Reiner Brabar, Aimas – Supporting the regional government's plan to revoke the business permits of three palm oil companies, at least 53 organisations have decided to spend the night at the Sorong Regional House of Representatives (DPRD) office in West Papua province.
This firm stand, according to Ambo Klagilit, is a form of support for the Sorong regency government. "We here will stand our ground, we'll sleep here. This is our home. There will be no compromise, our decision is unanimous", said Klagilit in front of the Sorong DPRD on Monday December 6.
The struggle of the Moi tribe to save the Malamoi customary land, said Klagilit, will still be a long one.
"We here are not communicating with any other party, the DPRD or anyone, we will not speak again. We just want to sleep here until the State Administrative Court (PTUN) ruling is read out", he asserted.
Speaking in the same vein, Yeheskel Klasuat said that the customary community has already conveyed its wishes many ties, but there has been no response from the legislative.
"We've come here many times, we have conveyed our wishes many times. [But] the DPRD has not acted upon these wishes", he said with annoyance.
Speaking in front of the protesters meanwhile, DPRD Sorong Speaker Habel Yandafle claimed that 20 legislators had agreed to support the executive and revoke the palm oil companies' permits.
"All of us, twenty-five members of the parliament support the regent, the DPRD has forwarded all of the [community's] wishes to the Jayapura PTUN", said Yandafle.
Yandafle then invited all layers of society to come to the parliamentary offices to hold a press conference on December 7.
"Allow us to celebrate Christmas prayers at the DPRD tonight. Tomorrow you can return with even more protesters. We'll hold a live press conference", he said.
The protesters however refused to leave. As a consequent, there was a long debate between the protest leaders and the DPRD members.
After protracted negotiations, the protesters were finally allowed to spend the night at the DPRD office on the condition that they not disrupt Christmas prayers.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "53 Organisasi Bermalam di DPRD Sorong".]
Source: https://suarapapua.com/2021/12/07/53-organisasi-bermalam-di-dprd-sorong/
