Member of Commission II of the DPR from the Gerindra Faction, Azis Subekti, highlighted life at the border of the country. He emphasized that living in a border area means living with distance, not only geographical distance, but the distance between citizens and the state.
"In a place like this, sovereignty is not felt through speeches or project billboards, but through things that determine daily life, whether the road can be passed when it rains, whether the electricity is on at night, whether schools and health centers really work, and whether the police are present as protectors, not just as supervisors," said Azis Subekti in his statement, Thursday, February 5.
Azis said that South Papua, which is in direct contact with Papua New Guinea on land and Australia at sea, shows honestly how the country is tested at its outermost point.
"Normatively, Indonesia does not lack legal grounds. Law Number 43 of 2008 concerning the State Territory has confirmed that the border is a strategic space that concerns legal certainty, sovereignty, and the welfare of the people," said Azis.
"In this framework, the National Border Management Agency was also formed as a cross-sectoral institution intended to orchestrate the management of border areas. The problem is not in the absence of vision or norms, but rather in the gap between regulations and real life in the field," continued the member of the National Border Committee of the House of Representatives Commission II.
According to Azis, the state does seem to be physically present. The PLBN Sota in Merauke and the PLBN Yeteken in Boven Digoel stand as official symbols across the country. However, Azis said, for residents in the surrounding area, the presence has not always felt close.
"Buildings exist, but economic activity has not moved strongly. The apparatus is present, but public services still have to be taken with long distances and times. This is where residents distinguish very clearly between a state that is present symbolically and a state that works in their lives," he said.
Azis said that this problem is rooted in the institutional design of border management itself. He said, Article 15 of Law Number 43 of 2008 places BNPP as a determinant of policy, planner, coordinator, and evaluator. At the same time, all technical implementation of development is handed over to ministries and sectoral institutions.
"As a result, great responsibility is not followed by adequate authority. In the law of administrative government, this condition creates a false accountability: the state is responsible, but does not have full control to ensure results," he said.
"The impact is felt directly on the ground. Border development runs as a collection of sectoral projects, not as a whole life system. Infrastructure is built without human resource development. Security is tightened without opening legal economic space. Law enforcement is present without adequate social protection," he continued.
"When the state is partially present, what emerges is not order, but a gap. From this gap, smuggling, illegal border crossings, and transnational crimes continue to find space," Azis added.
For people in southern Papua, said Azis, the border is not just an administrative line. It is a living space formed by rivers, swamps, forests, and the sea. "The kinship and mobility across the region have taken place long before the state borders were established. The Arafura sea route, for example, has long been the pulse of human and goods movement between Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Australia," he said.
"However, this busy lane is actually poor in legal service nodes. In this context, the discourse on the development of the sea PLBN in Torasi is not a policy ambition, but a response to the actual needs that have been left unanswered by institutions," he continued.
On the other hand, the presence of the state is also determined by the human who carries out his functions. According to Azis, the PLBN does not work on its own, it lives from the apparatus that manages it.
"The pattern of short-term assignments without understanding the local context makes it difficult for services to be sustainable and people's trust easily eroded. The state seems to come and go, while the people remain with the same limitations. This is where it is seen that the border issue is not merely about infrastructure, but about the consistency of presence," he said.
"The economy of the border community cannot be allowed to continue to run in an informal way. As long as the legal path is expensive, complicated, and far away, the illegal path will always seem more rational. The state needs to open a realistic official economic space: limited cross-border markets, storage facilities for fishery products, and distribution systems that are directly connected to PLBN. When the legal path becomes possible and profitable, legal compliance will grow without having to be forced," continued Azis.
Azis revealed that data and information problems also widened the gap between the state and the people. The lack of synchronization of maps, population data, and service authority is not merely an administrative matter, but concerns the certainty of rights and potential conflicts.
"In the border area, data chaos means that the country is working with its eyes closed. Without a single border data system that is used together as a daily working tool, inter-agency coordination will continue to run slowly and reactively," he said.
"All of these issues show one main knot: our regulations have not fully enabled the state to work effectively to the outermost limits. BNPP is asked to be responsible for border management, but is placed more as a persuasive coordinator than a policy controller. There is no single command that can lock cross-sector priorities and ensure that borders function as a system of services, security, and economy," he continued.
Therefore, Azis assessed that strengthening the authority of the BNPP was not merely a bureaucratic issue, but a constitutional requirement. He emphasized that the state should not stop at symbols and planning documents.
"The strengthening can be achieved gradually and realistically: through a delegation of limited executive authority, strengthening the operational role in the management of land and sea PLBN, and restructuring norms so that responsibilities and authorities run in balance. Without it, border policies will continue to be fragmented and the state's presence is episodic," said Azis.
"Living on the border of the country does not require big promises. What is needed is a consistent state presence and working closely. At the border, sovereignty is not about claims, but about services that are present every day. The state will only be meaningful if it really works in the lives of its citizens, not just standing on the map, but living in the field," he concluded.
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