have shown that licensing in the sector has been plagued with irregularities, covering the country in a patchwork of unlawful plantations.
If the signature of the investment agency chief was forged, that’s a crime.
Laode Syarif, commissioner, Indonesia Anti-Corruption Commission
The industry’s unchecked growth has driven the clearance of rainforests and carbon-rich peatlands on a massive scale, contributing to Indonesia becoming one of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters and fueling annual wildfires that blanket the country and its neighbors in a toxic haze.
In the wake of the 2015 fire and haze crisis, President Widodo announced a freeze on new permits for oil palm plantations, a policy that took effect in September 2018. He also instructed his cabinet to carry out a review of all existing oil palm licenses, in an attempt to bring order to the chaotic sector.
But as the review got underway, government officials quietly papered over an allegation of criminality in Papua, at the heart of the largest remaining tract of rainforest in Asia.
“This is a potential criminal offense,” said Franky Samperante, the director of Pusaka. “It could be a priority for the permit review, and for the permits to be cancelled.”
Alarms raised, then silenced
For more than a decade, the Indonesian government has aspired to transform the southern reaches of Papua, from a region of pristine forests sparsely populated by indigenous peoples to a vast expanse of industrial farmland that would provide the nation with food, biofuels and export earnings.
That vision has largely foundered, leaving most of Papua’s forests untouched by industrial-scale activities. But over the years, speculators have sought and hoarded plantation permits from district politicians, in the hope that changing economic conditions would spark a development boom.
In 2009, one such investor, a Sumatran named Chairul Anhar, arrived in Papua with ambitious plans to create the world’s largest oil palm plantation.
Chairul, then 43, and his firm, the Menara Group, had no apparent track record managing plantations. But he convinced Yusak Yaluwo, then the head of Boven Digoel district, to issue permits to seven shell companies under Menara’s control.
It was the first step in a plan that would entail clear-cutting 2,800 square kilometres (1,080 square miles) of rainforest close to Indonesia’s border with Papua New Guinea, in a remote and isolated area that encompasses the ancestral territory of the Auyu people. It would come to be known as the Tanah Merah project.
An analysis commissioned by investors in the project suggested it could generate almost $6 billion from harvesting precious hardwoods as the forest was cleared, even before the plantation began producing palm oil.
The permits from Yusak were only the first in a succession of approvals the companies needed, from different levels of government, before they could begin operating. Among the most important were plantation business permits, known as IUPs, from the Papua provincial government.
The IUPs were purportedly issued in January and February 2011, according to copies of the documents seen by The Gecko Project and Mongabay.
Instead of developing the land itself, however, Menara proceeded to sell off majority stakes in all but one of the seven companies.
By the end of 2012, two of the companies had gone to a publicly listed Malaysian logging and property conglomerate, Tadmax Resources, for a total of $80 million. Four more were sold to anonymously owned firms registered in the United Arab Emirates cities of Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah, two of the world’s secrecy jurisdictions, where regulations are deliberately crafted to enable shareholders to hide their identities.
Stock exchange announcements made by Tadmax show that the issuance of the IUPs was fundamental to its decision to invest the $80 million.
The permits were also used to secure a string of decrees from Indonesia’s then minister of forestry, Zulkifli Hasan, that rezoned the land for plantation development.
Papua is the last bastion for saving Indonesia’s forests. The parties involved must be brought to justice.
Arie Rompas, head of forest campaigns, Greenpeace Indonesia
It is these IUPs — the basis of a multimillion-dollar deal and seven ministerial decrees — that the Papua province investment agency believes were falsified.
The circumstances that led to both the forgery allegation and the agreement to paper over it have been pieced together by The Gecko Project and Mongabay through interviews with numerous government officials in Papua and Jakarta.
Jamal Tawurutubun, the head of licensing at the Papua investment agency, raised the allegation at a meeting in Jakarta in May this year, in front of senior staff from several government bodies, including two ministries. Also present were executives representing four of the seven companies, that are majority owned by the anonymous investors.
