Former political prisoner Cristina Bawagan still has the dress she wore the day she was arrested, tortured and sexually abused by soldiers during the late Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos’s brutal era of martial law.
Bawagan fears the horrors of Marcos’s rule would be diminished if his namesake son wins the presidency in Monday’s election, a victory that would cap a three-decade political fightback for a family driven out in a 1986 “people power” uprising.
Also known as “Bongbong”, Marcos Jr has benefited from what some political analysts describe as a decades-long public relations effort to alter perceptions of his family, accused of living lavishly at the helm of one of Asia’s most notorious kleptocracies.
As Philippine president, Marcos could control hunt for his family’s wealth
Rivals of the family say the presidential run is an attempt to rewrite history, and change a narrative of corruption and authoritarianism associated with his father’s era.
“This election is not just a fight for elected positions. It is also a fight against disinformation, fake news, and historical revisionism,” Vice-President Leni Robredo, Marcos’s main rival in the presidential race, told supporters in March.
TSEK.PH, a fact-checking initiative for the May 9 vote, reported that it had debunked scores of martial law-related disinformation it said was used to rehabilitate, erase or burnish the discreditable record of Marcos Sr.
No reply to questions
Marcos Jr.’s camp did not reply to written requests for comment on Bawagan’s story.
Marcos Jr., who last week called his late father a “political genius”, has previously denied claims of spreading misinformation and his spokesperson has said Marcos does not engage in negative campaigning.
Bawagan, 67, said martial law victims like her needed to share their stories to counter the portrayal of the elder Marcos’s regime as a peaceful, golden age for the Southeast Asian country.
“It is very important they see primary evidence that it really happened,” said Bawagan while showing the printed dress which had a tear below the neckline where her torturer passed a blade across her chest and fondled her breasts.
The elder Marcos ruled for two decades from 1965, almost half of it under martial law.
During that time, 70,000 people were imprisoned, 34,000 were tortured, and 3240 were killed, according to figures from Amnesty International — figures which Marcos Jr. questioned in a January interview.
Bawagan, an activist, was arrested on 27 May 1981 by soldiers in the province of Nueva Ecija for alleged subversion and brought to a “safehouse” where she was beaten as they tried to extract a confession from her.
“I would receive slaps on my face every time they were not satisfied with my answers and that was all the time,” Bawagan said. “They hit strongly at my thighs and clapped my ears. They tore my duster (dress) and fondled my breasts.”
“The hardest thing was when they put an object in my vagina. That was the worst part of it and all throughout I was screaming. No one seemed to hear,” said Bawagan, a mother of two.
‘No arrests’ In a conversation with Marcos Jr. that appeared on YouTube in 2018, Juan Ponce Enrile, who served as the late dictator’s defence minister, said not one person was arrested for their political and religious views, or for criticising the elder Marcos.
However, more than 11,000 victims of state brutality during Martial Law later received reparations using millions from Marcos’s Swiss bank deposits, part of the billions the family siphoned off from the country’s coffers that were recovered by the Philippine government.
Among them was Felix Dalisay, who was detained for 17 months from August 1973 after he was beaten and tortured by soldiers trying to force him to inform on other activists, causing him to suffer hearing loss.
“They kicked me even before I boarded the military jeep so I fell and hit my face on the ground,” Dalisay said, showing a scar on his right eye as he recounted the day he was arrested.
When they reached the military headquarters, Dalisay said he was brought to an interrogation room, where soldiers repeatedly clapped his ears, kicked and hit him, sometimes with a butt of a rifle, during questioning.
“They started by inserting bullets used in a .45 calibre gun between my fingers and they would squeeze my hand. That really hurt. If they were not satisfied with my answers, they would hit me,” Dalisay pointing to different parts of his body.
The return of a Marcos to the country’s seat of power is unthinkable for Dalisay, who turned 70 this month.
“Our blood is boiling at that thought,” said Dalisay.
“Marcos Sr declared martial law then they will say nobody was arrested, and tortured? We are here speaking while we are still alive.”
Nobel laureates José Ramos-Horta and Maria Ressa have urged Southeast Asians to keep working toward a better region where democratic freedoms are protected in lecture leading into World Press Freedom Day on May 3.
Nobel laureates José Ramos-Horta and Maria Ressa have called on Southeast Asians to fight for democracy and continue demanding human rights amid growing threats to democratic freedoms in the region.
Ramos-Horta, a longtime politician and independence leader in Timor-Leste, along with Ressa, veteran journalist and co-founder of Rappler, made the statements in an online lecture titled “Freedom in Southeast Asia” last Tuesday.
The discussion centred on ethical issues and the future of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the areas of governing democracy, human rights, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and social media.
“We have to keep fighting to improve democracy, perfect democracy as we have been fighting for decades, continue understanding that there will be setbacks, there will be triumphs for democracy again,” Ramos-Horta said.
Ramos-Horta, one of East Timor’s best known political figures, was also president from 2007 to 2012, and prime minister and foreign minister before that.
Ramos-Horta said part of the reason he decided to run for public office again was inadequate government response to crises like the covid-19 pandemic. The president-elect said he would work to respond to global economic pressures, including supply chain issues stemming from the Russia-Ukraine war and covid-19 lockdowns in China.
‘Demand good governance’
“Don’t lose sight of what is important. Fight, but fight not with radicalism but fight with brains, wisdom, and a great deal of humility,” Ramos-Horta said.
Ressa, who covered Ramos-Horta as a journalist, echoed this call, saying that people in Southeast Asia “must continue demanding our rights and demanding good governance.”
“Our public officials need to realize that in the end, their struggle for power should not impede on the ability to deliver what their citizens need,” she said.
The full media freedom lecture. Video: Rappler
‘Enlightened self-interest’ Ressa, who has reported on democracy movements in Southeast Asia, said ASEAN has not been able to live up to its promises since it was founded in 1967. While advances have been made, the fight to protect democracy, she said, faces steeper challenges, including the use of social media platforms to spread lies and hate.
Ressa challenged leaders and the public to practice “enlightened self-interest” in an effort to foster a code of ethics that could push back against corruption and abuse.
Nobel Peace laureate Maria Ressa … “I can distill almost everything wrong into two words: power and money – and how do you put guardrails around the people who have that?. Image: RSF
“I can distill almost everything wrong into two words: power and money – and how do you put guardrails around the people who have that? Ethics, rules-based [order], and they themselves limit themselves because there is a greater good. This is not just ASEAN, it is universal,” she said.
In fighting for democracy in the region, the Rappler co-founder also urged young people to first think of what they consider important and what freedoms they are willing to fight for.
She said: “Because of social media, democracy now is a person-to-person battle for integrity. And so the question for you is, where do you draw the line?
“How well will you give up some of your power to others in order to have a better world? What kind of leader not only do you want, but what kind of leader do you want to be?”
Ramos-Horta reminded the public to “live up to the responsibility” the region has in Myanmar, where a military coup plunged the country into turmoil, derailing a decade of democratic reforms and economic gain.
Expected to join ASEAN
Ramos-Horta earlier said he expected Timor-Leste to become the 11th member of the ASEAN “within this year or next year at the latest.” It currently holds observer status in the bloc – and also observer status with the Pacific Islands Forum.
“The message to the young people: You want a better Southeast Asia? You want a better region, better community that is generous, embracing of everyone because Southeast Asia is extraordinarily rich in diversity – and that makes Southeast Asia unique – then fight for it,” he said.
“Do not abandon the people of Myanmar who feel completely abandoned. That is the absolute priority for us in Southeast Asia,” he added.
Sofia Tomacruzis a Rappler reporter. Republished with permission.
Indonesia’s Labour Party has demanded that the 2024 elections be held on schedule and that they be transparent and fair during a May Day action in front of the General Elections Commission (KPU) building in Central Jakarta yesterday.
The protesters also rejected increases in the price of basic necessities such as cooking oil, 3 kilogram LPG gas canisters and subsidised Pertalite petrol — mostly used by the working class — in the traditional May Day rally, reports CNN Indonesia.
Labour Party president Said Iqbal said that they wanted to ensure that the candidates elected during the 2024 legislative and presidential elections were people who sided with workers.
“An election which is fraudulent and unfair will result in DPR [House of Representatives] and DPRD [Regional House of Representative] legislative members who do not side with marginalised groups or workers, and because of this an honest and fair election is needed,” Iqbal told journalists.
Other demands made by the protesters included rejecting money politics.
The Labour Party and trade union bodies, said Iqbal, did not agree with the slogan “take the money, but don’t vote for the person” because it created a corrupting attitude.
“The Labour Party, along with trade union bodies, will be campaigning against money politics. The key lies with the KPU. The KPU must have the courage to disqualify [candidates] if money politics is found during the elections,” said Iqbal.
Iqbal conceded however that during yesterday’s action they had no plan to meet with KPU representatives. They wanted to convey their moral support for transparent elections.
He then highlighted the Omnibus Law, referring to it as the product of elections which used money politics.
“The Omnibus Law on Job Creation is a product which we think is a product which is full of corruptive [politics],” said Iqbal.
In addition to the Labour Party, a number of other organisations commemorated May Day today by holding actions at the KPU and the nearby Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta.
Around 60 different trade unions are estimated to have taken part in the action at the KPU in which they demanded that the elections be held as planned on February 14, 2024.
The retraction of Kerwin Espinosa, one of the main accusers in the Philippines Bilibid drug trade allegations, has drummed up calls from different sectors to free jailed opposition senator Leila De Lima, but the Department of Justice (DOJ) is not budging.
The difficulty with this development is that Espinosa is not involved in the remaining two drug cases against De Lima in the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court (RTC), either as a respondent or an official witness.
De Lima was earlier acquitted of one of the original three cases.
Espinosa submitted a counter-affidavit to the DOJ last Thursday retracting all his allegations, including paying drug money to De Lima. It was for a separate case, but still related to the Bilibid drug trade, involving the same cast of convicts.
“The previous statements/affidavits of Mr Espinosa which he now recanted were never utilised and will not be used by the prosecution as evidence in the two pending drug cases vs Senator Leila De Lima,” DOJ said in a statement.
Manipulation against staunch critic
While De Lima’s lawyer Filibon Tacardon acknowledges the complication of using to their favour a retraction from Espinosa who is not an official witness, the lawyer pointed out that it still implies illegal maneuvering by the government to jail President Rodrigo Duterte’s staunch critic.
Records show that when the DOJ charged De Lima in 2017, it dismissed the complaint against De Lima and Espinosa “for lack of merit”.
Back then, Espinosa faced what could have been De Lima’s fourth charge after claiming he had paid the senator drug money through Ronnie Dayan.
Although the DOJ dropped Espinosa from the charge and as their witness, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) filed a new case against him in December 2021 over a similar story of drug trade in Bilibid. This is the case where Espinosa submitted his latest affidavit retracting his claims against De Lima.
Espinosa said he was coerced and threatened by police and NBI to cooperate with their narrative.
In a dispatch from Camp Crame, De Lima said: “As I have always been saying, all allegations against me invented by the Duterte machine of lies and fabrications would ultimately unravel.”
Perjury against Espinosa? Groups called on the DOJ to investigate motu proprio, or on its own initiative, Espinosa’s claim of coercion, but Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra had a different idea in mind — pursue a perjury charge against Espinosa.
“We will determine that when he faces perjury charges … I will discuss this matter with the panel of prosecutors. Whether or not his testimony is material to the prosecution’s cause, making false statements under oath is a criminal offense,” Guevarra told reporters.
If the prosecution will not use Espinosa’s retraction, the Muntinlupa courts can call him as their own witness, said criminal law professor Ted Te.
“That’s always within the plenary powers of a court — to get to the truth. Can the court ask about context? Yes. Is it relevant? Of course,” said Te.
Tacardon said that it was the defence turn to present in the one case, while the prosecution is wrapping up in the second, which means the defence will present soon.
“As to whether Kerwin Espinosa will be a defence witness has yet to be discussed,” said Tacardon.
Te suggested De Lima’s team should.
“If the defence were to call Espinosa that would be more than enough for reasonable doubt. The question is why should the court allow it to drag on any further?” Te said.
De Lima has been in jail for five years, her trial attracting global political attention, with the United States even mulling a travel ban against her accusers.
Robredo returns to Central Luzon
Meanwhile, Rappler reports presidential candidate Vice-President Leni Robredo has returned to vote-rich regions Central Luzon and Calabarzon with just over a week until the May 9 elections.
In the first leg of her return to these regions, Robredo will barnstorm Bulacan, the fifth most vote-rich province in the country where 2 million votes are up for grabs.
She had earlier secured the endorsement of Bulacan Governor Daniel Fernando.
Lian Buanis a Rappler reporter. Republished with permission.
Philippine presidential candidate and Vice-President Leni Robredo issued her marching orders for the crucial homestretch of the election campaign before hundreds of thousands of supporters, in a behemoth show of force meant to boost her numbers in the Philippines’ most vote-rich region Metro Manila.
Local organisers said some 412,000 “Kakampink” supporters of Robredo occupied the entire stretch of Macapagal Boulevard on Saturday — the same day the lone female presidential candidate celebrated her 57th birthday.
And 8000 km away in Auckland, New Zealand, more than 200 “Kakampink” supporters staged a march and rally at Long Beach on the Anzac Day holiday marking the 2015 Gallipoli landings in Turkey and the military sacrifice of Australians and New Zealanders in two world wars.
It is understood that about 2000 of the more than 73,000 Filipino community in New Zealand — 1.6 percent of the population — are registered to vote in the Philippine elections.
