Asia Times, April 13, 2006
Diplomatic dog days ahead
By Bill Guerin
JAKARTA - Is Papua about to become another East Timor? Jakarta is rife with
allegations that Australia implicitly backs Papuan irredentist ambitions, just as many
Australians favored independence for East Timor a decade ago. Many of the Jakarta
elite have never forgiven Canberra's peacekeeping role in the province's breakaway
from Jakarta after the 1999 referendum.
The waters around East Timor are rich in natural-gas reserves, and since
independence Jakarta has wrangled with Canberra over drilling rights. So the fact that
Papua is one of Indonesia's and perhaps the world's most resource-rich territories
fuels Indonesia's suspicions about Australia's possible commercial ambitions for the
territory. Add to that Australian anxieties over Islamic terrorism from Indonesia and
other irritants, and one can see how bilateral ties have reached a nadir.
Australia infuriated Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Jakarta's
political elite and a large cross-section of the population with its decision late last
month to grant political asylum to 42 Papuans who had floated on a small boat to
Australia's shores in January. They had claimed they were fleeing state-sponsored
genocide in Indonesia's easternmost province.
Yudhoyono had in January telephoned Australian Prime Minister John Howard soon
after the Papuans arrived to ask that they be sent home and personally guaranteed
their safety upon their return. His attempt at hotline diplomacy failed to persuade
Howard - even though Canberra has in recent years taken a hardline stance on
unauthorized arrivals from Indonesian asylum seekers. "It's true the president rang the
prime minister to ask him not to give them these visas, so there's a bit of a face issue
here," said Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.
Among those granted visas were well-known pro-independence activist Herman
Wainggai, who in the past spent time in an Indonesian jail on treason charges. His
uncle, Tom Wainggai, also a leading independence activist, was sentenced to 20
years in prison after raising a Papuan flag in 1988. He died eight years later in a
Jakarta prison amid unsubstantiated claims that he was poisoned and denied medical
treatment. His case has long been a rallying point for Papuan separatists.
Jakarta is not buying Canberra's argument that the decision to grant the visas was a
lower-level administrative decision made independently by immigration authorities and
not a political decision made at the highest level. They assume that such a
diplomatically touchy issue could only be made by the prime minister himself. So it
added insult to injury by causing Yudhoyono to lose face. Partly for this reason, he
recently recalled Indonesia's ambassador to Australia.
Cartoonists in both countries vied to see who could reach a new low. One published in
Indonesia depicted Australia's prime minister and foreign minister as copulating
dingoes lusting after Papua. An Australian newspaper hit back with a cartoon
portraying Indonesia's president and a Papuan as fornicating dogs. The episodes
demonstrated just how far the two countries' popular perceptions of each other have
deteriorated. And it appears the two neighbors could be in for some diplomatic dog
days ahead.
Entrenched suspicions
Australia's sometimes heavy-handed tactics against suspected Muslim terror
suspects have raised Indonesian criticism of religious-based discrimination, while
Australians are acutely aware that they are in the sights of certain Indonesian terror
groups, which in recent years have bombed tourist spots popular with Australians as
well as their embassy in Jakarta. Howard's brash claim after September 11, 2001,
that he reserved the right to strike preemptively against terrorists who threatened
Australia's national security was seen as an implicit threat to Indonesia.
Indonesians view the decision to grant the Papuan asylum-seekers visas as proof that
Australia gives credence to the still-unsubstantiated allegations that Indonesian
security forces are currently committing serious human-rights abuses in Papua. The
much more widely substantiated atrocities committed in East Timor turned Australian
public opinion strongly in favor of independence.
By comparison, Papua's independence movement remains weak and lacks the
compelling historical narrative or the moral imperatives that gave life to East Timor's
successful drive in 1999. There is one similarity, however: Indonesia currently bars
foreign journalists and human-rights groups from accessing the remote territory, so
independent verification of conflicting claims is difficult.
Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono has conceded that there were unfortunate
incidents of Indonesian troops raping and torturing the local population in the past. But
Yudhoyono, speaking last week in Merauke, the spot from where the wanderers set
sail for Australia, has strongly denied allegations that the 11,000 or so troops now
stationed in Papua are currently involved in human-rights abuses.
Underscoring those assertions, the Indonesian Foreign Ministry said Australia's
decision to grant the asylum seekers visas justified speculation that there are
"elements in Australia supporting the separatist OPM" (Organisasi Papua Merdeka,
or Free Papua Movement) - although without providing supporting evidence to back the
politically charged claim.
Amid the furor, Yudhoyono is now left with few options except to take a tough line
with Australia. Chest-beating nationalists have mobilized in full force around the
incident and have called for a complete break in diplomatic ties with Australia. The
same nationalistic elements had recently protested against resource-extracting
foreign investors in the country, a rallying cry Yudhoyono had strongly opposed.