According to Jamal’s account of events, the alleged forgery was first discovered no later than 2013, after his agency learned of the existence of the project by word of mouth.
Jamal was responsible for processing permits, but he had no record of the project in the agency database. When photocopies of the permits began to circulate within the provincial government, it emerged they bore the signature of Purnama, then the head of the Papua investment agency. (Purnama did not respond to requests for comment for this article).
Purnama himself raised the alarm in February 2013, in a letter to the governor of Papua and the Ministry of Agriculture stating that his signature had been forged. There is no evidence that any action was taken. Within months, one of the seven companies — PT Megakarya Jaya Raya — began bulldozing the rainforest.
For several years, Megakarya was the only one operating. In an interview last year, Chairul Anhar said the project had been stymied because his co-investors had yet to finish building the sawmill. Without it, billions of dollars’ worth of timber would be left to rot as the developers cleared the forest.
But, in 2017 and 2018, permits held by four of the other plantation companies were revoked by the Papua investment agency. Internal government correspondence shows the decision was driven by frustration that the firms had yet to start operating and by a desire to reassign the land to new investors who would.
Chairul and his partners tried to retain the vast land concessions. In early 2019, they mounted a formal challenge to the permit revocations, writing to the Ministry of Law and Human Rights questioning the legality of the decision.
This challenge culminated in the May meeting in Jakarta, where Jamal Tawurutubun raised the forgery allegation. He cited a clause in the 2014 Plantation Law that stipulates a prison term of up to four years for anyone clearing land for a plantation without a valid permit.
The officials present at the meeting agreed that six of the seven companies should not be allowed to operate. But they were hesitant to cancel Megakarya’s permits due to the investment it had already made in clear-cutting the forest and planting oil palms.
As the meeting wound down, the other officials encouraged Jamal to provide more evidence underpinning the allegation. In the meantime, the decision on what to do with Megakarya would be left to the district and provincial governments.
Three months later, Jamal and Jhoni Way, Purnama’s successor as the head of the Papua investment agency, said in an interview that the provincial and district governments had come to an agreement with Megakarya, and with a second company, PT Kartika Cipta Pratama, after discovering that it too had started clearing and planting land. These companies, they told us, could keep operating, provided they redid the entire permit process from the beginning, starting at the district level.
The meeting in Jakarta, Jamal said, was part of a process to “find a solution, the best solution to make the investment work, because they have already spent money.”
He added, “We don’t want it arising again, the idea that Papua is not conducive to investment.”
Jhoni Way speculated that the falsification might have been abetted by someone inside the investment agency. But he insisted the matter had been resolved by the agreement with the companies. “The most important thing is they fix their permits,” he said.
In response to requests for comment on our findings, Megakarya and Kartika each wrote in a letter that their IUPs were “genuine and not falsified.” Both companies said they had “never been informed” of the allegation and that their activities were based on valid permits. They also claimed to have submitted regular progress reports to the relevant authorities, without any issues having been raised.
Other government bodies that are aware of the allegation have done little, if anything, to follow up on it.
Suratmin, a Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning official who attended the May meeting, told us the ministry had no role in the matter.
Widodo Ekatjahjana, the director general of legislation at the law ministry, declined to comment on the case, adding that any allegations of criminality should be reported to law enforcement.
Agus Ahmad Kurniawan, a forestry ministry lawyer who advises officials on licensing, who was also present at the meeting, said nothing could be done unless the Papua investment agency officials provided more evidence to support the allegation.
“It’s the [provincial] government who can prove whether or not [the permits] were faked,” he said. “But as it stands, they haven’t followed up.”
Djukmarian, the head of the Boven Digoel district investment office, said he was content for the project to go ahead on the grounds that it was in line with the local zoning plan and that local communities were supportive of it. “Look, the people who say [the permits were] faked are from the province,” he wrote in a text message. “So why doesn’t the province bring it into the realm of law?”
Jamal and Jhoni Way, however, took the view that the agreement with the companies had put the matter to rest.