Asia Pacific Report quotes an Auckland organiser who said: “We’re voting for Leni Robredo because she is the one to give the Philippines hope. She performed well as Vice-President.
More than 50 of some of the biggest names in the Philippine entertainment industry appeared onstage and endorsed Robredo, but she was still the brightest star of the night.
Many of those in the crowd had waited for close to 12 hours under the scorching heat. They did not leave Macapagal Avenue until after Robredo finished speaking at 11 pm.
Robredo slightly veered away from her stump campaign speech to lay down the game plan to help her catch up to the frontrunner, the late dictator’s son Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
Vice-President Leni Robredo’s full birthday speech. Video: Rappler
Robredo wished for three things from her supporters on her birthday: Actively fight the lies being spread about her online, continue knocking on people’s doors in their house-to-house campaign, and humbly open their hearts so they could convert more the unconvinced to join the so-called “pink revolution.”
“Pag ito pong eleksyon na ito ang magpapanalo sa mga kandidato kasinungalingan, kawawa ‘yung bayan natin. Kaya po ‘yung hinihiling ko sa inyo, sabay-sabay po tayo sa laban na ito. Sa ‘pag bukas po natin ng ating mga puso, sa pagpahaba natin ng ating mga pasensya, siguraduhin din nating pinapalitan natin ang mga kasinungalingan ng katotohanan,” said Robredo.
(If this elections would be won by candidates based on lies, then it would be sad for our country. That’s why I am asking all of you to join me in this fight. In opening your hearts, in becoming more patient, we are making sure that we would be able to replace the lies with the truth.)
Auckland Pinoy “Kamkam” Pink Power solidarity for Philippine presidential hopeful Vice-President Leni Robredo at Long Bay Reserve today. Image: David Robie/APR
She acknowledged the intensified black propaganda that her enemies have been hatching against her since her rallies started attracting thousands upon thousands of Filipinos.
Robredo is the primary target of disinformation networks, whose lies range from Robredo’s alleged affairs with several men to the false accusation that her campaign has been infiltrated by communists.
In turn, Robredo’s fierce rival Marcos benefits from this disinformation infrastructure, built by his clan over the years in an attempt to revise Filipinos’ memories of the atrocities committed during the 21-year martial law rule of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
But Robredo once again made a call for “radical love.” She told her most ardent supporters to turn the other cheek if their critics resort to foul, below-the belt-language.
Rise above the dirt, said the Vice-President, because they had a bigger fight to win on May 9.
“’Yung ayaw po nating ginagawa nila sa akin, huwag na po natin sa kanilang gawin, ‘di ba?… Ang mga kabataan ngayon, mas tumitino tayo, mas sumusunod tayo sa mga magulang natin, pag pinaparamdam sa atin ang kanilang pagmamahal. Ganoon din po sana ‘yung gawin ng bawat isa sa inyo,” said Robredo.
(The things we don’t like that they are doing to us, let’s not do the same thing to them, okay?… The youth these days, they become more upright, they follow their parents when they are shown love. May each of you do the same thing.)
Show of force … Thousands of supporters pack the Macapagal Boulevard in Pasay City for the street party for presidential aspirant Vice President Leni Robredo, who celebrated her birthday on Saturday. Image: VP Leni Media Bureau/Rappler
It is crucial for Robredo to be issuing these marching orders in the National Capital Region (NCR), home to more than 7.3 million voters.
She is facing a tough battle against Marcos in NCR, which had delivered a landslide victory to him over Robredo in the 2016 vice-presidential race. The dictator’s son continues to enjoy majority support in NCR, based on the latest Pulse Asia Research Incorporated survey done in end-March.
That Robredo was able to pull off a 412,000-strong crowd in Pasay City on Saturday is also significant because two presidential contenders were also holding their own rallies in NCR that night: Marcos in Manila and Senator Manny Pacquiao in San Juan.
Robredo’s birthday crowd significantly dwarfed these rallies, however.
Sweet birthday gift … presidential candidate VP Leni Robredo waves to the 412,000-strong crowd that showed up during her birthday rally along Macapagal Boulevard in Pasay City on Saturday. Image: VP Leni Media Bureau/Rappler
Local police estimated that 14,000 showed up for Marcos, while only 12,000 attended Pacquiao’s rally.
‘The people would bring Leni Robredo to Malacañang’
As Robredo spoke, the crowd along Macapagal Boulevard was at rapt attention. Many were straining their necks to get a better glimpse of their candidate while they used their fans bearing Robredo’s face.
The heat even at night was almost unbearable given the thickness of the crowd. Medics were working overtime, as people from different points of the boulevard fainted.
But even under these conditions, the “Kakampinks” were looking out for each other. They helped the organisers hand out boxes of bottled water and passed around snacks for those who needed to eat.
They did their best to give breathing space whenever someone in the crowd started feeling light-headed.
Mara Cepedais a reporter for Rappler. Republished with permission.
The government has responded with a counter attack to a critical report on human rights practices in Indonesia that was released by the United States last week.
This response is seen as a bad sign of the state of human rights in Indonesia.
the summoning of the University of Indonesia Student Executive Council (BEM UI) over a tweet describing President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo as the “King of Lip Service”;
the criminalisation of human rights activists by Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko and Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan; and
Indonesia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded to the report with insinuations.
Ministry spokesperson Teuku Faizasyah questioned the US record on human rights violations.
“Are there no human rights cases in the US? Serious?” Faizasyah asked CNN Indonesia.
Coordinating Minister for Security, Politics and Legal Affairs (Menko Polhukam) Mahfud MD also commented on several cases covered by the report.
One of these was the government’s monitoring of citizens through the covid-19 tracing app PeduliLIndungi (Care and Protect).
Mahfud responded with claims about the government’s achievements in dealing with the covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia, saying that it had performed better than the US.
“If by parts of the world, Indonesia is included as very good, far better than America in dealing with covid,” said Mahfud in a video recording on the Menko Polhukam YouTube channel.
Unwilling to accept criticism Al-Azhar Indonesia University political commentator Ujang Komarudin views the counter attack by the government as being because it is unwilling to accept criticism from foreign parties.
He said that the government believed that it was being dictated to by the US through the report.
According to Komarudin, the government wanted to reaffirm its authority in the eyes of the public and because of this strong denials were conveyed to the US.
“They made these denials in order to safeguard the government’s credibility which is currently being questioned by the public,” said Komarudin last Sunday.
Komarudin also believes that the government does not consider that it is at fault in cases of alleged human rights violations. He believes that this kind of political communication is a bad sign for the state of democracy and human rights in Indonesia.
“Because it’s as if there’s no problem, as if there’s nothing wrong. This is what is currently being done by our officials,” he said.
Government denials Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) Deputy Coordinator Rivanlee Anandar says that every year the government responded to reports on human rights violations released by the US with denials.
With these denials, Anandar suspected that the government wanted to cover up the human rights violations which had occurred. He is concerned that this response is a reflection on the handling of human rights cases in the future.
“This shows an insensitivity to the report, trying to cover up the problems in Indonesia by throwing the issue back at the US. We’re concerned that this will only worsen the situation,” Anandar told CNN Indonesia.
Anandar said that the report should be used as material for a proper evaluation by the government. He believes that the government should reflect upon the report.
Especially since this report will be a reference for countries which are concerned about human rights in reading future trends. According to Anandar, other countries will view Indonesia based on this report.
Anandar gave as an example the cases of violations of civil freedoms which were marked by repression by the police. In the report, the US said that these violations were triggered by government policies which gave rise to massive protest actions.
“That is the pattern which can be seen and in the future must be fixed by ensuring that there are no more discriminative policies”, he said.
Not obliged to respond National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) Commissioner Beka Ulung Hapsara said that the report represented the US’s way of looking at problems related to human rights in Indonesia. According to Hapsara, the government had its own resolution and rehabilitation mechanism which could still be used.
“It requires an official response but not as an obligation. The government and all of us can of course use the US foreign affairs report for an evaluation but not as an obligation,” Hapsara told CNN Indonesia.
Hapsara said that several of the cases cited in the US report had come to the Komnas HAM’s attention, such as the shooting of the FPI members and cases involving the Information and Electronic Transaction Law (ITE).
“Several cases have been of concern to the Komnas HAM and Komnas HAM has been actively involved in them, both in terms of monitoring and investigations as well as other efforts,” he said.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong have added a focus on climate and sustainability to the enhanced relationship between the two countries.
Speaking after bilateral talks in Singapore, the pair jointly announced a fifth pillar would be added to the agreement on the New Zealand-Singapore Enhanced Partnership.
They announced the initial enhanced partnership in 2019 during Ardern’s last official visit, with the four pillars of trade and economics; security and defence; science, technology and innovation; and people-to-people links.
The fifth pillar added today will be “climate change and the green economy”.
Ardern said given the existential threat posed by climate change, it was fitting.
“When it comes to climate change this is not an area where countries are seeking to be competitive, or we shouldn’t be seeking to be competitive unless the competition is who can reduce emissions the fastest.
“Globally we have entered what must be an age of action, and that includes the private sector as well. No government can do this alone.”
Call for stronger global cooperation
Lee echoed that sentiment, calling for stronger global cooperation on climate change.
“Climate change is the existential challenge of our times … we need stronger cooperation among most countries.”
NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Image: Karan Gurnani/RNZ
He said areas that could be worked on included workshops for building joint capacity in responding to climate change, improved pricing for emissions trading, and work on sustainable aviation initiatives.
“Aviation is one of the major sources of carbon emissions … and New Zealand is at the end of the world and Singapore is not so close to Europe either.
“If we are going to call for a low-carbon world this is something we should be focused on.”
Ardern said Singapore was a trade hub which 20 percent of New Zealand’s exports funnelled through, and there were opportunities in reducing emissions for both shipping — including hydrogen fuel — and food, including research into urban farming.
Ardern’s trade delegation to Asia — including Trade Minister Damien O’Connor, officials, a dozen business people and media — landed in Singapore last night.
They expressed concern that the war in Ukraine could lead to increased protectionism in the region however, and reiterated their shared commitment to an “open, inclusive, rules-based and resilient Indo-Pacific region”, including free trade, open markets, and respect for countries’ sovereignty.
Lee also said they welcomed interest from other countries including China and Korea in joining the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement, an agreement signed in 2020 between New Zealand, Singapore and Chile.
The agreement aims to support digital economies and trade, and guarantees cooperation on digital identity, policies, emerging technologies, data protection and digital products.
They said they also welcomed the efforts of the United States in pursuing an Indo-Pacific Economic Framework.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
The Humanitarian Coalition for Papua says that the unilateral creation of three new provinces in Papua by the Indonesian central government is like repeating the management model of Dutch colonial power.
National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) head researcher Cahyo Pamungkas, who is part of the coalition, said that this policy would cause greater mistrust among the Papuan people against the government, reports CNN Indonesia.
“This top-down decentralisation which is being done arbitrarily by the central government is like repeating the model of Dutch power in order to continue exploiting natural resources and controlling the land of Papua,” said Pamungkas in a media release.
Pamungkas, who is also a member of the Papua Peace Network (JDP), said that the new Papua Special Autonomy Law (Otsus) and the policy on creating new provinces would be counter-productive.
Amnesty International Indonesia executive director Usman Hamid said that creating new provinces must involve the Papuan People’s Council (MPR) which represents the cultural interests of indigenous Papuan (OAP).
This is a mandate of Law Number 2/2021 on Papuan Special Autonomy (Otsus Law) as a form of protection for the rights of indigenous Papuans.
“Decentralisation in Papua must involve the MRP as the cultural representatives of OAP. This is regulated under the Otsus Law as a form of protection for the rights of indigenous Papuans,” said Hamid.
Call to wait for court ruling
Public Virtue executive director Miya Irawati said that the government must cancel or postpone the planned creation of new provinces in Papua until there was a ruling by the Constitutional Court (MK) on a challenge against the revisions to the Otsus Law which had been launched by the MRP.
According to Irawati, the move by the House of Representatives’ (DPR) Legislative Body (Baleg) and the government in agreeing to the draft law on the creation of three new provinces in Papua was a setback for democracy in Papua.
“We also urge the government to cancel the planned creation of new provinces in Papua or at least postpone the plan until there is a ruling by the MK in several months time,” said Irawati.
Indonesian Human Rights Watch (Imparsial) researcher Hussein Ahmad is concerned that the policy will be used to justify adding more military commands in Papua which have the potential to increase the level of violence and human rights violations.
“If there are three new provinces then usually this is followed by the formation of three [new] Kodam [Regional Military Commands] and new units underneath it which of course will impact on increasing the number of military troops in Papua,” he said.
The Papua Humanitarian Coalition is a voluntary partnership made up of a number of organisations and individuals including Amnesty International Indonesia, the Indonesian Communion of Churches (PGI) Papua Bureau, Imparsial, the Jakarta Institute for Public Research and Advocacy (Elsam), the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), the Democracy Alliance for Papua (ADP), the Land of Papua Peace and Unity of Creation Synod of the Papua Injili Christian Church (KPKC GKI-TP), the Jayapura Diocese Peace and Unity of Creation Justice Secretariat (SKPKC Keuskupan Jayapura), the Public Virtue Research Institute, the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) and BRIN researcher Cahyo Pamungkas.
Aim to ‘improve public services’
DPR Speaker Puan Maharani claimed that the formation of three new provinces was to improve public services and social welfare.
Maharani said the additional provinces were aimed at accelerating even development in the Land of Cenderawasih as Papua is known.
