- my boss Ibrahim
- BBC Indonesia
image source, Getty Images
Amidst the confusion over the causes of death of internet access in parts of Papua, several parties have linked it to the political and security context in the province.
At least 500,000 residents of four districts in Papua have had no access to the Internet for nearly three weeks.
The central government said the internet was cut off after the underwater cable connecting the data communication system was damaged by natural factors.
According to geotechnologists, this damage should have been caused by a large-scale earthquake, at least 7 degrees. However, the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has not recorded any massive earthquake around Papua in the past two months.
Meanwhile, leaders of the consortium of companies that build submarine communications cable networks suspect that the internet infrastructure around Jayapura has been damaged by the ship’s mooring.
So what is really destroying the internet in parts of Papua?
And how is it related to the political situation in Papua, which is considered heated in recent times?
Internet has been missing in Jayapura City and Districts, Sarmi District and Kerom District since April 30.
The reason, according to a spokesman for the Ministry of Communications and Information, Dede Bermadi, is the collapse of the Sulawesi-Maluku-Papua Submarine Cable Communication System (SMPCS).
Didi said in a written statement, Tuesday (18/05), that the submarine cable belonging to PT Telecom Indonesia (Persero) was at a depth of 4,050 meters. The location is 280 km from Biak and 360 km from Jayapura.
It is said that the cut submarine cable is in the Biak Sarmi section.
However, Didi’s statement differs from that of Telkomsel’s General Manager Operations and Quality for Papua and Maluku regions, Adi Wibowo.
After four days of losing internet in Jayapura and its surroundings, Ade said the reason behind this was the maintenance of the submarine cable that was being worked on in the Biak-Sarmi section.
Damar Junyarto, CEO of Safenet, said this inconsistency in information about why the Internet was lost has finally become a big question mark.
Dammar said the reason was that neither the government nor Telkom detailed the reasons behind this situation.
Referring to the United Nations, Dammar said that the right to access the Internet is a basic right of citizens.
“There is mystery “What makes it so confusing is the exact cause of this accident,” Dammar said.
image source, Damien Meyer
Clarification. With reference to the London-based blackout watchdog Netblocks, Jayapura residents began losing access to the internet on April 30, 2021, at 21.30 PST.
According to Professor Heri Harjuno, a geologist who recently retired from the Indonesian Institute of Science, natural factors, such as an earthquake on a fault line, can have an effect on underwater optical cables.
However, Heri said, this causal relationship depends on real-world conditions.
“If the submarine cable was perpendicular or not parallel to the fault line, it could of course break because the energy generated by the earthquake was enormous,” Heary said.
“But the earthquake must be large. A magnitude of 5 may not have an impact, but a magnitude of 7 and above can destroy it.
“Has there been an earthquake in that area? Not just on April 30, but the date of the earthquake there, how many times it was hit by a big earthquake. Maybe there are cables that shifted several times.
“So we have to see when the cable was first laid and when there was a major earthquake,” Heri said.
At least since April 15, or two weeks before the internet went out in neighboring Jayapura, there have been two earthquakes of magnitude 5 around Papua.
The first earthquake occurred on April 25, with a magnitude of 5.1. The epicenter was 89 km southeast of Manokwari or west of Biak.
The next earthquake occurred the day before the internet went missing in nearby Jayapura, with a magnitude of 5.1. The site is quite similar to the previous earthquake, about 84 kilometers southeast of Manokwari.
Does this data answer the puzzle of the problem?
Pogo Pramono, vice president of corporate communications at the state-owned company, said Telkom was unable to identify the natural factors that caused the damage to its submarine cable.
In a press statement to reporters, as reported by Antara News Agency, Monday (17/05), Pogo said Telkom should first lift the cable that is suspected of being damaged from the sea.
Then, Pogo said, Telkom can determine the cause of the damage.
The Secretary General of the Indonesian Submarine Cable Communication Systems Association (Askalsi), Risi Pramani, said Telkom cables can be damaged not only by earthquakes, but also by hitting ship anchors.
The organization that Rissi leads consists of companies that own submarine communications cables. Telkom is one of its members.
“If there is a tectonic earthquake, shake it a little bit, the underwater cable can break,” Reese said.
“But it is unlikely that the submarine cables in eastern Indonesia will be affected by the activities of the ships because ships rarely pass through that area.
“So I would expect that this damage is caused by natural factors,” he said.
image source, France Press agency
Illustration of an underwater communication cable.
President Joko Widodo inaugurated the damaged submarine cable network in Papua in May 2015. The 8,722 km cable network project has spent a budget of 3.6 trillion rupees.
The construction is divided into two phases, the first being carried out by Alcatel Submarine Network, the parent company of the Finnish telecom company Nokia. The length of the project they are working on is 1,300 km.
Since its opening, this cable network has been damaged several times and has disrupted telecommunications and internet access in the Papua region. For all these accidents, Telkom always mentions natural factors as the cause.