“It’s done,” Jamal said.
A controversial project
The claim that the IUPs were falsified is not the only allegation of impropriety that has been levelled against the Tanah Merah project.
A cross-border investigation published in November 2018 by The Gecko Project, Mongabay, news portal Malaysiakini and Tempo magazine revealed a litany of problems in the way the rights to the concessions had been obtained and traded.
Yusak Yaluwo, the district chief, had granted Menara the rights to more land than a single firm is allowed to control in Papua, blowing through the legal limit of 2,000 square kilometres (772 square miles).
In April 2010, soon after Menara began began the licensing process, Yusak was arrested on unrelated corruption charges. But our investigation found that he continued to sign documents shepherding the project through after he was convicted, while languishing in a prison cell.
The Menara Group used the names of front shareholders on company documents, including those of Chairul’s driver and a low-paid debt collector.
Menara then sold two of the companies, to Tadmax, via a pair of Singapore-based shell companies that also had front shareholders, obscuring the recipients of the $80 million that flowed offshore as rights to the project changed hands.
Villagers have complained that basic information about the project, including its boundaries and scale, was withheld from them. Menara’s representatives were accompanied by police officers and soldiers during their interactions with local communities. On one occasion an Auyu man was reportedly beaten up by a police officer in a meeting about the project at a local schoolhouse.
NGOs have been unable to obtain copies of the environmental impact assessments the companies were required to carry out as part of the permit process. “It’s like there’s a mafia hiding them,” Ronny Tethool, who until recently ran the WWF office in southern Papua, told us in 2017 after trying and failing to obtain the assessments.
Jamal cited some of these findings as he detailed the forgery allegation during the May meeting in Jakarta.
But even as Menara and its partners pushed to retain their rights to the land, a new allegation was emerging.
Soon after buying into the project, one of the anonymously owned UAE firms formed a joint venture with Shin Yang, the Malaysian logging and plantation giant, to build a sawmill to process timber as the forest was clear-cut. Among the key approvals the joint-venture claimed to have obtained was an environmental license, purportedly signed in 2014 by Wempy Hutubessy, then the head of the Boven Digoel development planning agency.
But in March this year, as construction on the sawmill neared completion, Wempy reportedly issued a statement claiming the environmental license had been falsified. That allegation prompted Djukmarian, the head of the district investment agency, to write to the sawmill firm on November 5, ordering it to stop all activities in the field. Djukmarian’s letter was made public by Pusaka on November 20. The NGO has also called for an investigation into that alleged forgery. (Wempy did not respond to requests for comment for this article.)
There are no indications as to who may have carried out the alleged falsifications, for either the plantation or the sawmill. The Menara Group, Tadmax and Shin Yang, all of which have invested in parts of the project at various stages, did not respond to questions or requests for comment for this article.
Despite the growing questions surrounding the Tanah Merah project, district and provincial officials maintain that in allowing the plantation companies to keep operating they are acting in the interests of the Auyu people.
Djukmarian, Jamal and Jhoni Way all cited this as a key rationale for letting the plantation companies redo the permit process despite the forgery allegation.
“The community already consented to the companies operating,” Jamal said. “We’re prioritising the interests of the government, and the people.”
Franky Samperante, the Pusaka director, however, has found that many Auyu people remain steadfastly opposed to the project. On a recent trip to Anggai village he found residents divided over whether the project should proceed. To signal their opposition, they had erected symbolic wooden crosses at the borders of the project.
Ultimately, Franky said, local communities had been deprived of the ability to make an informed choice of whether they wanted the project because the state had failed in its duty to protect their rights. He called on the government to investigate the circumstances that gave rise to the project rather than rushing into reissuing the permits.
“This legal problem must be solved first,” he said. “If this sort of thing continues, it will be dangerous for the country.”
President Widodo and his forestry minister, Siti Nurbaya Bakar, have been at pains to signal that they are ready to curtail deforestation and bring order to the plantation sector.