“The additional provinces in the eastern part of Indonesia are intended to accelerate even development in Papua and to better serve the Papuan people,” said Maharani in a media release.
The chairperson of the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Central Leadership Board said that the additional provinces were aimed advancing Papua and increasing the level and dignity of the Papuan people.
Maharani confirmed that the deliberations on the draft law on the creation of the new provinces will still be in line with Law Number 2/2021 on Otsus.
“In the deliberations on this draft law later it will pay attention to the aspirations and needs of the Papuan people”, said Maharani.
Baleg DPR Deputy Chairperson Achmad Baidowi said that the names of the three new provinces could still be changed.
Changed names
Earlier, it had been decided that the names would be Anim Ha for South Papua, Meepago for Central Papua, and Serta Lapago for the Papua Central Highlands.
“If there is a wish to change them, it can be done during the deliberations”, Baidowi told journalists.
Baidowi explained that the traditional names used for the prospective provinces were a recommendation from the Baleg. He claimed that the names were chosen in accordance with the wishes of the public and academic studies.
“Certainly we recommended that the traditional names be included in the draft law. For example Papua Central Highlands would be what, then Central Papua what, South Papua what”, he said.
Earlier, the Baleg agreed to the Draft Law on the Provinces of South Papua, Central Papua and Papua Central Highlands during a plenary meeting held on Wednesday April 6. The draft law will then be taken to a DPR plenary meeting for deliberation.
The draft law regulates the creation of three new provinces which will cover a number of existing regencies.
South Papua will have Merauke as the provincial capital and cover the regencies of Merauke, Mappi, Asmat and Boven Digoel.
Central Papua province’s provincial capital will be Timika and cover the regencies of Mimika, Paniai, Dogiyai, Deyiai, Intan Jaya and Puncak.
Papua Central Highlands provincial capital will be Wamena and cover the regencies of Jayawijaya, Puncak Jaya, Lanny Jaya, Mamberamo Tengah, Nduga, Tolikara, Yahukimo, and Yalimo.
Australia must step up diplomatic efforts to encourage the US government to drop its bid to extradite Julian Assange who has now been imprisoned for three years, says the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance.
Today marks the third anniversary of Assange’s arrest when he was dragged from the Ecuador Embassy in London on 11 April 2019 to face extradition proceedings for espionage charges laid by the US.
The WikiLeaks founder and publisher has been held at Belmarsh Prison near London ever since, where his mental and physical health has deteriorated significantly.
On this day, the MEAA calls on the Biden administration to drop the charges against Assange, which pose a threat to press freedom worldwide. The scope of the US charges imperils any journalist anywhere who writes about the US government.
MEAA media federal president Karen Percy urged the Australian government to use its close ties to both the US and the UK to end the court proceedings against him and have the charges dropped to allow Assange to return home to Australia, if that is his wish.
Assange won his initial extradition hearing in January last year, but subsequent appeals by the US government have dragged out his detention at Belmarsh.
“Julian Assange’s work with WikiLeaks was important and in the public interest: exposing evidence of war crimes and other shameful actions by US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Percy said.
Assange charges an ‘affront to journalists’
“The stories published by WikiLeaks and its mainstream media partners more than a decade ago were picked up by news outlets around the world.
“The charges against Assange are an affront to journalists everywhere and a threat to press freedom.”
The US government has not produced convincing evidence that the publishing of the leaked material endangered any lives or jeopardised military operations, but their lasting impact has been to embarrass and shame the United States.
“Yet Assange faces the prospect of jail for the rest of his life if convicted of espionage charges laid by the US Department of Justice,” Percy said.
“The case against Assange is intended to curtail free speech, criminalise journalism and frighten off any future whistleblowers and publishers with the message that they too will be punished if they step out of line.
“The US Government must see reason and drop these charges, and the Australian Government should be doing all it can to represent the interests of an Australian citizen.”
COMMENTARY:By Pacific Island Times publisher Mar-Vic Cagurangan
I remember that day — February 25, 1986. I was then a teenager. My family stood outside the iron gates of Malacañang Palace among a massive wave of people armed with yellow ribbons, flowers and rosaries.
After a four-day uprising, we heard on the radio that the dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his family had fled the country.
Ramming through the gates of the now forlorn presidential palace, people found signs of a hurtled retreat. Hundreds of pairs of shoes, gowns and other evidence of the Marcoses’ profligacy had been abandoned. Documents and bullets were scattered on the floor.
People burst into song. The poignant “Bayan Ko” (My Country) — the metaphor of a caged bird that yearns to be free — was the anthem of the EDSA revolution: People Power.
The Marcoses had been obliterated from our lives.
Or so we thought.
My generation — we were called “The Martial Laws Babies” — is beginning to realise now that only the glorious part of Philippine history is being obliterated.
‘Bongbong’ Marcos the frontrunner
Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., only son and namesake of the late dictator, is the frontrunner in the Philippines’ upcoming presidential election in May. Polls in January and February show Marcos Jr. ahead in the race with 60 percent of the national vote.
He was 29 when the family was ousted and sent into exile in Hawai’i. He had since returned to the Philippines, where he served as governor of Ilocos Norte, as congressman and senator.
Now he is aiming to go back to his childhood playground — the Malacañang Palace.
“Marcos is not a hero”. Image: Mar-Vic Cagurangan/Pacific Island Times
His campaign has revived “Bagong Lipunan” (The New Society), the anthem of martial law. I shudder. It summoned the dark years.
Now as an adult, watching how North Koreans live now gives me a perspective of how we were brainwashed into subservience during the martial period when the media was controlled by the regime.
Political opinions had no place in the public sphere. Dissidents disappeared, plucked out of their homes by military men, never to be seen ever again. Those who had heard of these stories of desaparecidos had to zip their mouths. Or else.
The government slogan “Sa Ikakaunlad ng Bayan Displina Ang Kailangan” (For the Nation’s Progress Discipline is Necessary) was forever stuck in our heads.
Marcos family’s extravaganzas
My generation lived through different political eras. We grew up watching the Marcos family’s extravaganzas. They acted like royalty.
Imelda Marcos paraded in her made-for-the-queen gowns and glittering jewelry, suffocating Filipinos with her absolute vanity amid our dystopian society.
“People say I’m extravagant because I want to be surrounded by beauty. But tell me, who wants to be surrounded by garbage?” she said.
“Bagong Lipunan” was constantly played on the radio, on TV and in public places. It was inescapable. Its lyrics were planted into our consciousness: “Magbabago ang lahat tungo sa pag-unland” (Eveyone will change toward progress.)
Marcos created a fiction depicting his purported greatness that fuelled his tyranny.
During the two decades of media control, the brainwashing propaganda concealed what the regime represented — world-class kleptocrats, murderers and torturers.
Marcos Jr. gave no apology, showed no remorse and offered no restitution. And why would he? Maybe no one remembers after all. None of the Marcoses or their cronies ever went to jail for their transgressions.
Marcos rewarded many times
Marcos Jr. has been rewarded many times, repeatedly elected to various positions. And now as president?
It’s perplexing. It’s appalling. And for people who were tortured and the families of those killed, it’s revolting.
Marcos Jr. appeals to a fresh generation that doesn’t hear the shuddering beat of “Bagong Lipunan” the way my generation does.
The Philippines’ median age is 25. Their lack of a personal link to the martial law experience perhaps explains their historical oblivion.
The discovery of many civilian bodies lying dead in the Ukrainian city of Bucha this week has brought out more Western rhetoric of horror, disgust, anger and fury at the Russian invasion of Ukraine and has renewed calls for more sanctions against Russia, more weapons to the Ukrainians and calls for Putin to be put on trial as a war criminal.
That’s a strong response to war and those responsible for starting a military invasion of a sovereign state.
Let’s shift the focus to Iraq in 2003 for a moment.
On the marches to protest against the US-UK-Australian-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 one of the chants used was “Never forget Fallujah!”.
So, for those that were too young to know, or now too old to remember, here are a few well-referenced paragraphs from Wikipedia about what happened when the US invaders attacked that city as part of an invasion of another sovereign state, Iraq.
The United States bombardment of Fallujah began in April 2003, one month after the beginning of the invasion of Iraq. In April 2003, United States forces fired on a group of demonstrators who were protesting against the US presence. US forces alleged they were fired at first, but Human Rights Watch, who visited the site of the protests, concluded that physical evidence did not corroborate US allegations and confirmed the residents’ accusations that the US forces fired indiscriminately at the crowd with no provocation.
Seventeen people were killed and 70 were wounded.
Further killings
In a later incident, US soldiers fired on protesters again; Fallujah’s mayor, Taha Bedaiwi al-Alwani, said that two people were killed and 14 wounded. Iraqi insurgents were able to claim the city a year later, before they were ousted by a siege and two assaults by US forces.
These events caused widespread destruction and a humanitarian crisis in the city and surrounding areas. As of 2004, the city was largely ruined, with 60 percent of buildings damaged or destroyed, and the population at 30–50 percent of pre-war levels.
At least one US battalion had orders to shoot any male of military age on the streets after dark, armed or not. In violation of the Geneva Convention, the city’s main hospital was closed by Marines, negating its use, and a US sniper was placed on top of the hospital’s water tower.
On November 13, 2004, a US Marine with 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, was videotaped killing a wounded combatant in a mosque. The incident, which came under investigation, created controversy throughout the world.
A survivor in Bucha says some of his neighbours left their dark, cold houses that had no electricity, running water or natural gas supply to get bread or charge their mobile phones – but never came back. Image: Al Jazeera screenshot APR
The man was shot at close range after he and several other wounded insurgents had previously been left behind overnight in the mosque by the US Marines. The Marine shooting the man had been mildly injured by insurgents in the same mosque the day before.
On November 16, 2004, a Red Cross official told Inter Press Service that “at least 800 civilians” had been killed in Fallujah and indicated that “they had received several reports from refugees that the military had dropped cluster bombs in Fallujah, and used a phosphorus weapon that caused severe burns.”
On 17 May 2011, AFP reported that 21 bodies, in black bodybags marked with letters and numbers in Roman script, had been recovered from a mass grave in al-Maadhidi cemetery in the centre of the city.
Blindfolded, legs tied
Fallujah police chief Brigadier General Mahmud al-Essawi said that they had been blindfolded, their legs had been tied and they had suffered gunshot wounds. The Mayor, Adnan Husseini said that the manner of their killing, as well as the body bags, indicated that US forces had been responsible.
Both al-Essawi and Husseini agreed that the dead had been killed in 2004. The US Military declined to comment.
There were no sanctions against the US, UK and Australia, there were no US soldiers, military leaders or politicians held to account. There were no arms sent to help the Iraqis facing overwhelming odds in their fight against the US and its allies.
There were no moves to charge George Bush (US President), Tony Blair (UK Prime Minister) or John Howard (Australian Prime Minister) for war crimes before the International Criminal Court.
Yes Vladimir Putin should be on trial at the International Criminal Court, but before he appears we should have seen George Bush, Tony Blair and John Howard face the same charges first.
We should never forget Bucha — but we must never forget Fallujah either. The people of both cities deserve justice at the ICC. Let’s do all we can to hold them to account.
Incidentally, US President Joe Biden was pushing hard for the invasion of Iraq back in 2003. His hypocrisy now in condemning Putin is the stuff of legends.
“This dramatic escalation in the legal harassment of Maria Ressa and Rappler highlights the urgent need for the Philippines’ to decriminalise libel and do away with laws that are repeatedly abused to persecute journalists whose reporting exposes public wrongdoing,” said the Hold the Line Coalition Steering Committee.
“The state’s blatant attempts to suppress Rappler’s election-related fact-checking services is an unacceptable attempt to cheat the public of their right to accurate information, which is critical during elections.”
Quiboloy and his associates were charged with conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion; sex trafficking of children; marriage fraud; fraud, and misuse of visas; and various money laundering offences.
In addition to these cases, Ressa has been named personally as one of 17 reporters, editors and executives, and seven news organisations in cyber libel complaints brought by Duterte government cabinet minister Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi.
Cusi is demanding each of the accused pay him 200 million pesos (nearly US$4 million) in damages.
Ressa did not write the article published by Rappler.
If the authorities choose to prosecute these cases, they will become criminal charges with potentially heavy jail sentences attached.
Having already been convicted of one criminal cyber libel charge, which is under appeal, and facing multiple other pre-existing legal cases, Ressa testified before the US Senate last week about the state-enabled legal harassment she experiences:
“All told, I could go to jail for the rest of my life. Because I refuse to stop doing my job as a journalist. Because Rappler holds the line and continues to protect the public sphere.”
Countering disinformation
As a result, this collaboration between Rappler and COMELEC designed to counter disinformation associated with the presidential poll has been temporarily halted — just over a month from the election.
“This new wave of cases and complaints, which represents an egregious attack on press freedom, is designed to undermine the essential work of fact-checking and critical reporting during elections — acts which help uphold the integrity of democratic processes.
“Rappler must be allowed to perform the essential public service of exposing falsehoods, particularly during the election period, even when these prove politically damaging for those in power,” the coalition said.
The #HTL Coalition comprises more than 80 organisations around the world. This statement is issued by the #HoldTheLine Steering Committee, but it does not necessarily reflect the position of all or any individual coalition members or organisations.
Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape has flagged a possible partnership with Indonesian state-owned petroleum corporation Pertamina as the western Pacific country deals with the current global surge in fuel prices, reports The National.
