My plane landed in Sorong at seven. The air outside was warm. I was sitting in front of the arrival gate, gazing at a row of old silver Avanza cars with yellow plates, when a kind-of-chunky, long-haired man with glasses called out to me. Hanging across his chest was a Papuan noken, and in one hand he carried nasi kuning for my breakfast. He was one of the Pengajar Muda who had come to pick me up at the airport.
We chatted for a few minutes. Then a few more, probably about the length that equals of an episode of Bocor Alus Politik Tempo, until the pickup vehicle finally arrived. We drove eastward, toward Maybrat.
It took about four hours to drive from Sorong to Maybrat. This wasn’t my first time in Papua. The trip reminded me of the road to Pegunungan Arfak, although the road conditions were, of course, vastly different. Maybrat, which is traversed by the trans Papua road, a.k.a "Jokowi road", has much better infrastructure. Perhaps it's because it's still relatively close to Sorong. But aside from the physical facilities, which were fairly decent, during the three weeks I spent there, I witnessed a human development disparity that made Maybrat stand out even more starkly.
While I was there, I became curious about the regency’s expenditure. I discovered that its annual budget (APBD) was around 1 trillion rupiah, for a region with a population of about 46,000 people. Just simple math, that would mean a per capita allocation of roughly 22 million rupiah per year. Of course, the reality is far more complex, with many competing budget priorities. Still, that average figure is relatively high compared to other regencies in Indonesia. My question after processing that information was: just how effective has it been?
The answer, I began to realize, lies in the contrast between what is physically visible and what remains systematically lacking. The roads were fine, the electricity stable for almost 24 hours, and for now, most schools had adequate internet access (thanks to Starlink). But the human side of development told a different story. In some public schools I visited or learned about, students hadn't had a full week of teachers in weeks, or even months. I also met many children who could operate smartphones well, navigating menus and accessing social media. Yet, they couldn’t actually read the words; they were simply memorizing icons and patterns. All of these phenomena actually not unique for me, since I also had similar findings during my time in other regencies in West Papua.
This reminded me of Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach. Sen argues that true development should be measured not just by economic growth or infrastructure, but by the real freedoms people have to live the kinds of lives they value. In Maybrat, the physical infrastructure might suggest progress, but when children lack quality teachers and consistent learning, their capabilities remain stunted. A paved road cannot replace a competent science teacher. Electricity means little if it doesn’t power knowledge, does it?
On paper, things looked promising. The large budget was there. The facilities were there. But the translation from numbers to impact was, somehow, broken. The capability to be educated and to break the cycle of poverty remained uncertain.
This is not to say nothing works in Maybrat. I listened closely to the Pengajar Muda’s reflections. I saw passionate teachers still trying their best. There are people who put in their best efforts to pave the future of Maybrat’s children to be as smooth as its asphalt road to Kumurkek. But what’s troubling is the inconsistency, made even more ironic by every scene of stark juxtaposition in reality.
My time in Maybrat made one thing clear: juxtaposition is not merely visual. It is visceral. It is felt most deeply in a child's stalled education, in a teacher shortages, or in a budget’s unfulfilled promise. As Sen might say, it is the absence of individual capability, not just the presence of material goods, that defines underdevelopment.
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