The stakes are highest in Papua and neighboring West Papua province, which together hold more than a third of Indonesia’s intact forest. Last year, the governors of the two provinces pledged to protect 70 per cent of the land under their jurisdictions, a measure they promised would be supported by “uphold[ing] law enforcement in natural resources.”
The success or failure of that commitment alone could determine whether Indonesia meets its targets for curbing greenhouse gas emissions under the Paris Agreement on climate change, according to the World Resources Institute.
Arie Rompas, the head of forest campaigns at Greenpeace Indonesia, has been monitoring the Widodo administration’s ongoing review of oil palm plantation permits. A comprehensive investigation of the Tanah Merah project, he said, would demonstrate the government’s commitment to stemming deforestation and corruption.
“Papua is the last bastion for saving Indonesia’s forests,” he said. “The parties involved must be brought to justice.”
Kepulauan Solomon telah menjadi berita utama di sejumlah media internasional pekan lalu, termasuk di New York Times, mengenai perjanjian sewa pulau di Kepulauan Solomon.
Menelaah kesepakatan empat-halaman, perjanjian kerja sama strategis atas Pulau Tulagi, yang dipersiapkan dengan buru-buru penuh kecerobohan, antara pemerintah Provinsi Tengah di Kepulauan Solomon dan perusahaan Tiongkok, Sam Enterprise Group Ltd, terlihat jelas bahwa apa yang disetujui termasuk hak pembangunan eksklusif kepada konglomerat Tiongkok itu sebenarnya jauh di luar wewenang pemerintah provinsi.
Sumber daya mineral, perikanan, hutan, tanah – ini semua adalah ranah pemilik tanah adat, sementara pemerintah pusat hanya berperan sebagai tuan tanah secara teoretis atas lahan yang terdaftar serta pemilik bersama sumber daya mineral, yang bertugas memberikan izin usaha pertambangan.
Pemimpin provinsi itu juga kemudian dengan lekas membantah perjanjian itu setelah liputan New York Times, mengakui dalam wawancara dengan Radio New Zealand bahwa mereka tidak mungkin menyewa Tulagi, dan bahwa tidak ada apa pun dari perjanjian itu akan terjadi.
Namun, meski Xi Jinping tidak akan mungkin memerintahkan pembangunan tempat rahasia di Pulau Tulagi, proyek tersebut mungkin akan diteruskan namun dalam bentuk lainnya, terutama jika Sam Group berhasil mengamankan pendanaan di Tiongkok. Jika berhasil, kurangnya pengalaman perusahaan itu di Pasifik, dapat menyebabkan situasi yang mirip dengan Pacific Marine Industrial Zone di sebelah utara Papua Nugini, upaya pertama oleh perusahaan Tiongkok untuk mendirikan kawasan ekonomi khusus di Pasifik.
Di kawasan itu, politisi-politisi dan kontraktor setempat sedang bersengketa dengan perusahaan Tiongkok tersebut. Manajemennya bersembunyi di sebuah kantor di Madang karena pendanaan mereka dari Bank Exim Tiongkok perlahan-lahan dibuang untuk hal-hal trivial seperti gerbang yang bernilai Kina 4 juta ($ 1,7 juta).
Juga luput dari perhatian media-media besar adalah kasus lainnya, yang membuktikan bahwa kesenjangan antara pemerintah nasional dan provinsi seperti ini ada positif dan negatifnya bagi Tiongkok. Pada 17 Oktober kemarin, Pemerintah Provinsi Malaita, juga di Kepulauan Solomon, menerbitkan Komunike Auki, menegaskan adanya proses bagi mereka perihal hak untuk menentukan nasib sendiri.
Alasan yang memicu keinginan kelompok-kelompok di Malaita, untuk membentuk pemerintahan sendiri adalah karena keputusan pemerintah pusat, untuk mengalihkan pengakuan diplomatik dari Taiwan ke Tiongkok, yang dianggap sebagai proses yang tergesa-gesa tanpa konsultasi yang memadai dengan masyarakat. Di bawah anak judul ‘core beliefs and freedoms’ komunike itu tertulis kebebasan beragama, dan ‘oleh karena itu Malaita menolak Partai Komunis di Tiongkok dan sistemnya yang didasarkan ideologi ateis’.