Marape, who returned from visiting Indonesia today with a delegation for trade talks, met with Indonesian President Joko Widodo yesterday as PNG looks for alternative sources of fuel.
“I remain confident that our practical discussions and the culmination of the various memorandum of understandings that will be signed will greatly complement PNG’s future socio-economic agenda and reap tangible outcomes,” Marape said after his arrival in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Marape said his visit was at the invitation of Widodo and acknowledged that Indonesia and Australia were PNG’s closest bilateral partners.
“While I have made important strides in the PNG-Australia relationship, I hope to strengthen the PNG-Indonesian relationship,” he said.
Marape said apart from the usual discussions on traditional issues relating to border management and combating cross-border crime, drug smuggling and terrorism, the talks would focus on other strategic opportunities for the two countries.
“The traditional issues are important but these are the traditional bilateral issues which are recurring in nature,” he said.
Strategic importance
“There is a place for those, but it is important that we use the opportunity to canvas other issues which are of strategic importance to us.”
Marape said the visit would focus on business, trade and investment opportunities and capacity building of human resources, among other practical and meaningful outcomes to complement PNG’s development aspirations.
Marape addressed the PNG-Indonesia Business and Investment Seminar yesterday where he was expected to invite Indonesian investors to develop downstream processing facilities in PNG to add value to its vast natural resources for export to Indonesia, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other global markets.
Marape was accompanied by wife Rachael, four ministers, one governor, senior government officials, and a business delegation on the official visit who engaged in business and investment exchanges while government officials discussed sectoral issues with their Indonesian counterparts.
The PNG delegation returned today and Marape flew to Wapenamanda Airport, Enga province. He travelled to remote Maramuni to open the Wabag-Maramuni Road, part of the Enga Sepik Highway.
Republished with permission.
PNG Prime Minister James Marape flew to Wapenamanda Airport, Enga, today on his return from Indonesia to open a new road. Image: Sunday Bulletin
Papuan Governor Lukas Enembe had an hour-long meeting with Russian Ambassador Lyudmila Vorobyeva, accompanied by the director of the Russian Centre for Science and Culture in Jakarta this week. On the table, an invitation for President Vladimir Putin to visit Papua later this year.
The governor also had his small team with him — Samuel Tabuni (CEO of Papua Language Institute), Alex Kapisa (Head of the Papua Provincial Liaison Agency in Jakarta) and Muhammad Rifai Darus (Spokesman for the Governor of Papua).
As a result of this meeting, social media is likely to run hot with heated debate.
This isn’t surprising, considering Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, hotly condemned in the West.
Speculation is rife whether Indonesia — as chair of the G20 group of nations — will invite President Putin to attend the global forum in Bali later this year.
Governor Enembe is not just another governor of another province of Indonesia — he represents one of the biggest settler-colonial provinces actively seeking independence.
Considering Enembe’s previous rhetoric condemning harmful policies of the central government, such as the failed Special Autonomy Law No.21/2021, this meeting has only added confusion, leaving both Indonesians and Papuans wondering about the motives for the governor’s actions.
Also, the governor has invited President Putin to visit Papua after attending the G20 meeting in Bali.
Whether President Putin would actually visit Papua is another story, but this news is likely to cause great anxiety for Papuans and Indonesians alike.
So, what was Monday’s meeting all about?
Papuan Governor Lukas Enembe … “The old stories are dying, and we need new stories for our future.” Image: West Papua Today
Papuan students in Russia
Spokesperson Muhammad Rifai said Governor Enembe had expressed deep gratitude to the government of the Russian Federation for providing a sense of security to indigenous Papuan students studying higher education in Russia.
The scholarships were offered to Papuan students through the Russian Centre for Science and Culture, which began in 2016 and is repeated annually.
Under this scheme, Governor Enembe sent 26 indigenous Papuans to the Russian Federation on September 27, 2019, for undergraduate and postgraduate studies.
As of last year, Russia offered 163 places for Papuan students, but this number cannot be verified due to the high number of Indonesian students seeking education in Russia.
The ambassador also discussed the possibility of increasing the number of scholarships available to Papuan students who want to study in Russia. Governor Enembe appreciates this development as education is a foundation for the land of Papua to grow and move forward.
The governor also said Russia was the only country in the world that would be willing to meet Papua halfway by offering students a free scholarship for their tuition fees.
Along with these education and scholarship discussions, Rifai said the governor wanted to talk about the construction of a space airport in Biak Island, in Cenderawasih Bay on the northern coast of Papua.
The governor was also interested in the world’s largest spaceport, Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, which is still operating today and he hoped to gain insight from the Russian government.
Building a Russian cultural museum in Papua
As part of strengthening the Russia-Papua relationship, Governor Enembe asked the Russian government to not only accept indigenous Papuan students, but to also transfer knowledge from the best teachers in Russia to students in Papua.
As part of the initiative, the governor invited Victoria from the Russian Centre for Science and Culture to Papua in order to inaugurate a Russian Cultural Centre at one of the local universities.
However, Governor Enembe’s desire to establish this relationship is not only due to Russian benevolence toward his Papuan students studying in Russia.
The Monday meeting with the Russian ambassador in Jakarta and his invitation to President Putin to visit Papua were inspired by deeper inspiration stories.
The story originated more than 150 years ago.
Governor Enembe was touched by the story he had heard of a Russian anthropologist who lived on New Guinea soil, and who had tried to save New Guinean people during one of the cruellest and darkest periods of European savagery in the Pacific.
Indigenous hero
Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay pictured with a Papuan boy named Ahmad in this image taken c. 1873. Image: File
His name was Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay (1846 –1888) — a long forgotten Russian messianic anthropologist, who fought to defend indigenous New Guineans against German, Dutch, British, and Australian forces on New Guinea island.
His travels and adventures around the world — including the Canary Islands, North Africa, Easter Island, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Australia, the Philippines, and New Guinea — not only expanded his knowledge of the world’s geography, but most importantly his consciousness. This made him realise that all men are equal.
For a European and a scientist during this time, it was risky to even consider, let alone speak or write about such claims. Yet he dared to stand in opposition to the dominant worldview of the time — a hegemony so destructive that it set the stage for future exploitation of islanders in all forms: information, culture, and natural resources.
West Papua still bleeds as a result.
His campaign against Australian slavery of black islanders — known as blackbirding — in the Pacific between the 1840s and 1930s, and for the rights of indigenous people in New Guinea was driven by a spirit of human equality.
On Sunday, September 15, 2013, ABC radio broadcast the following statement about Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay:
He was handsome, he was idealistic and a mass of disturbing contradictions. He died young. That should have been enough to ensure his story’s survival – and it was in Russia, where he became a Soviet culture hero, not in the Australian colonies where he fought for the rights of colonised peoples and ultimately lost.
ironic and tragic
The term Melanesia emerged out of such colonial enterprise, fuelled by white supremacy attitudes. As ironic and tragic as it seems, Papuans in West Papua reclaimed the term and used it in their cultural war against what they consider as Asian-Indonesian colonisation.
It is likely that Miklouho-Maclay would have renamed and redescribed this region differently if he had been the first to name it, instead of French explorer Jules Dumont d’Urville (the man credited with coining the term). He arrived too late, and the region had already been named, divided, and colonised.
In September 1871, Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay landed at Garagassi Point and established himself in Gorendu village in Madang Province. Here he built a strong relationship with the locals and his anthropological work, including his diaries, became well known in Russia. The village where he lived has erected a monument in his name.
Miklouho-Maclay’s diaries of his accounts of Papuans in New Guinea during his time there have already been published in the millions and read by generations of Russians. The translation of his dairies from Russian to English, titled Miklouho-Maclay – New Guinea Diaries 1871-1883 can be read here.
C.L. Sentinella, the translator of the diaries, wrote the following in the introduction:
The diaries give us a day-to-day account of a prolonged period of collaborative contact with these people by an objective scientific observer with an innate respect for the natives as human beings, and with no desire to exploit them in any way or to impose his ideas upon them. Because of Maclay’s innate respect, this recognition on his part that they shared a common humanity, his reports and descriptions are not distorted to any extent by inbuilt prejudices and moral judgements derived from a different set of values.
In 2017, the PNG daily newspaper The National published a short story of Miklouho-Maclay under the title “A Russian who fought to save Indigenous New Guinea”.
The Guardian, in 2020, also shared a brief story of him under title “The dashing Russian adventurer who fought to save indigenous lives.” The titles of these articles reflect the spirit of the man.
After more than 150 years, media headlines emphasise his legacy. One of his descendants, Nickolay Miklouho-Maclay, who is currently director of Miklouho Maclay Foundation in Madang, PNG, has already begun to establish connections with local Papuans both at the village level and with the government to build connections based on the spirit of his ancestor.
Enembe seeks Russian reconnection
Governor Enembe believes that Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay’s writings and work profoundly influence the Russian psyche and reflect how the Russian people view the world — especially Melanesians.
This was what motivated him to arrange his meeting with the Russian ambassador on Monday. The Russians’ hospitality toward Papuan students is connected to the spirit of this man, according to the governor.
It is a story about compassion, understanding, and brotherhood among humans.
The story of Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay is linked to the PNG side of New Guinea. However, Governor Enembe said Nikolai’s story was also the story of West Papuans too now — because he fought for all oppressed and enslaved New Guineans, Melanesians, and Pacific islanders.
Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay’s ideas, beliefs and values — calling for the treatment of fellow human beings with dignity, equality and respect — are what are needed today.
This is partly why Governor Enembe has invited President Putin to visit Papua; he plans to build a cultural museum and statue in honour of Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay.
“The old stories are dying, and we need new stories for our future,” Governor Enembe said. “I want to … share more of this great story of the Russian people and New Guinea people together.”
Yamin Kogoya is a West Papuan academic who has a Master of Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development from the Australian National University and who contributes to Asia Pacific Report. From the Lani tribe in the Papuan Highlands, he is currently living in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
The West Papua National Liberation Army-Free Papua Organisation (TPNPB-OPM) has rejected peace talks with the Indonesian government if it is only mediated by the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM).
It is also asking President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to be prepared to sit down with them at the negotiating table.
TPNPB-OPM spokesperson Sebby Sambom said that the OPM wants the peaceful dialogue or negotiations to be mediated by the United Nations because the armed conflict in Papua was already on an international scale.
“In principle we agree [that] if the negotiations are in accordance with UN mechanisms, but we are not interested in Indonesia’s methods,” said Sambom in a written statement.
Sambom said that they also do not want to hold the dialogue in Indonesia but want it to be held in a neutral country in accordance with UN mechanisms.
“The negotiations must be held in a neutral country, in accordance with UN mechanisms”, he said.
Sambom said President Widodo must be aware and must have the courage to sit down at the negotiating table with the TPNPB-OPM’s negotiating team.
He also reminded Widodo that the UN was an international institution which can act as a mediator in resolving armed conflicts.
Peaceful dialogue
“In the statement to Jakarta we are asking that Indonesian President Jokowi be aware and have the courage to sit at the negotiating table with the TPNPB-OPM’s negotiating team together with all the delegates from the organisations which are struggling [for independence],” he said.
Earlier, the Komnas HAM claimed it would initiate peace talks between the government and the OPM.
Komnas HAM had also claimed that the proposal for talks had been agreed to by the government, ranging from President Widodo, Coordinating Minister for Security, Politics and Legal Affairs Mahfud MD to the TNI (Indonesian military) and Polri (Indonesian police).
Komnas HAM, along with the Komnas HAM Papua representative office, began sounding out peaceful dialogue by meeting with a series of groups in Papua on March 16-23.
In the initial stage, Komnas HAM was endeavoring to hear and ask for the views of key parties on the issue, especially the OPM, both those within the country as well as those overseas. The other key people were religious, traditional community and intellectual figures.
Carving up the Papuan provincial cake. Graphic: Image: Lugas/tirto.id
On Thursday, 10 March 2022, thousands of Papuan people in the Lapago Wamena Cultural Area took to the streets to paralyse Wamena city. They occupied Wamena City. They rejected the Indonesian colonial plan to expand Papua province.
Remember: The voice of the people is the voice of God. The Papuan people, people and leaders of Indonesia, Melanesia, Pacific, Africa, European Union. USA, Australia, listen to the voices of the two million Melanesian people in West Papua who are currently on their way to being annihilated due to Indonesia’s systemic racist politics.
The expansion of Papua provinces, Special Autonomy Volume 2 and military operations in six regencies in Papua is not a solution for West Papua. Only one order — give us the right of self-determination for the political rights of the Papuan nation in West Papua. Our greetings and prayers from Wamena, the heart of Papua.
Waaa … waaa … waaa.
SPECIAL REPORT:By Yamin Kogoya
The above text was written by Markus Haluk, director of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) on Thursday, March 10. The text encapsulates the sentiments of Papuans protesting across West Papua and Indonesia, calling for Jakarta to stop the creation of new provinces.
Haluk’s words were written amid escalating protests in various parts of West Papua’s customary lands and across Indonesia over Jakarta’s plans to create six new provinces under the unilaterally renewed — and unpopular — Special Autonomy Law 21/2001.
15/3/22 Yahukimo, West Papua
Indonesian forces shot dead Yakub Meklok (39) and Herson Wisapla (21) during forced dispersal of thousands of people protesting against Jakarta’s plan to create new provinces.
Jayapura – Mamta customary land
Tuesday, March 8: Hundreds of students and communities clashed with Indonesian security forces at university campuses in Waena and Abepura cities, protesting against the expansion. The protest coordinator, Alfa Hisage, stated that this demonstration was to reject the creation of a new province altogether.
