papuachronicle.co – Papua. Indonesia has entered a new era as Jokowi’s term has ended and the elected President Prabowo Subianto has been inaugurated. With the goal of bringing Indonesia to its golden age, Prabowo appointed Natalius Pigai as the Minister of Human Rights.
The reason Prabowo appointed Natalius Pigai was not without reason, Natalius Pigai is a human rights activist from Papua. In the 2024 Presidential Election, Pigai served as the Legal Team for the Prabowo-Gibran TKN.
Pigai himself is a former Commissioner of the National Human Rights Commission for the 2012-2017 period. When he served as a member of the National Human Rights Commission, he was a member of the Monitoring and Investigation Subcommission.
Quoting the 2014 National Human Rights Commission Annual Report. At that time, Pigai handled around 1,400 of the 3,600 complaint cases submitted to the National Human Rights Commission.
In addition to being a Commissioner of the National Human Rights Commission, Pigai was also involved in activities in other institutions such as the Sejati Foundation which focuses on the rights of marginalized communities in Papua, Dayak, Sasak and Aceh in 1999-2002.
In addition to being active in a number of NGOs, he also served as a special staff to the minister (Ir Alhilal Hamdi and Yacob Nuwa Wea) at the Indonesian Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration from 1999-2004 and his last position as a structural employee and researcher in the field of Manpower specializing in Internal and International Migration.
Born and raised in the Paniai area, Central Papua, Natalius has two brothers named Yulius Pigai and Hengky Pigai.
Natalius studied at the Village Community Government College in Yogyakarta, where he successfully earned a Bachelor of Government Science (S.I.P.).
In addition to formal education, he also enriched his knowledge through various non-formal education.
In 2003, he studied statistics at the University of Indonesia, then continued his research education at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) in 2005 and completed his leadership education at the State Administration Institute from 2010 to 2011.
As a son of Papua, the new Minister of Human Rights is also known to be very active in various non-governmental organizations, including the Sejati Foundation which focuses on the rights of marginalized groups in Papua, Dayak, Sasak, and Aceh between 1999 and 2002.
He was also a research staff at Graha Budaya Indonesia-Japan (1998-2001) and a staff member of the Cindelaras Foundation which is committed to developing local wisdom and fighting for farmers’ rights.
His appointment as the new Minister of Human Rights carries the hope of President Prabowo for the development of human rights in Indonesia and Papua.