Keputusan pemerintah nasional Kepulauan Solomon untuk beralih ke Tiongkok, telah menimbulkan desakan oleh pergerakan Malaita for Democracy (M4D) dan beberapa kelompok lain, agar Malaita dapat menentukan nasibnya sendiri, menyatakan keinginan mereka untuk menjauhkan diri dari ikatan diplomatik dengan Republik Rakyat Tiongkok, seperti yang diputuskan oleh pemerintah pusat, serta komitmennya untuk melindungi tanah dan sumber daya alam mereka dari ‘investor yang amoral’.
Aspirasi untuk kemerdekaan Malaita dan keinginannya untuk menentukan nasib sendiri ini, punya sejarah yang panjang. Pada 1940-an, gerakan Ma’asina Ruru di Malaita berusaha menuntut hak untuk menentukan nasib sendiri. Pada 1970-an, pergerakan Western Breakaway dibentuk, dimana Provinsi Barat memboikot perayaan Hari Kemerdekaan Nasional pada 7 Juli 1978. Gerakan ini lalu bangkit kembali pada 2000 sebagai Western State Movement, yang berakhir dengan apa yang disebut sebagai kudeta yang tidak diketahui oleh siapa pun. Pada 2015, Majelis Provinsi Malaita meresmikan resolusi tentang kedaulatan Malaita.
Provinsi Malaita memiliki jumlah populasi yang besar dibandingkan dengan provinsi lainnya di Kepulauan Solomon, namun ia tetap terbelakang. Hanya 4,71% lahan di provinsi ini yang terasing, ini berarti sebagian besar tanah dan SDA di Malaita berada dalam domain adat, di bawah wewenang langsung pemilik tradisional. Meskipun demikian, pemerintah pusat memiliki kuasa atas alat-alat dan proses transaksi atas lahan tersebut.
Instrumen-instrumen seperti itu sering kali lebih menguntungkan investor, sementara pemilik sumber daya dibiarkan menjadi rent seeker (pemburu rente) dan penerima royalti. Hal ini juga menyebabkan adanya jurang pemisah antara pembuat keputusan di tingkat nasional dan provinsi. Keputusan pemerintah pusat untuk beralih ke Tiongkok, dan segera mengundang investor Tiongkok ke Kepulauan Solomon tanpa masukan dari pemerintah provinsi dan pemilik sumber daya, adalah bukti kesenjangan ini.
Pemerintah Provinsi Malaita meminta MP-nya untuk datang ke Auki dan berpartisipasi dalam pertemuan tinggi pemimpin-pemimpin yang diadakan pada 16 Oktober, untuk membahas persoalan seputar peralihan ke Tiongkok, termasuk di antaranya desakan untuk menentukan nasib sendiri. Majelis Provinsi Malaita dan lima MP dari Malaita turut hadir, dan sebuah komunike dikeluarkan pada hari berikutnya. Sejumlah MP dari Malaita yang pro-Tiongkok tidak menghadiri pertemuan itu.
Desakan Provinsi Malaita untuk hak menentukan nasib sendiri ini bukan hanya datang dari daerah ini. Provinsi-provinsi lain di negara itu telah mengutarakan sentimen yang serupa, semua diakibatkan oleh pemusatan kekuasaan di tingkat pemerintah pusat, tanpa adanya kemajuan yang berarti terjadi di tingkat provinsi. Ada kekhawatiran yang masuk akal dari kedua pihak, menegaskan jurang pemisah yang umumnya terjadi di negara-negara dengan sistem pemerintahan federal.