In June 2016, for example, the submarine cable network was cut at a site 8.6 kilometers from Sorong. A year later, the same thing happened again.
At the time, Telkom Papua’s general manager, Agus Yudha Basuki, said the reason was the activity of an underwater volcano that was between Sarmi and Biak.
Meanwhile, in July 2018, Telkom said the submarine cable had broken due to the earthquake.
In the past three years, according to Askalsi data, the incidence of undersea communication cable outages has continued to decline. Respectively from 2018, the annual number of cases was 40, 30 and 27.
Last April, the Underwater Communication System Jakarta (Jakarta – Kalimantan – Batam – Singapore) was affiliated with PT Indosat Tbk. disconnected. Indosat suspects this is caused by landfall in mainland Singapore.
image source, between pictures
The vaccination rate against Covid-19 in Papua is considered low. In the midst of this problem, some Jayapura residents have recently flocked to search for internet signals in several locations such as local government offices and regional general hospitals.
What are the consequences of internet outage in Papua?
The loss of Internet access in Jayapura and Sarmi has affected people who depend on this network for their activities.
Weiwei Ayumi, a student at Jayapura University of Science and Technology, said that distance learning activities have stopped. As a result, face-to-face lectures were held on campus, when the transmission of the coronavirus was not contained.
Not only did this situation cause Weiwei to worry about exposure to the coronavirus from his lecturers or friends, but it also alarmed Jayapura residents who were looking for internet signals on certain sites.
Almost every weekend, Wiwi spends hours in the courtyard of Jayapura Dok II Regional General Hospital. There, Wiwi can at least send and receive messages from instant messaging apps like Whatsapp.
“I hope the internet won’t be cut off, we have to reduce coronavirus cases. If I go to campus, I have to take public transportation, the seats are close together,” Weiwei said.
A resident of Jayapura, Ari Bagus Purnomo, has complained about a loss of around Rs 11 million in income during the internet outage. By his career as a website developer, he can’t work at all.
“I have to renew the domains of four of my clients’ websites. When the government cut the internet in 2019, I can still access the internet in many hotels. Now I have no choice,” he said.
In a few days during August and September 2019, the government deliberately slowed down and cut internet access in Papua.
The Jakarta State Administrative Court stated that this policy is against the law.
At the time, the government argued that it was restricting and blocking internet access to prevent the spread of fake news.
During that period, riots broke out in several cities following police racism against Papuan students in Surabaya, East Java.
image source, France Press agency
The court declared the government’s move to ban the Internet in Papua from August to September 2019 illegal.
Gustav Grippon, head of the Jayapura Regency’s Communications and Information Office, said that despite the loss of internet access, public services could still run even if there were delays. However, he said, the situation has led to the emergence of many “digital refugees”.
“Villages may not really feel it, but for those who live in cities, it’s like losing a part of the body. Without the internet, we’re like dead,” Gustav said.
“Digital refugees appear, people look for places with a sign, and some go to Biak and other cities to continue their work or do their homework.
“The digital economy in Papua is in Jayapura, and now it is completely paralyzed, it cannot do anything,” Gustav said.
Communications and Informatics Minister Johnny J. Plait said that access to the Internet will return next June. However, Gustav has not yet received an exact date.
image source, Getty Images
A number of groups opposed the demonstrations against the shutdown of internet access in Papua in 2019.
What about independence aspirations?
Amidst the confusion over the reasons for the internet outage and the deadline for fixing it, it is suspected that this situation is linked to the free aspirations of a group of Papuans.
Internet access was cut off in Jayapura and its surrounding areas a day after Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Mahfud MD announced the designation of a terrorist organization by Free Papua.
One of those accused of causation in Internet access and politics in Papua is Linus Heloka, a former political prisoner and a leading figure in the OPM diplomatic path.
“This is a form of Indonesia’s inability to deal with the problem of Papua. They have sent many forces to go after OPM soldiers who they consider terrorists.
Linus allegedly said: “Then they turned off access to the Internet so that news of what happened in Papua would not be revealed. According to international law, this is a violation of human rights.”
On several occasions for the press, Papua’s Chief of Police, Inspector General Mateus D Fakhiri, has denied this claim.
image source, between pictures
The internet shutdown in Papua occurred amid the pros and cons of the plan to continue the special autonomy program spearheaded by, one of them, the Minister of Home Affairs, Tito Karnavian.
However, according to Damar Juniarto of Safenet, the central government should make maximum efforts to address the loss of internet access in parts of Papua.
Dammar said this incident is urgent because it makes the people affected by the epidemic more urgent.
“If this is the case now, there is less interest. The situation of the population is difficult, there is a pandemic and conflict between armed groups and the army.
“This will create an image as if the government allowed it,” Dammar said. “And assuming the omission could reinforce the bias that the disconnection is intentional.”
Sentani’s journalist, Engel Wali, contributed to this coverage.