Wamena – La Pago customary land
Thursday, March 10: Doni Tabuni, the coordinator of the demonstration in the highlands of Wamena (the location that Markus Haluk refers to in his text) warned on March 10 that the expansion would wipe out Papuans. Protesters declared: “We will stop all government office activities in the Lapago region if the central government does not stop the expansion,” reported CNN Indonesia (10 March 2022).
“The expansion will not bring prosperity to Papuans; it will only serve to benefit the elites, bring more migrants, and create more opportunities for military and human rights violations,” said Doni Tabuni.
14/3/22 Paniai, West Papua
Hundreds of West Papuans protested against Jakarta’s plan to create new provinces – which will lead to further dispossession and militarisation.
Paniai – Meepago customary land
Monday, March 14: thousands of residents of Paniai took to the streets to demonstrate against the expansion of the “New Autonomous Region”, also known as “Daerah Otonomy Baru” (DOB). The demonstrators repeatedly shouted against the new proposal and do not want to join the province of Central Papua, which would become a new autonomous region.
Petrus Yeimo, a member of the Paniai Regency Legislative Council (DPRD), said that communities are not involved in the formation of this new region.
“That’s why we Paniai people firmly reject the expansion,” said Petrus, when he was met by the mass in front of the DPRD office (innews.id).
West Papuan women against the creation of new provinces by Jakarta that will cause further dispossession and militarisation.
Manokwari – Domberai customary land
Tuesday, March 8: The same message also echoed in Manokwari city — a coastal town popularly known as a “city of the gospel” for its historical significance of the landing of the first two German missionaries (C.W. Ottow and J.G. Geissler) for the “Christianisation” project in the mid-1800s.
17/3/22 Sorong, West Papua
Another big protest against Jakarta’s plan to create new provinces.
Sorong – Domberai customary land Monday, March 21: A series of protests has also taken place in Sorong city, at the Western tip of West Papua, involving sections of Papuan society, including students and communities.
Protesters in Sorong carry a banner saying, “The expansion of the new autonomous region is oppression against the Papuan people.” Image: APR
“The expansion of new autonomous region depletes our forests, depriving us of our land rights. The goal of our meeting is to convince the mayor, who is also the head of the creation of the new Southwest Papua province that we Papuans all over Sorong Raya oppose the expansion,” said action coordinator Sepnat Yewen on Monday. But they were disappointed that they were unable to see the mayor twice (Compass.com, 21 March 2022).
11/3/22 Jakarta
102 West Papuan students were forcibly dispersed and arrested during a protest. They reject Jakarta’s plan to create new provinces in West Papua that would lead to further dispossession.
Jakarta – the heartland of the colonial powerhouse
Tuesday, March 11: Papuan students held protests in central Jakarta, calling on Jakarta to stop the colonial expansion of their homeland, during which one police officer, Ferikson Tampubolon, was injured on the head (Detiknews, 12 March 2022).
Indonesian security forces line up against Papuan protesters in Jakarta. Image: APR
South Sulawesi – an Indonesian island
In Kendari city of South Sulawesi, the Papuan Student Association declared that the newly created provinces would not benefit Papuans. Kiminma Gwijangge, the group coordinator, said that this was a game of the political elites and rulers who control the public service in Papua and ignoring the rights and wishes of Papuans. These Papuan students demanded that the Papuan elites, who eat money and expand on behalf of Papua, be stopped immediately.
15/3/22 Yahukimo, West Papua
Earlier today, speaker: “people reject expansion, people want independence”.
Yahukimo – La Pago customary land
Tuesday, March 15: Tragically, a peaceful demonstration for the same cause in the Yahukimo region did not go well. Two young men, Yakop Deal, 30, and Erson Weipsa, 22, have been martyred for this cause by the Indonesian police — the cause for which Papuan men and women courageously risked their lives to fight against fully armed, western-backed, modern security forces with advanced mechanical weapons.
Two young Papuans gunned down and a dozen wounded
Witness accounts of the Yahukimo tragedy stated that the protest initially went ahead safely and peacefully. However, provocation by police intelligence officers posing as journalists in the midst of the protest led to the shooting.
It is alleged that an unidentified Indonesian person flew a drone camera during the demonstration. Seeing that action, protesters warned the Indonesian man not to use drones to record the protest, creating fear.
The protestors also asked for his identity and whether or not he was a journalist, but he failed to respond. The crowd protested against his action. He then ran for cover towards hidden police officers who had been on standby with weapons. Immediately, members of the police fired tear gas at the crowd without asking for the person responsible for the peaceful demonstration. Soon after, police opened fire on the crowd.
Papuan Police public relations chief Kombes Pol Ahmad Musthofa Kamal confirmed that two protesters had died, and others suffered gunshot wounds (Suara.com).
Gathering evidence of the Yahukimu atrocity – alleged shootings by the Indonesian military. This Papuan man was shot in the back. Image: APR
OPM and civil society groups
The Free Papua Movement, also known as Organisasi Papua Merdeka (OPM), and their military wing, The West Papua National Liberation Army, which was launched in the 1960s to protest against the Indonesian invasion, are opposed to the new expansion of provinces.
Sebby Sambon, the group spokesperson released a statement that threatened to shoot Papuan elites who imposed Jakarta’s agenda onto Papuans (tribunnews.com, 12 February 2022)
More than 700,000 people have also signed the Papuan People’s Petition which represents 111 organisations opposing Special Autonomy.
These protests are not the first and they will not be the last. Papuans will continue to resist any policy introduced by Jakarta that threatens their lives, cultural identities, and lands.
This is an existential war, not a political one — it is a war of survival and resisting extinction.
The genesis of these recent protests
Those protests are not simply a reaction against the new expansion, but a part of a movement against the Indonesian invasion that began when Papuans’ independent state was seized by the Western governments and given to Indonesia by the United Nations in 1963.
This is a conflict between two states — the state of Papua and the state of Indonesia.
Having the big picture is vital to prevent misrepresentation of these protesters as just another angry mob on the street demanding equal pay in Indonesia.
However, the protests that cost those two men their lives in Yahukimo had a specific genesis. It began in 1999 when 100 Papuan delegates went to then-President Habibie and demanded independence after the collapse of Suharto’s 31-year New Order regime.
Habibie and his cabinet were shocked by this demand, as people whom they thought were members of his family suddenly told him they no longer wanted to be part of the great Indonesian family.
Having been shocked by this unexpected news, Habibie and his cabinet told the Papuan delegation to go home and think it over in case it had been a mistake. But this was not a mistake. It was the deepest desire of Papuans being communicated directly in a dignified manner to the country’s highest presidential palace.
This occurred during a time of great turmoil in Indonesia’s history. Strongman national father figure Suharto, once considered immortal, no longer was. His empire had crumbled.
Suddenly, across the archipelago, a cacophony of demonstrators unleashed more than 30 years of dormant human desires for freedom, frustrations, and fear, combined with the ravages of the Asian economic collapse.
If there was a time when the Papuans could escape the tormented house, this was it. One hundred Papuan delegates marching to Habibie indeed made their mark in that respect.
At this momentous time, the man who understood this deepest desire and would help Papuans escape was President Abdurrahman Wahid, better known as Gus Dur. He lives on in the memories of Papuans because of his valiant acts.
President Gus Dur – a political messianic figure
On 30 December 1999, or exactly two months and 10 days after being inaugurated as the 4th President, Gus Dur visited Irian Jaya (as it was known back then) with two purposes — to listen to Papuan people during the congress, which he funded, and to see the first millennium sunrise on January 1, 2000. On this day, a significant moment in human history, he chose to stand with Papuans and for Papuans.
During his stay, he changed the region’s name from Irian Jaya to Papua and allowed the banned Papuan Morning Star flag to be flown alongside Indonesia’s red and white flag.
Changing the name was significant for Papuans because these changes marked a significant shift in how the region would be governed. The former name symbolised Indonesia’s victory and the latter symbolized Papuan victory.
Prior to these historical occurrences, the region was known as Netherlands New Guinea during Dutch rule, then as West Papua during a short-lived, Dutch-supported Papuan rule in 1961, then from Irian Barat to Irian Jaya when Indonesia annexed it in May 1963.
Just as their island has been dissected and tortured by European and Asian colonial powers, so too have Papuans, being tortured with all manner of racism and violence in the name of the civilisation project.
The messianic Gus Dur’s spark of hope instilled in the hearts of Papuans was short-lived. In July 2001, he was forced out of office after being accused of encouraging Indonesia’s disintegration. Gus Dur’s window of opportunity for Papuans to escape the tortured house was closed. The new chapter that Gus Dur wrote in Indonesia-Papua’s tale of horror was ripped out of his hands during the most pivotal year of human history — the new millennium 2000.
The demand for independence conveyed to President Habibie a year earlier by one hundred Papuan delegates was discarded. Instead, Jakarta offered a special gift for Papuans — gift the Special Autonomy Law 21/2001.
There was a belief among foreign observers, and Papua and Jakarta elites that this would lead to something special. It reflects Jakarta’s ability in terms of its semantic structure and highly curated selection used in law.
Rod McGibbon, an analyst and writer on Southeast Asian politics in Jakarta, noted in a Wall Street Journal article on 14 August 2001 that despite the challenges Jakarta faces in its dealings with Irian Jaya (Papua), the Special Autonomy approach represents the best opportunity for Jakarta to begin meaningful dialogue with provincial leaders. He also predicted that if Jakarta fails special autonomy, the province will suffer further ethnic and regional conflicts in the future.
He was right, 20 years later Special Autonomy turned out to be a big mess.
The law consisted of 79 articles, most of which were designed to give Papuans greater control over their fate — to safeguard their land and culture.
Furthermore, under this law, one important institution, the Papuan People’s Assembly (Majelis Rakyat Papua-MRP), together with provincial governments and the Papuan People’s Representative Council (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Papua-DPRP), was given the authority to deal with matters that are most important to them, such as land, population control, cultural identity, and symbols.
Section B in the introduction part of the Special Autonomy law reads as follows: “That the Papua community as God’s creation and is a part of a civilised people, who hold high human rights, religious values, democracy, law and cultural values in the adat (customary) law community and who have the right to fairly enjoy the results of development”
Assassination of prominent Papuan leader and Papuan chief
Three weeks after the law was passed, popular independence leader Theys H. Eluay was killed by Indonesian special forces (Kopassus). Ryamizard Ryacudu, then-army chief of staff, who in 2014 became Jokowi’s first Defence Minister, later called the killers “heroes” (Tempo.co, August 19, 2003).
In 2003, the Megawati Soekarnoputri government divided the province into two. She was violating a provision of the Special Autonomy Law, which was based on the idea that Papua remains a single territory. As prescribed by law, any division would need to be approved by the Papuan provincial legislature and MRP.
Governor Lukas Enembe – Melanesian chief
On August 22, 2019, Narasi (central Jakarta’s TV programme) invited Papua provincial Governor Lukas Enembe and others (both Papuans and Indonesians) to discuss mass demonstrations that erupted across West Papua and Indonesia after Papuan students were racially attacked in Surabaya.
The programme host, Najwa Shihab, was shocked to hear the governor’s response. When asked about his opinion about the situation, the governor said that Papuans already had their own concept to address problems in West Papua, but they needed an agreement/treaty under international auspices — or something of the sort — because no Jakarta-made law would work in Papua.
The host then asked, “you are a governor, but why don’t you believe the authority of Special Autonomy Law?” Governor Enembe replied, “The Special Autonomy Law 21/2001 has not worked until now.”
The governor stressed that Papuans do not have political power or free will to make any meaningful decision.
“We are supposed to make our own law under this Special Autonomy, but Jakarta refuses to allow it. Jakarta only gives money under this law, that’s all.”
The statements come from Papua’s number one man and not from someone on the street. The ruling elites in Jakarta are not fazed about breaking their own laws, showing their disrespect of the Papuan people and their integrity as a nation.
The governor is not the only official in the country’s highest office who lacks faith in the central government. Otopianus Tebai, a young Papuan senator who represents Papua in the central government said in a response to this new expansion plan that most Papuans reject the divisions (Suara.com, March 18, 2022). Divisions of which Papuans are being coerced into by the old special autonomy law renewal, which Governor Enembe declared as a total failure.
The MRP, Papua’s highest institution established under the special autonomy law to safeguard cultural identities, no longer has the power to act as intended. This institution has been stripped of its power, as well as other things, as a result of the 2021 amendment to the law which was passed two decades ago.
Timotius Murib, the chairman of this institution, said that the plan to create an autonomous region did not reflect the wishes of the people of Papua and would probably create more problems if Papuans were divided over it.
The chairman emphasised the law was designed for Papuans to have specific authority to implement local laws pertaining to our affairs, but the central government removed that authority by destroying any legal or government mechanism that materialised this authority.
Adding to these statements from the highest offices, more than 700,000 people have signed the Papuan People’s Petition, which represents 111 organisations opposing Special Autonomy.
Indonesian Brimob forces ready to move against Papuan protesters in Jakarta. Image: APR
Deep psychological war against Papuans – ‘divide and rule’ tactic
Despite overwhelming opposition from many segments of Papuan society, the Indonesian government persists in imposing its will upon Papuans. It is precisely this action that is causing protests and havoc in recent weeks.
But not all Papuans are against it. Several regents (mostly Papuans) are supporting this expansion with their cronies and supporters, in conjunction with the Indonesian government, a few Papuan elites in Jakarta, and other misfits and opportunists.