Ketika kewenangan yang dilimpahkan ke pemerintah tingkat provinsi terbatas, ada ruang bagi oknum-oknum dari luar untuk menargetkan hubungan pemerintah nasional yang lemah, ke provinsi-provinsi yang lalu berujung ke destabilisasi. Hal ini mungkin dilakukan demi keuntungan atau sebagai langkah ekonomi yang diinginkan oleh negara.
Namun, pemerintah provinsi juga dapat menjadi sasaran yang lebih baik, karena ia lebih jarang diawasi oleh media dan diamati oleh masyarakat sipil. Faktor ini mungkin dapat menjelaskan kenapa negara-negara yang kewenangannya terpusat seperti Korea Selatan, yang juga homogen dalam hal etnik dan bahasa, secara umum lebih sulit dipengaruhi Tiongkok.
Peralihan hubungan diplomatik, dari Taiwan terhadap Tiongkok, diharapkan akan membawa pembangunan dalam berbagai sektor di Kepulauan Solomon. Pemerintah pusat harus melakukan analisis yang cermat, sebelum menandatangani perjanjian apa pun terkait pembangunan yang penting seperti ini. Legislasi dan mekanismenya harus diperkuat atau dirombak, untuk memastikan wewenang antara pemerintah pusat dan provinsi dijaga dengan baik, agar bisa melindungi kepentingan masyarakat setempat yang merupakan pemilik SDA di tingkat provinsi. (Lowy Institute/The Interpreter)
Many of us have at least a little Neanderthal DNA inside us
Marcin Rogozinski / Alamy Stock Photo
Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2220381-long-strand-of-dna-from-neanderthals-found-in-people-from-melanesia/#ixzz630AemCaX
Many people have DNA inside them that they inherited from extinct hominins like the Neanderthals – and now we know that in some cases it isn’t just tiny snippets but long stretches.
Over the past decade, genetic analysis of human DNA has revealed that ancient humans must have interbred many times with other hominins such as Neanderthals. The result is that DNA from these extinct groups can be found in many human populations today.
However, these studies were limited to small pieces of DNA. “Most people have focused on looking at single nucleotide changes,” says Evan Eichler at the University of Washington in Seattle. This means just one “letter” of a gene has been altered.
Now Eichler and his team have gone further. “This is one of the first papers that looks at bigger events like deletions and duplications of sequence,” he says. These larger genetic changes will have had more important effects on human biology.
The researchers looked at the DNA of people from Melanesia, as the levels of Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA are highest in these populations. They found evidence of much longer chunks of archaic DNA in this population.
Two large pieces of DNA were found that originate from ancient hominins. One is on chromosome 16 and comes from Denisovans. It contains two duplicated sections. The other is on chromosome 8 and comes from Neanderthals. It includes both a deletion and a duplication.
Duplications are significant because they allow the original gene to be kept, if it is useful, while the copy is free to change and potentially develop a new function. “A duplication is a type of mutation that lets you have your cake and eat it too,” says Eichler.
Both chunks of DNA show signs of having been selected for by evolution. They seem to have been advantageous and thus become more common in the Melanesian population over the centuries.
Test run
“The archaics have contributed to the success of humans that left Africa,” says Eichler. Neanderthals and Denisovans lived in Europe and Asia for hundreds of thousands of years before modern humans emerged from Africa, so they would have evolved adaptations to the different climates, foods and diseases. These useful genes “were kind of test-run in our precursors”, says Eichler. “They’re basically borrowed.”
However, it is unclear what the advantages have been. “I think the biggest challenge is proving the function,” says Eichler. This will be difficult because the genes are only found in humans, so animal studies will not help, and they have been duplicated and then subtly altered. “You’re talking about a set of genes which are a geneticist’s worst nightmare.”
New Caledonia’s pro-independence FLNKS has questioned the role of the president Thierry Santa on the commission tasked with saving the SLN nickel plant.
SLN’s ongoing losses have fuelled concern about the company’s viability and prompted the formation of a commission to rescue it.
In a statement, the FLNKS has queried if Mr Santa is there as a representative of the executive or as a politician of the anti-independence Future with Confidence coalition.