Canberra continues to struggle to determine the precise gravity of the issue. Downer
said at first that it had "generated a certain amount of heat and light amongst
politicians in Jakarta, and the wise thing for Australia to do was to play this calmly
and see what happens". Later he described Australia's relationship with Indonesia as
a "crisis".
Howard prefers to believe that much of what has been said in Jakarta is intended for
"domestic political consumption", and he is careful to say nothing bad about
Yudhoyono. He recently described Indonesia's first directly elected president as "one
of the most capable, moderate Islamic leaders in the world", and "the best president
Indonesia has ever had". He has reiterated Australia's support for Indonesia's territorial
integrity - although critics in Jakarta note that Canberra made similar pronouncements
related to East Timor just before its controversial military intervention there in 1999.
The backlash threatens to take a heavy economic toll on both countries. The
Association of Indonesian Importers has called on its members to boycott Australian
products and asked all dock workers across the country to refuse to unload goods
from Australia-flagged ships. Groups of Islamic students have begun "sweeping"
hotels in provincial towns looking for Australian citizens, a campaign of intimidation
that will likely hit the tourism industry hard.
Both sides stand to lose from an escalating conflict. Bilateral trade has continued to
expand and reached US$5.2 billion in 2005, making Indonesia Australia's 13th-biggest
trading partner. Some 400 Australian enterprises have operations in Indonesia's
mining, construction, banking, food-and-beverage, and transport sectors. More than
18,000 Indonesians study in Australia, and even after the terrorist bombings Bali
remains a prime tourist destination for Australians.
Not another East Timor
One can make too much of the East Timor analogy, of course. East Timor's
independence stemmed from then president B J Habibe's cavalier approach to the
territory in the heat of a presidential election campaign. "We don't want to be bothered
by East Timor's problems anymore," Habibie famously said. "If someone asks me
about East Timor, my suggestion is, give them freedom. It is just and fair."
Habibie's plan, of course, met with fierce opposition, and the military was furious that
it had not been consulted. The military deliberately undermined Habibie's policy by
channeling money and arms to pro-Indonesian militias, which promised to wreak
havoc if the Timorese voted for independence. In the aftermath of the referendum,
militia violence swept across the province, with the armed forces denying any
responsibility.
East Timor had long been in the international spotlight, beginning with the Indonesian
invasion in 1975, shortly after Portugal abandoned its empire, and the continued
official abuses committed thereafter. Papua, on the other hand, became Indonesian
territory in 1969 peacefully as part of a United Nations-ratified referendum after the
Dutch withdrew. Pro-independence forces now say that the pro-integration referendum
was undemocratic and a sham.
Jakarta has reacted viscerally to any attempts to rewrite history. In a State of the
Nation address last year, Yudhoyono noted: "There exist no manipulations of history
that must be revised. The world bore witness to every negotiation on returning West
Irian [as Papua was known under the Dutch], under the conduct of the Act of Free
Choice. The United Nations has also recognized the outcome and, up to the present,
never questioned it."
And Indonesia has warned foreign allies to steer clear of the issue. During a state visit
to China last July, the president warned the US not to interfere in his country's
domestic affairs, especially in relation to Papua. On the same day the US State
Department issued a statement reaffirming support for the territorial integrity of
Indonesia and reiterating that it does not support or condone any efforts to promote
the secession of Papua from Indonesia.
As the United States gears up to forge a stronger strategic relationship with Indonesia
as a counterbalance to China's growing influence in the region and for Jakarta's
cooperation in the "war on terror", US interference over Papua is unlikely. However,
this could change if Congress takes up the Papuans' cause: A bill now before the
Senate would require the State Department to report back on Papua and,
significantly, also review the 1969 Act of Free Choice.
This year has seen heightened frustrations in Papua over Jakarta's failure to
implement autonomy laws and anger at foreign companies exploiting the region's
resources. Jakarta insists that the 42 asylum seekers in Australia were nothing more
than economic migrants. Papua's new governor, Barnabas Suebu, the first directly
elected by Papuans, has contradicted that account, saying they left in response to
their feelings of injustice. "The Papuan people are still poor, despite their rich natural
resources," he said.
Similarly to Aceh, independence will never be considered for Papua, no matter how
successfully its separatist leaders internationalize their aspirations, Indonesian
officials assert. Yudhoyono, whose efforts to end the 30-year conflict in Aceh won him
praise at home and abroad, last week conjured up the spirit of unity in Merauke,
telling Papuans: "Let's respect the unitary state of the Republic of Indonesia. We fight
for it, we defend it, we nurture it in our nationalist spirit."
For now, that nationalist call has more resonance in Jakarta than in Papua.
Bill Guerin, a Jakarta correspondent for Asia Times Online since 2000, has been in
Indonesia for 20 years, mostly in journalism and editorial positions. He has been
published by the BBC on East Timor and specializes in business/economic and
political analysis related to Indonesia.
Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
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