The issue has caused division among indigenous Papuans. Among the Papuans, it plays directly into identity politics, as many tribes speak different languages, live in different ancestral and customary lands, and even practise different religions.
A protracted horizontal conflict between these languages, cultural, and geographical lines was already being created by the creation of more regencies and districts in the past. Adding three new provinces would lead to more regencies, which means more districts, which means more security forces and settlers and more problems.
In the midst of this drama, Jakarta is setting traps for Papuans by forcing them to face each other and preventing them from collectively confronting the system that is tearing them apart. The creation of more provinces and regions is leading to such traps since this will divide the people — which is clearly Indonesia’s ultimate goal.
If Papuans are too busy fighting one another, then the atrocities of the elites will fly under the radar, unopposed. What West Papua needs is unity, which has been demonstrated in recent protests. Together, Papuans will always be stronger than apart in their cause, and Jakarta will stop it with all its tricks.
If you are an imperial strategist or scammer in an empirical office somewhere in London, Canberra, Washington DC, or Jakarta, you might think that this is the best way to control and destroy a nation.
But history shows that, all dead ancient empires and the current dying Anglo-American led Western empires use this little magical trick “divide and rule” over others until it collapses from its wicked pathological and hypocritical weights from within.
Imperial planners in Jakarta should be focusing on overcoming their own internal weaknesses that would eventually bring them down rather than chasing after the monster they created out of West Papua.
In this frame of mind, any vestige of hope for Papua’s restoration and unity, whether contained within or outside the law, is a threat that will be undermined at any cost.
The term autonomy is also defined differently in Papua’s affairs because Jakarta does not intend to empower Papuans to stand on their own two feet.
There is no real intention for Jakarta to give Papuans a chance to have some level of self-rule, which is exactly what being autonomous means in essence.
Papua’s autonomous status seems to be all part of the settler-colonial regime: occupation, expansion, and extermination. Papuans have been told that West Papua is special, but Jakarta is undermining and paralysing any mechanism it agrees upon to convince them that that is truly not the case.
In other words, Jakarta introduces a law, but it is Jakarta that violates it. The situation is analogous to students having a teacher who is not just negligent but hypocritical; everything the teacher believes in, they teach, not taking time to critically analyse their actions and how it all contradicts itself.
Under the whole scheme, Indonesia is presented as a self-appointed head of the class that they are holding hostage. They believe they are the only ones capable of teaching the stupid Papuans, of civilising the naked cave men, of saving the wild beasts, and developing the underdeveloped people.
But under the guise of the pathological civilisational myths, Jakarta poisons and destroy Papuans with food, alcohol, drugs, pornography, gambling, diseases and the ammunition which is used against them.
Rulers in Jakarta act as narcissistic sociopaths — they promise development, happiness, or even heaven while committing genocidal and homicidal acts against Papuans.
They portray themselves as the “civilised” and the Papuans as the “uncivilised” – a psychological manipulation that allows them to avoid accountability for their crimes. Jakarta makes Papuans sick, then prescribes medication to cure the very same illness it caused.
A deep psychological game is being played to convince themselves (colonisers), and the Papuans (colonised) that Indonesia exists so that West Papua can be saved, improved, and developed. This pathological game is then embedded into the psyche of Papuans through all the colonial development products Jakarta sells to Papuans through education and indoctrination.
This programming is evident in the way that a few Papuans (with Jakarta acting as the puppeteer) fool their own people by telling them that Indonesian rule will bring salvation and prosperity.
Even the mental work of most Indonesians is being reprogrammed to view West Papua with that lens – they believe that Indonesia is saving and improving West Papua. Unbeknownst to them, this entity called “Indonesia” annihilates Papuans.
Local Papuan elites legitimize their power by saying that their own people also have serious problems (backwardness, stupidity, poverty) and that they have solutions to solve these problems. However, the solution is Jakarta-made, not Papuan-made, and that is the problem.
When governor Enembe said we need an international solution rather than a national one, he was conscious of these games being played against his people in his homeland.
The Indonesian government exterminates Papuans by controlling both poison and antidote, but there is no antidote to begin with. It is all poison; the only difference is the label.
Markus Haluk’s words
Markus Haluk’s words make a desperate plea for help as they face what he terms “annihilation” due to Indonesia’s racism, responding to mass demonstration in his own homeland.
His words highlight that the only viable solution is to grant the people the right to self-determination to establish their nation-state and declare that the people’s voice is the voice of God.
As tragic and ironic as it is, it is highly unlikely that Haluk’s words “the voice of the people is the voice of God” will mean anything to the ruling class in Jakarta since in the past 20 years all the attacks, betrayals, torture, racism, and killings have been committed after these words were written on the Special Autonomy Law No 21/2001.
Section B in the Introduction part of the law reads: “That the Papua community as God’s creation and is part of a civilized people, who hold high Human Rights, religious values, democracy, law and cultural values in the adat (customary) law community and who have the right to fairly enjoy the results of development.”
It seems that these words are merely part of the theatrics — the drama of cruelty, torture and death.
Settler-colony – the logic of ‘destroy to replace’
Indonesia’s occupation in West Papua is not temporary — they are not simply taking resources and going home. The Indonesians want to make West Papua their permanent home.
This is a permanent population resettlement colonial project based on the logic of destroy to replace. Papuans are being destroyed — and even worse, they are being replaced by Indonesian settlers. They are powerless to stop the annihilation and perversion of their ancestral homelands.
To occupy and own the land is the ultimate goal of settlers. Settler states aim to eradicate Indigenous societies through what an Australian historian and scholar, Patrick Wolfe, refers to as a the “logic of elimination” in his paper, Settler colonialism and the elimination of the native (2006).
Colonialism through population resettlement is the most destructive form of colonial project underpinned by self-righteous, pathological rationality which exterminates the original inhabitants as a moral requirement to justify the process of replacing itself.
In this pathological project, genocide is not considered evil but a necessity to achieve its exterminating objective. That is why the assassination of Theys H. Eluay just three weeks after the passing of the Special Autonomy Law was perhaps seen as a necessary evil to satisfy this colonial project.
West Papua: not just another one of Indonesia’s provinces
Over the past 60 years, virtually all literature ever produced on West Papua failed to refer to it as a settler colony. The region is still treated as if it were just another province of Indonesia, and Jakarta insist on creating more provinces as if they have legal and moral rights. This is misleading and illegal considering Indonesia’s genocidal actions and the circumstances in which the region was incorporated into Indonesia in the 1960s.
Indonesia did not merely incorporate West Papua; it invaded an independent state by military force supported by Western governments by manipulating the UN’s system.
Our continued use of West Papua as a part of Indonesia has distorted our understanding of the nature of the Indonesianisation programme being carried out there.
We need to scrutinise Jakarta’s activities on West Papua’s soil with a settler-colonial lens. This will help us frame our questions and structure our languages differently regarding Indonesian activities in West Papua.
It will also help us to see how West Papua is being destroyed under settler colony, similar to how European colonisation destroyed Indigenous people in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and Canada.
We need to frame any administration centres of any type, whether religious, political, cultural, educational, legal, social or security forces established on West Papuan soil with a settler-colonial lens.
This will allow us to see how Jakarta created these parasitic colonial spaces camouflaged as province and regency to occupy, expand, and eventually exterminate its original inhabitants.
The settler-colonial system is a structure that facilitates this whole extermination project. Replacing one landscape for another, one people for another, one language for another, one system for another.
In light of this, it would appear that any law, policy, decree, regulation, or project enacted and enforced by Jakarta serves the purpose of eradicating the Papuan population from the land and replacing them with Indonesian settlers.
This has been done in Australia, America, Canada, and New Zealand, and now these Western powers are aiding Indonesia to do the same in West Papua.
Physically and psychologically, these new provinces (whether materialised or not) have become new battlefields in the war on Papuans. Indeed, Papuans are being forced onto these battle grounds, as in Rome’s Colosseums, to fight for their lives.
The most tragic outcome for Papuans is going to be Jakarta pitting brother against brother and sister against sister in Indonesian’s controlled colosseum of vile games. The blood of these young Papuans that was shed in Yahukimo during the recent demonstration, shows how Papuans are paying the ultimate price in this theatre of killing.
A way forward
Let the same mechanism of the UN that was used to betray West Papua 60 years ago be used to deliver overdue justice for the Papuan people.
United States of America, the Netherlands, Indonesia and their allies of all kinds — thieves, criminals, thugs, militias and multinational bandits who betrayed the Papuan people and continue to drain them of their natural resources must take responsibility for their crimes against Papuans.
Countless of Resolutions on West Papuan human rights issues that have been written on paper in the offices of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), African, Caribbean, and Pacific States (ACP), UN Human Rights Council (UNHC), and European Union (EU) must be materialised to end this tragic and unjust war Papuans are forced to face on their own.
These institutions need to unite and put their words into actions if they place any value on human life.
If no action is taken in these resolutions, their words only serve the imperial purposes, such as these meaningless words used in the Law 21/2001 on Special Autonomy, providing false hope to deceive people whose lives and lands are already at stake.
Remember what Markus Haluk wrote on March 10 — reproduced in the introduction to this article — calling on the world’s humanity to listen to the voices of two million Papuans and to intervene.
Yamin Kogoya is a West Papuan academic who has a Master of Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development from the Australian National University and who contributes to Asia Pacific Report. From the Lani tribe in the Papuan Highlands, he is currently living in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Scores of Papuan activists have held a protest in front of the Army Strategic Reserves Command (Green Berets) headquarters in Central Jakarta, demanding that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo withdraw military troops from Papua, reports CNN Indonesia.
The protesters, who came from the Pro-Democracy Alliance and the Greater Jakarta Papua Student Alliance (IMAPA), accused the military in Papua of assaulting a primary school child for allegedly stealing a firearm and causing the child’s death.
“[We] demand that the president immediately withdraw the military from the land of Papua,” said one of the speakers in front of the Kostrad building on Monday.
“The primary school kid’s didn’t know it was a firearm. They didn’t know it was theft,” he said.
In an official release, the group also said that joint TNI (Indonesian military) and Polri (Indonesian police) operations following the fatal shooting of Papua regional National Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief Gusti Putu Danny in April last year have resulted in civilian casualties.
They said that the security forces have set fire to residents’ homes and committed violence against local people.
As a consequence, residents have chosen to flee their homes in order to save themselves.
“To the president, immediately withdraw the military in the land of Papua,” called the speaker. “Jokowi is responsible for the oppression in Papua.”
Earlier, on Sunday, February 20, a class 4 primary school student with the initials MT died after being allegedly assaulted by security personnel in the Sinak sub-district of Puncak regency, Papua.
Based on information received from Amnesty International Indonesia, the incident began when MT and six other children were arrested for allegedly stealing a firearm belonging to a TNI member in Sinak.
“Based on local media reports on February 26, two youths allegedly took a firearm belonging to a TNI member in the vicinity of the Tapulinik Sinak Airport, Puncak regency, Papua, on the evening of February 20,” read a tweet on the Twitter account @amnestyindo on Monday February 28.
[BREAKING] Kami juga kembali mendesak pemerintah untuk mempertimbangkan kembali pendekatan keamanan yang digunakan untuk merespon masalah di Papua.
A West Papuan leader has praised the “bravery and spirit” of Ukrainians defending their country against the Russian invasion while condemning the hypocrisy of a self-styled “peaceful” Indonesia that attacks “innocent civilians” in Papua.
Responding to the global condemnation of the brutal war on Ukraine, now into its second week, United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) interim president Benny Wenda highlighted a statement by United Nation experts that has condemned “shocking abuses” against Papuans, including “child killings, disappearances, torture and mass displacement of people”.
Wenda also stressed that the same day that Indonesia’s permanent representative to the UN said that the military attack on Ukraine was unacceptable and called for peace, reports emerged of seven young schoolboys being arrested, beaten and tortured so “horrifically” by the Indonesian military that one had died from his injuries.
“The eyes of the world are watching in horror [at] the invasion of Ukraine,” said Wenda in a statement.
“We feel their terror, we feel their pain and our solidarity is with these men, women and children. We see their suffering and we weep at the loss of innocent lives, the killing of children, the bombing of their homes, and for the trauma of refugees who are forced to flee their communities.”
Wenda said the world had spoken up to condemn the actions of President Vladimir Putin and his regime.
“The world also applauds the bravery and spirit of Ukrainians in their resistance as they defend their families, their homes, their communities, and their national identity.”
Russian attack unacceptable
Wenda said Indonesia’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Arrmanatha Nasir, had stated that that Russian attack on Ukraine was unacceptable and called for peace. He had said innocent civilians “will ultimately bear the brunt of this ongoing situation”.
“But what about innocent civilians in West Papua? asked Wenda.
“At the UN, Indonesia speaks of itself as ‘a peaceful nation’ committed to a world ‘based on peace and social justice’.
“This, on the very same day that reports came in of seven young boys, elementary school children, being arrested, beaten and tortured so horrifically by the Indonesian military that one of the boys, Makilon Tabuni, died from his injuries.
“The other boys were taken to hospital, seriously wounded.”
“These are our children that [Indonesian forces are] torturing and killing, with impunity. Are they not ‘innocent civilians’, or are their lives just worth less?”
A leading West Papuan activist is comparing the plight of his region to that of the crisis in Ukraine. https://t.co/K3qsMtXXWI
Urgent humanitarian access
Wenda said that this was during the same week that UN special rapporteurs had called for urgent humanitarian access and spoken of “shocking abuses against our people”, including “child killings, disappearances, torture and mass displacement of people”.