The FLNKS contends that there shouldn’t be a mixture because as president he is bound to represent the collegial government which includes ministers from the rival camps.
According to the portfolio distribution, Mr Santa is in charge of mining.
SLN’s parent company this week decided against invoking bankruptcy protections amid hopes that SLN can secure a cheaper electricity supply in order to return to profitability.
Months after a cargo ship ran aground and began spillingheavy fuelnear Rennell Island’s world-famous coral reef, another ship has reportedly spilled more than 5,500 tons of bauxite, the ore mined for aluminum, in the same locationin the Solomon Islands.
The spill occurred July 1, according to the Guardian, turning Kangava Bay’s typically teal waters a striking clay red. A separate ship spilled more than 100 tons of oilinto the eastern side of this same bay in February after strong waves pushed the ship into a reef. This time, however, weather wasn’t to blame. The bauxite ore, which is being mined from Rennell Island, “slipped” into the water during loading, reports the Guardian. Both times, the barges were owned by Bintan Mining Company, per Radio New Zealand.
These contamination events spell trouble for the local reef ecosystem, which is so special that the site sits on the UNESCO World Heritage List. They’re also having an impact on the roughly 1,200 people who live on the island, including members of the Tehakatu’u tribe, as they typically collect rainwater to drink and fish from the bay for food.
Last time, community members struggled with drinking water and food in wake of the disaster. People are being advised not to fish again, Derek Pongi, the Tehakatu’u Development Association chairman, told Earther via Facebook. But while Pongi says some are resorting to processed canned foods, The Guardian reports that other people aren’t heeding these warnings. Meanwhile, children continue to swim and play in the water, according to photos provided by Pongi.
The Tehakatu’u Development Association has been providing water to locals and has contributed almost $500 (4,000 Solomon Island Dollars) to the community since last week’s spill. They’ll need every dollar; this spill could impact the coral reefs permanently if they struggle to find sunlight beneath all the bauxite powder, per the Guardian. If corals die, it’s possible not as many fish will come to the bay anymore.
The environmental assessment for the last spill should wrap by July 17, according to the Guardian. In wake of this latest spill, Tehakatu’u Development Association will try to commission an independent assessment, said Pongi to Earther.
So far, there’s no news on when clean up will begin or how long it’ll take for this most recent disaster—but the government needs to hurry up. People’s well-being is on the line.
For the second time in six months, an environmental disaster is threatening a pristine coral reef and UNESCO World Heritage site.
A cargo ship ran aground in the Solomon Islands during bad weather in February, spilling tons of oil near the world-famous reef, known as East Rennell.
Now, another cargo ship has spilled more than 5,500 tons of bauxite — the primary ore used to produce aluminum — in the same area. The Guardian reports the rock slipped into Kangava Bay July 1 while it was being loaded onto a barge, turning the normally turquoise water a dark reddish-brown.
The ship that ran aground in February was also loading bauxite at the time. Both ships were owned by the same company, Bintan Mining Solomon Islands. Bauxite mining is one of the few sources of revenue for local communities, but spills like this can spell disaster for them. More than 1,200 people call East Rennell home, living primarily by subsistence gardening, hunting and fishing.
After the oil spill, children were warned not to swim in the water and fishing was banned. But the Guardian notes many continued to fish for lack of other food sources. Test results are pending on whether the fish was contaminated.
People have been advised not to fish once again, but children are continuing to swim and play in the water. Lawrence Nodua, a spokesman for Oceanswatch Solomon Islands, told the Guardian there were reports some children were suffering from skin irritation caused by the water.
Experts say accidental spills of bauxite during the loading process could leave the ocean floor covered, making the water murky. This, in turn, could damage or kill corals that need sunlight to survive and attract fish the locals depend on for food.
The shipping carrier is negotiating with its insurer over cleanup costs, but they are expected to take time.
East Rennell is the largest raised coral atoll in the world. It was added to the World Heritage list in 1998, but was put on UNESCO’s danger list in 2013 due to logging and overfishing.
