The Jakarta Post, July 26, 2004
Papua issue a challenge for the new president
Neles Tebay, Rome
Papua is not a determining factor in the presidential campaign as it has a very small
number of voters. Neither Megawati Soekarnoputri or Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
need to pay too much attention to wooing voters from among the some two million
indigenous Papuans as these only account for one percent of the total number of
voters in the country.
In reality, they can ignore the small number of indigenous Papuan voters, and focus
their campaigning on more densely populated provinces.
But it would be a big mistake for them to underestimate the dangers presented by a
failure to resolve the Papua issue.
For whoever is elected as the next president, the Papua issue will require greater
attention if a peaceful settlement is to be achieved.
In the last four years, the Papua issue has been receiving greater attention from the
international community. The government needs to be reminded just who the actors
are who are spurring interest in the Papua issue and how the topics related to the
Papua issue have been changing.
The growing international focus on Papua may be viewed from two aspects.
The first aspect concerns the actors who are heightening awareness of the Papua
issue in foreign countries.
In the past, only a very few overseas non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were
interested in the Papua issue. But now, it has become the center of attention for
many leading NGOs from various foreign countries. Their campaign has become more
effective since the establishment of the International Solidarity Group for West Papua,
which holds an annual conference on the Papua issue.
The Papua question has also become the subject of study and research among
scholars. As a consequence, it is receiving more attention from political, social and
legal experts at a number of leading universities and research institute. Through their
studies, the issue is being analyzed from different perspectives. Their work, in turn,
strengthens the West Papua campaign.
Some governments have begun to closely follow socio-political developments in the
western half of the island of New Guinea. Whatever their motivations are, it is clear
that the Papua issue has been raised at some bilateral and multilateral meetings with
the Indonesia government.
The second aspect concerns the issues raised by the above groups in relation to the
Papua question. It is interesting to analyze the topics raised, particularly by foreign
parliamentarians and governments.
They repeatedly insist on maintaining the territorial integrity of Indonesia, including
Papua. Therefore, they are not supporting the Papuan independence movement.
They also clearly state that Indonesian territorial unity cannot be maintained by a
security approach alone as military operations result in human rights violations.
Instead, they repeatedly emphasize the necessity for constructive dialogue as part of
an effort to tackle the root cases of the Papua issue.
When Law No.21/2001 on special autonomy for Papua Province was passed, the
international community was warm in its praise and gave its wholehearted support to
the Indonesian government. However, when Megawati's government postponed the
implementation of the Papua autonomy law, the international community began to put
pressure on the government to fully and effectively implement the legislation.
Stronger pressure was brought to bear when President Megawati issued her
controversial Presidential Instruction No. 1/2003 on the division of Papua into three
provinces.
With the government's failure to implement the Papua autonomy law, the focus of
attention of foreign parliamentarians and governments changed.
They began raising human rights issues. Unresolved human rights violations, such as
cases of summary executions, torture, arbitrary detention, rape and other rights
abuses both in the past and at the present time in Papua are now being discussed.
The necessity of addressing these rights abuses has been recognized.
They have been putting pressure on the Indonesian government to address these
unresolved human rights abuses in Papua.
Some have even sent letters to the secretary-general of the United Nations asking him
to send a UN representative to Indonesia in order to monitor the human rights
situation in Papua.
This is because human rights are universal, and violations of these rights are a
universal problem, even though the Indonesian government always claims that these
are internal matters. More pressure on human rights violations may be expected, and
the government will need to be ready to respond to this pressure.
The latest bad news for Indonesia is that the international community is now
beginning to raise that very sensitive issue (for Indonesia) -- the 1969 plebiscite, or the
so-called "Act of Free Choice" (AFC). It has become the subject of attention not only
of NGOs, but also of many legal experts, parliamentarians and governments.
Therefore, the government will need to ready its diplomatic weapons (The Jakarta
Post, July 16). In my opinion, only two weapons are needed, namely implementation
of the Papua autonomy law and the consequent revocation of the presidential
instruction on the division of Papua into three provinces, and engaging in a
constructive dialog with the Papuans with the mediation of a third party.
Without these weapons, other countries will not be convinced no matter what the
Indonesian government does.
They already know about the problems in West Papua, the root causes, the way the
government is tackling these problems, and what the government will say at
diplomatic forums.
If the next President perpetuates Megawati's way of handling the Papua issue, then
the government must be ready to accept more international pressure.
* The writer is a postgraduate student at Urbaniana Pontifical University in Rome.
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