This was an acknowledgement from the UN that Papuan people had been “crying out for”.
Wenda said 60-100,00 people were currently displaced, without any support or aid. This was a humanitarian crisis.
“Women forced to give birth in the bush, without medical assistance. Children are malnourished and starving. And still, Indonesia does not allow international access,” he said.
“Our people have been suffering this, without the eyes of the world watching, for nearly 60 years.”
In response, the Indonesian Ambassador to the UN had continued with “total denial, with shameless lies and hypocrisy”.
“If there’s nothing to hide, then where is the access?”
International community ‘waking up’
Wenda said the international community was “waking up” and Indonesia could not continue to “hide your shameful secret any longer”.
“Like the Ukrainian people, you will not crush our spirit, you will not steal our hope and we will not give up our struggle for freedom,” Wenda said.
The ULMWP demanded that Indonesia:
Allow access for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and for humanitarian aid to our displaced people and to international journalists;
The people of Ukraine are “European people with blue eyes and blonde hair being killed” while Palestinians are Arab and have darker complexion. Lesson one: Empathy and recognition of pain and suffering is colour coded and race still matters in 2022.
Palestine, like Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Syria where violence is normal and death is “baked” into the culture while Ukraine is a “European city” that is modern and advanced and these things are not supposed to happen in this area. Lesson two: Western and European history is but a long series of erasures, amnesia and deeply held view of exceptionalism.
Volunteering to fight in defence of the Ukraine from outside is a heroic act, which indeed it is, but volunteering to resist settler colonialism and Apartheid is framed as “terrorism” by Western powers. Lesson three: Palestinians are demonised no matter what heroic acts they underake.
When an officer in the Ukraine blows himself and destroys a bridge to prevent the Russians from advancing then he is celebrated for this sacrifice. Lesson four: Palestinians are demonised for merely being Palestinians and any and all resistance are framed as terrorism.
Sport teams and famous sport figures can express solidarity and carry the Ukrainian flag, post messages on the electronic boards and demonstrate this on the play field, which are all very positive and players should have the right and ability to do it. However, Palestine is an exception when it comes to sport figures expressing any support for the Palestinians who are living under settler colonial occupation that structured with an embedded Apartheid system of racial-religious segregation. Lesson five: The sport administrative structure hands out fines and sanctions (red card) for anyone who expresses support for Palestine including on the occasion of fans hoisting Palestinian flags in the stands.
Calls for sending weapons to Ukraine so as to resist and fight Russian invasion and occupation is supported and expressed as a fundamental right for people facing such an enemy. Anyone who calls for supporting the Palestinians by sending military equipment or items to strengthen the resistance is criminalised and often imprisonment under the spacious law designation of material support. Lesson six: Palestinians don’t have the right to defend themselves but must accept to be occupied and the world community is committed to fund and extend all types of support to the settler colonial occupier.
For the Ukraine, international law advocates in Western world brought out the defence of the 4th Geneva Convention, brushed-up on definitions of war crimes and genocide but none of this applies to Palestine and Palestinians. One can add must of the Global South and the Muslim World suffer the same type of double standards when it comes to international law and 4th Geneva Convention. If you have a doubt for a moment then ask the Afghans, Iraqis and Syrians on this single point then we can have a large discussion. Lesson seven: Palestinians are made to live outside the scope of international law and the Western world delivers the weapons and instruments used by Israel to violate the 4th Geneva Convention and the Convention on Genocide. The Ukraine invasion made this very clear.
Media coverage rightly focused on the victims of the Russian invasion and the human stories with people taking weapons to defend their families, homes, and cities. Palestine always faces the media coverage that amplifies, humanises and centres the narrative of the settler colonial occupation, while erasing or often problematising Palestinian narrative in the often deployed euphemism of death during “clashes”, Israel having the right to defend itself or responding to rocket firing. Lesson eight: Palestinians are made to be the guilty party for wanting to live on their land and having the audacity to insist on it. Double standard and culpability of the Western world in furthering settler colonialism in Palestine.
Educational institutions across the Western World expressed solidarity with the Ukraine, again rightly so when a people face an invasion. Last April-May period, Israel launched a massive attack on the Palestinians on the holiest night of Ramadan, the 27th Night of Ramadan, then followed by a massive bombardment of Gaza. When faculty members, departments and students at universities expressed solidarity with Palestine and Palestinians, a steady stream of political figures, university presidents and media figures insisted that colleges and universities should not be politicised and to make sure that their internal policies prevent them from expressing such solidarity positions. Lesson nine: Palestine on college campuses always meets the administration, Zionist and settler colonial checkpoints that are structured to prevent solidarity with the Palestinians.
The push for boycott, divestment and sanctions on Russia are moving faster than the speed of light and often by the same set of characters that pushed for legislations to criminalise and punish the Palestinian BDS movement. Lesson ten: Palestine faces the constant double standard on the BDS front, free speech and constitutional rights. No clear evidence of double standard than to listen to the same individuals and groups who now are on the front line of seeking legislation to authorise BDS effort directed at Russia while on record opposing the Palestinian BDS Movement.
Professor Hatem Bazian is executive director of the Islamophobia Studies Center and a professor at Zaytuna College and lecturer in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures and Asian American Studies, UC Berkeley.
International media has been facing scrutiny from indigenous groups in the Pacific for the way it has been covering the Russia-Ukraine war.
Some have highlighted “double standards” among journalists who have brought attention to the plight of Ukrainians, while long-standing conflicts like those in Indonesia’s provinces of West Papua and Papua are often ignored.
Vanuatu’s opposition leader and former Foreign Minister Ralph Regenvanu said a media clampdown in West Papua had made it difficult for media to report on the situation there.
It also urged the Indonesian government to conduct full and independent investigations into allegations of torture, extrajudicial killings and the displacement of thousands of West Papuans.
Independent observers refused
But Regenvanu said Indonesia had refused to allow independent observers into the territories.
“Indonesia has just refused point blank to do it, and has actually stepped up escalated the occupation in the military, suppression of the people there,” he said.
A senior US policy advisor to Congress, Paul Massaro, drew heat from indigenous activists online after he tweeted: “I’m racking my brain for a historical parallel to the courage and fighting spirit of the Ukrainians and coming up empty. How many peoples have ever stood their ground against an aggressor like this? It’s legendary.”
I’m racking my brain for a historical parallel to the courage and fighting spirit of the Ukrainians and coming up empty. How many peoples have ever stood their ground against an aggressor like this? It’s legendary
Veronica Koman from Amnesty International said such commentaries about the situation in Ukraine ignored the many instances of indigenous resistance against colonisation.
“West Papuans have been fighting since the 1950s. First Nations in Australia have been fighting since more than 240 years ago,” Koman said.
“That’s how resilient the fights are … it’s just pointing out the the double standard.”
Koman said the West Papua and Papua provinces of Indonesia are currently experiencing some of the worst humanitarian crises.
“Sixty thousand to 100,000 people are being displaced right now in West Papua due to armed conflict, and these displaced people are mostly ignored,” she said.
“They are not getting assisted and all because mostly they are in forests. And they are afraid to return to their homes so are just running away from Indonesian forces.
“The situation is really bad and deserves our attention. And Ukraine war shows us that another world is possible, if only there’s no double standards and racism.”
Republished with author’s and ABC Pacific Beat’s permission.
A West Papuan advocacy group in Australia has appealed to Foreign Minister Marise Payne to take the cue from a new United Nations Rapporteurs statement this week condemning the “ongoing human rights abuses” in the Indonesian-ruled West Papuan region.
Joe Collins of the Australia West Papua Association (AWPA) said there was an urgent need for Australia to speak out against the Indonesian military abuses in the two Melanesian provinces of Papua and West Papua.
“We are urging the Australian government to join with the UN Rapporteurs in raising concerns about the situation in West Papua, publicly with Jakarta, condemning the ongoing human rights abuses in the territory,” Collins said in a statement.
“We know the government has said it raises concerns about the human rights situation in West Papua with the Indonesian government, but have not seen any public statements of concern on the issue unlike the governments concerns about abuses in China and the situation in the Ukraine.
“The issue of West Papua is not going away.”
In a letter to minister Payne, Collins raised the UN rapporteurs’ concerns about the deteriorating human rights situation in Papua and West Papua, “citing shocking abuses against indigenous Papuans, including child killings, disappearances, torture and mass displacement of people.”
The association said it would not go into “all the grave concerns” about human rights abuses in West Papua “as we have written many times on the issue”.
But Collins quoted the rapporteurs’ statement: “Between April and November 2021, we have received allegations indicating several instances of extrajudicial killings, including of young children, enforced disappearance, torture and inhuman treatment and the forced displacement of at least 5,000 indigenous Papuans by security forces.”
It is estimated that the overall number of displaced people in West Papua since the escalation of violence in December 2018 is more than 60,000.
Collins said that “Urgent action is needed to end ongoing human rights violations against indigenous Papuans.”
He also reminded the minister about AWPA’s letter on 12 August 2021 raising concerns about West Papuan activist Victor Yeimo, the international spokesperson for the West Papua National Committee (KNPB).
“He is being charged with treason. We look forward to your reply on this matter.”
Shocking abuses against indigenous Papuans have been taking place in Indonesia, say United Nations-appointed human rights experts who cite child killings, disappearances, torture and enforced mass displacement.
“Between April and November 2021, we have received allegations indicating several instances of extrajudicial killings, including of young children, enforced disappearance, torture and inhuman treatment and the forced displacement of at least 5000 indigenous Papuans by security forces,” the three independent experts said in a statement.
Special Rapporteurs Francisco Cali Tzay, who protects rights of indigenous peoples, Morris Tidball-Binz, who monitors extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, and Cecilia Jimenez-Damary, covering human rights of Internally Displaced Persons, called for urgent humanitarian access to the region and urged the Indonesian government to conduct full and independent investigations into the abuses.
They said that since the escalation of violence in December 2018, the overall number of displaced has grown by 60,000 to 100,000 people.
“The majority of IDPs [internally displaced persons] in West Papua have not returned to their homes due to the heavy security force presence and ongoing armed clashes in the conflict areas,” the UN experts explained.
Meanwhile, some IDPs have been living in temporary shelters or stay with relatives.
“Thousands of displaced villagers have fled to the forests where they are exposed to the harsh climate in the highlands without access to food, healthcare, and education facilities,” the Special Rapporteurs said.
Relief agencies have limited access Apart from ad hoc aid deliveries, humanitarian relief agencies have had limited or no access to the IDPs, they said.
“We are particularly disturbed by reports that humanitarian aid to displaced Papuans is being obstructed by the authorities”.
Moreover, severe malnutrition has been reported in some areas with lack of access to adequate and timely food and health services.
“In several incidents, church workers have been prevented by security forces from visiting villages where IDPs are seeking shelter,” the UN experts said.
They stressed that “unrestricted humanitarian access should be provided immediately to all areas where indigenous Papuans are currently located after being internally displaced.
“Durable solutions must be sought.”
#Indonesia: UN experts concerned by deteriorating human rights situation & abuses against #indigenous Papuans, incl. child killings, disappearances, torture & mass displacement, in Papua & West Papua. They call for humanitarian access & investigations: https://t.co/idEsWJDBvMpic.twitter.com/mwFQyxgkCc
— UN Special Procedures (@UN_SPExperts) March 1, 2022
‘Tip of the iceberg’ On a dozen occasions, the experts have written to the Indonesian government about numerous alleged incidents since late 2018.
“These cases may represent the tip of the iceberg given that access to the region is severely restricted making it difficult to monitor events on the ground,” they warned.
Meanwhile, the security situation in Highlands Papua had dramatically deteriorated since the 26 April 2021 killing of a high-ranking military officer by the West Papua National Liberation Army in West Papua.
The experts pointed to the shooting of two children, aged two and six, on October 26, shot to death by stray bullets in their own homes, during a firefight. The two-year-old later died.
End violations
“Urgent action is needed to end ongoing human rights violations against indigenous Papuans,” the experts said, advocating for independent monitors and journalists to be allowed access to the region.
They outlined steps that include ensuring all alleged violations receive thorough, “prompt and impartial investigations”.
“Investigations must be aimed at ensuring those responsible, including superior officers where relevant, are brought to justice. Crucially lessons must be learned to prevent future violations,” the Rapporteurs concluded.
Special Rapporteurs and independent experts are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a specific human rights theme or a country situation.
The positions are honorary and the experts are not paid for their work.
The Indonesian Independent Journalist Alliance (AJI) has condemned the hacking and disinformation attacks against the group’s general chairperson Sasmito Madrim as a serious threat to media freedom.
In a written release, the AJI stated that the incident was a “serious threat to press freedom and the freedom of expression”.
“This practice is a form of attack against activists and the AJI as an organisation which has struggled for freedom of expression and press freedom,” the group stated.
“The hacking and disinformation attack against AJI chairperson Sasmito Madrim is an attempt to terrorise activists who struggle for freedom of expression and democracy”, the group said.
The AJI stated that the hacking attack began on February 23 and targeted Madrim’s personal WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook accounts as well as his personal mobile phone number.
All of the posted content on his Instagram account was deleted then the hacker uploaded Madrim’s private mobile number.
Madrim’s mobile number was subsequently unable to receive phone calls or SMS messages.
Pornographic picture hack
On his Facebook account, Madrim’s profile photograph was replaced with a pornographic picture.
On February 24, the AJI monitored a disinformation attack which included Madrim’s name and photograph on social media.