For several years, blond hair was attributed to Caucasians but the Melanesians of Solomon Islands are one of the few groups with blonde hair outside Europe.
Melanesians are black island people in the south pacific that migrated over thousands of years ago, long before the blacks that came to the Americas as slaves.
Melanesia is a sub-region of Oceania extending from the western end of the Pacific Ocean to the Arafura Sea, and eastward to Fiji. The region comprises most of the islands immediately north and northeast of Australia, including the countries of Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Island, and New Caledonia. The name Melanesia was first used by Jules Dumont d’Urville in 1832 to denote an ethnic and geographical grouping of islands distinct from Polynesia and Micronesia.
Trip down memory lane
Melanesian people of Solomon Islands
Until recently, the indigenous melanesian people practised cannibalism, head-hunting, kidnapping and slavery, just like the Asmat tribe, but with contact with Europeans, the population is now predominantly Christian. However, more than 90% lead rural lives.
Melanesian Blonde hair
Trip down memory laneMelanesian people of Solomon Islands
The Melanesian people of the Solomon Islands are the point of interest when it comes to dark skin and blond hair. The Solomon Islands are located in the South Pacific, the very heart of Melanesia, just Northeast of Australia, between Papua and Vanuatu and is an independent state within the British Commonwealth.
Although the indigenous Melanesian population of the islands possess the darkest skin outside of Africa, between 5 and 10% have bright blond hair.
Trip down memory laneMelanesian people of Solomon Islands
There have been several theories on how they got their blond hair — from sun and salt whitening, high fish intake, or genetic heritage from mixed-breeding with Americans/Europeans who founded the islands.
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A geneticist from Nova Scotia agricultural college in Canada, Sean Myles, conduced a genetic analysis on saliva and hair samples from 1209 Melanesian Solomon Island residents. From comparing 43 blond Islanders and 42 brown Islanders, he found that the blondes carried two copies of a mutant gene which is present in 26% of the island’s population. The Melanesian people have a native TYRP1 gene which is partly responsible for the blond hair and melanin, and is totally distinct to that of Caucasians as it doesn’t exist in their genes.
Trip down memory laneMelanesian people of Solomon Islands
It is a recessive gene and is more common in children than in adults, with hair tending to darken as the individual matures.
This contributes to the theories that black Africans were the first homo sapiens and that all races came out of the black African race.
Members of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) Secretariat met with a team of officials from the Solomon Islands Government Parliamentary Task Force yesterday morning as the delegation made a courtesy call while passing through Vanuatu.
The Parliamentary Task Force that was set up by the new Solomon Islands Government to look at the Taiwan/PRC issue are currently visiting selected Forum member countries, Vanuatu, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and Papua New Guinea learning more about their one China Policy and its implementation.
MSG Deputy Director General (DG) Peter Eafeare, spoke to the delegation comprising of six members of the Solomon Islands Parliament, five being new Members and two Government Officials on the important role and functions of the Melanesian Spearhead Group in the Pacific region.
Members of the SIGPTF delegation asked if there was a possibility members of the MSG Secretariat could make the same presentation to the newly elected Solomon Islands Government to which they were told the opportunity was there and the MSG Secretariat are available to assist Solomon Islands wherever necessary.
Solomon Islands Member of Parliament, John Moffat Fugui expressed his gratitude on behalf of the delegation after the presentation, thanking the MSG Deputy DG and MSG Secretariat members for their time and hospitality.
The delegation will be in Vanuatu from 25-28 June 2019 where they will also meet with Vanuatu Government Officials before leaving for the other Forum countries.
The Solomon Islands Parliamentary Task Force is made up of MP John Moffat Fugui (Chairman) 3rd term Parliament Member and Member for Central Honiara – Former Minister for Education and Climate Change; MP Jamie Vokia; MP Rex Ramofafia; MP Chachabula Amoi; MP Silas Fika; MP Roland Seleso and are being accompanied by two Government Officials, Mr Bernard Batanaasia and Mr Macfretch Arounsaka.