The narrative being disseminated was that Madrim supported the government’s 2020 banning of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), supports the government’s construction of the Bener Dam in Purworejo regency and has asked the police to arrest Haris Azhar and Fatia Maulidiyanti, two activists who were criminalised by Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan.
The AJI Indonesia asserts that these messages are false and such views have never been expressed by Madrim.
“These three [pieces of] disinformation are clearly an attempt to play AJI Indonesia off against other civil society organisations, including to pit AJI against the residents of Wadas [Village] which is currently fighting against the exploitation of natural restores in its village,” wrote AJI.
AJI Indonesia is asking the public not to believe the narrative of disinformation spreading on social media and to support them in fighting for press freedom, the right to freedom of expression, association, opinion and the right to information.
A national network of groups supporting freedom and justice for West Papua has called on Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta to condemn Indonesian charges of treason against accused West Papuan Victor Yeimo.
They have called for the release of Yeimo, who this week rejected charges against him in a court hearing in the Papuan provincial capital of Jayapura.
Spokesperson Catherine Delahunty, a former Green Party MP, described the charges against West Papua National Committee (KNPB) international spokesperson as “trumped up” and said Yeimo had suffered a “serious health crisis”.
“In addition to taking a strong position in support of Ukraine at this terrible moment we are asking Nanaia Mahuta to stand up for human rights in our neighbourhood,” she said in a statement.
“Last week Victor Yeimo was charged with treason for participating in an antiracism peaceful protest on August 19, 2019.
“He also spoke against the abuse of West Papuan students, which included hours of being harangued and called ‘monkeys’ before being beaten and arrested.
“That is his only ‘crime’, but for that he has been detained for ten months, suffered a serious health crisis and is now in court facing trumped up charges of treason,” Delahunty said.
Yeimo charged with makar
In Jayapura, the preliminary court hearing against Yeimo was held at the Jayapura District Court in Abepura, Papua, on last Monday, reports Suara Papua.
During the hearing, the public prosecutor read out the indictment in which he charged Yeimo under the makar (treason, subversion, rebellion) articles.
The defence believes that the charges are excessive because what happened in August 2019 was a response to the racism which was “rooted in the nature of the Indonesian population against Papuans”.
Papuan campaigner Victor Yeimo in handcuffs … he is international spokesperson for the West Papua National Committee (KNPB), a peaceful civil society disobedience organisation. Image: Tribunnews
The prosecution said that during the protest actions which ended in riots on August 29, 2019, there was verbal as well as written involvement of the defendant along with his colleague the chairperson of the KNPB, Agus Kossay, in demonstrations which were facilitated by the chairpeople of the Student Executive Council (BEM) in Jayapura.
“They [the chairpersons of the West Papua National Parliament (PNWP), the Federal Republic of West Papua (NRFPB), the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation (WPNCL) and the Free West Papua Campaign (FWPC), together with the defendant], called for, and took part in committing the act of makar with the maximum [aim] of all or part of the country’s territory [separating from Indonesia],” said prosecutor Andrianus Y. Tomana in reading out the charge sheet in the courtroom.
According to the prosecutor, Yeimo was being indicted for crimes under Article 106 of the Criminal Code (KUHP) in conjunction with Article 55 Paragraph (1) on the crime of makar, Article 110 Paragraph 1 of the KUHP on criminal conspiracy to commit a crime, and Article 110 Paragraph 2 on endeavoring to mobilise people or call on people to commit a crime.
In reply, Yeimo admitted that he had been involved as a participant in the anti-racist demonstration on August 19, 2019. However, the protest happened without problems and after it finished the protesters returned home.
‘I was arrested because of racism’
“I was arrested only because of the racism case, indeed I was involved and it’s true there were speeches.
“But it was not just me that gave speeches, the DPRP [Papua Regional House of Representatives] spoke, the governor spoke, all of the Papuan people spoke at the time. So if I’m being tried, why aren’t they being tried?” he asked.
Yeimo explained that he attended along with other Papuan people in order to oppose and to fight against the racism and this opposition was conveyed peacefully at the Papua governor’s office.
Delahunty said the Yeimo case had attracted a strong response from UN Special Rapporteurs, but in letters to the West Papua Action Network the New Zealand government only said it was “concerned” and that its officials “raise the case”.
The European Union Commission has called for Indonesia to allow their high commissioners to visit West Papua, specifically naming the Victor Yeimo case as a human rights issue.
“Our Foreign Minister needs to support the growing international calls for justice for Victor,” Delahunty said.
“She needs to condemn this outrage and call for the treason charges to be dropped and Victor Yeimo to be immediately released.”
I first met cartoonist Harn Lay, who has died peacefully at 59, 15 years ago in the northern Thai town of Chiang Mai. He was then working for The Irrawaddy Magazine.
I was impressed by his cartoons that never failed to skewer Burma’s military regime and wanted to write a feature about him and his work.
Today, the military regime still rules Burma with an iron fist. Poets, writers, lawyers, monks, artists, doctors, comedians, musicians, bloggers, politicians, activists and journalists have been hunted, arrested, tortured and jailed for for speaking out against the regime and its 1 February 2021 coup.
During our series of interviews in 2006, Harn Lay didn’t hold back in his contempt for Burma’s military hardmen.
Harn Lay said he detested former General Than Shwe and his regime and it showed in the cartoons he drew for The Irrawaddy Magazine, Democratic Voice of Burma, Voice of America and the Shan Herald Agency for News.
Harn Lay dismissed the generals with a cutting barb: “Than Shwe’s a pumped up bully. I try to show how ridiculous he is, a little fat man in a uniform. His only power, his gun.”
Despite the humour, Harn Lay took his role as an artist seriously and said it was his duty to point out the emperor was naked, even when it was the so-called “good guys”.
Cartoons also upset pro-democracy, aid groups
“It’s like a responsibility. I stand by the victims of the powerful and the ruthless. I try to make people not only laugh, but to be aware of how they can be manipulated. Sometimes my cartoons have upset the pro-democracy and aid groups.”
Harn Lay was proud of his Shan State heritage and explained he first tried for freedom by joining an ethnic armed group.
“When I was younger, I joined the Mong Tai Army (MTA) to fight for Shan freedom and independence. But it was an illusion. Khun Sa [the MTA leader] was power mad, the same as Than Shwe and other dictators.
“He was like a kid, no control, he wanted everything he saw.”
Harn Lay soon realised it was time to put down the gun and pick up his pen.
“The gun kills, the pen doesn’t. I tried to use cartoons to express my politics, the injustices people suffer and to make them laugh at the powerful –– they can’t be too powerful if people are laughing at them.”
Harn Lay told me his intention was always to get under the skin of the ruthless and powerful dictators of Burma.
“Translated, my name means a leaf that causes irritation and itching. I want to make these powerful generals uncomfortable, I want to show people what they are really like without the protection of their uniforms and I want to show they are mortal.”
Harn Lay said the cruelty of the Burma regime was never a laughing matter and he was still drawing cartoons lampooning the generals until recently.
“Every Burmese person has been hurt or touched by their brutality. I’ve given up the gun, but I’ll keep drawing and try to expose this regime for the criminals they are.”
Until late 2021, Harn Lay was still lampooning the military junta and its generals in his cartoons.
Harn Lay enjoyed the support of his wife Yuwadee and his daughter Wan Wan, but told me at the time they could be his harshest critics.
“I met Yuwadee 16-years-ago in Shan State. I test my work out on her for clarity. If she laughs, I know I’m on track.”
Harn Lay’s art has featured in a number of international exhibitions and he is the recipient of numerous awards for his work.
Phil Thornton is a journalist and senior adviser to the International Federation of Journalists in South East Asia. This article was first published by Karen News and is republished with the author’s permission. Thornton is a contributor to Asia Pacific Report.
Harn Lay realised it was time to put down the gun and pick up his pen. Cartoon: Harn Lay/Karen News
A number of national figures in Indonesia have criticised the project to move the state capital (IKN) from Jakarta to East Kalimantan as envisaged by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, reports CNN Indonesia.
Among the figures who have loudly criticised the project are economist Dr Faisal Basri and former Vice-President Jusuf Kalla.
Dr Basri has questioned Widodo’s dream of building a “green capital” city. In reality, said Dr Basri, the new capital city Nusantara would be surrounded by coal mines, oil refineries and palm oil plantations.
“This is unique, they (the government) want to build a green city, a smart city, but what surrounds it is totally different,” the economist said.
“So it will be a heaven surrounded by hell. In time this heaven could also become hot,” said Dr Basri during a virtual discussion at the Mulawarman University.
Dr Basri said that it was not a matter of not being allowed to move the capital, but he warned that the current economic conditions were not supportive of such a mega-project.
He also warned of the economic transformation which would stall and the issue of half of the population currently being categorised as extremely poor, poor, almost poor and vulnerable to falling into poverty.
Many problems Speaking separately, former Vice-President Kalla predicted that moving the capital city would encounter many problems. He is pushing the government to fully resolve the problems which would emerge in the future.
“It is these complex issues which must be addressed together because later there will be problems, there will definitely be problems, budgetary problems, location problems, and the like”, said Kalla during a Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) national working meeting in Jakarta.
Kalla said that moving the capital city would not be easy. He added, however, that this was no longer the time to debate the issue because the decision had already been taken by the government and the House of Representatives (DPR).
Sharp criticism has also come from former Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Chair Busyro Muqoddas who said that the process of deliberating and enacting the law on the state capital city by the DPR was “reckless”.
“And this is an irony which has profoundly injured the dignity of the ordinary people. The people have been positioned like the oligarchy’s cash cows in an election cycle, an election of regional heads,” said Muqoddas during the virtual discussion.
“This also in fact represents layers of disloyalty. In Arabic, durhaka murokab against the people,” he said.
New law to move capital
Earlier, the government and the DPR agreed to move the capital city from Jakarta to the new location in East Kalimantan.
The two parties embodied this agreement in the Law on the State Capital City (UU IKN).
The process of moving the state capital will not be done immediately following the enactment of the UU IKN.
Jakarta will continue to carry the status of the capital city until the president issues a presidential decree on moving the capital.
Afghan women are accusing the Taliban of using a pregnant New Zealand journalist as a publicity tool to show the world they can offer women rights.
Charlotte Bellis wrote a open letter on Sunday saying she had been rejected by New Zealand’s strict hotel quarantine system and was living in Afghanistan, where the Taliban had offered her “safe haven”.
Bellis was working in Qatar, where extramarital sex is illegal, when she discovered she was pregnant with her partner and realised she had to leave.
When she was unable to go home to New Zealand, she briefly moved to her partner’s native Belgium, but could not stay long because she was not a resident.
She said the only other place the couple had visas to live was Afghanistan.
“When the Taliban offers you – a pregnant, unmarried woman – safe haven, you know your situation is messed up,” she wrote.
It made international headlines, but the news prompted scepticism in online groups of Afghan women, Kabul resident Sodaba Noorai said.
‘Surprised’ by Taliban comments
Noorai said Afghan women “were surprised” when they heard the news that senior Taliban contacts had told the journalist she would be fine if she returned to Afghanistan.
Fox News … “Journalist: Taliban helped me, my country won’t.” Image: APR screenshot Fox News
“[Afghan women] were surprised the Taliban can treat women in a good manner and know how to respect them,” Noorai said.
“The Taliban is trying to convey the message that they know about human rights, especially women’s rights.
“But in reality their treatment of Afghan women is different to their support and respect for this New Zealand woman.”
Noorai said pregnant Afghan women had been killed by the Taliban for not being married.
Witnesses claim pregnant former Afghan policewoman Banu Negar was shot dead by Taliban militants in September, but the regime has denied the incident.
Afghan women march as they chant slogans and hold banners during a women’s rights protest in Kabul on 16 January, 2022. Image: RNZ/Wakil Koshar/AFP
‘Double standard’ over white, Western woman
“This is a double standard where they treat a white, Western woman in a way to show the world that they are behaving like a civilised government,” Pittsburgh University Afghan researcher Dr Omar Sadr said.
“But with respect to the people of Afghanistan and the women of Afghanistan, the Taliban behave totally differently.
“At the moment, Afghan women are degraded as second-class citizens, deprived of fundamental human rights where their protesting is brutally suppressed.
“They are killed, tortured, and in some cases even raped.”
It has been almost six months since the militant group took over Afghanistan, and its treatment of women has become a central point of concern for the international community.
Women live in fear under Taliban rule Women say they live in fear, while others have been killed after protesting against the country’s new rulers.
Taliban fighters trying to control women as they chant slogans during a protest demanding for equal rights, along a road in Kabul on 16 December, 2021. Image: RNZ/Wakil Koshar/AFP
Afghan activist Rahimi, whose last name has been withheld for security reasons, said she had gone into hiding with her sisters because she was worried she would be arrested and tortured by the Taliban for attending protests over human rights.
“I no longer have a job so I’m in a bad economic situation, I attended many demonstrations for achieving our rights and my life is in danger by the Taliban,” she said.
“We’re afraid of their violence, their rape, their killing and murder, so we’re scared in our house.
“I have a request for the international community — don’t ignore the actions of the Taliban because of this case of this New Zealand journalist.”
Taliban negotiators travelled to Oslo, Norway last week, the regime’s first official overseas delegation since returning to power in August.
Humanitarian aid offered
US and European diplomats reportedly offered humanitarian aid in exchange for an improvement in human rights.
The Taliban is calling for almost $10 billion in assets frozen by the US and other Western countries to be released, as more than half of Afghans are now facing extreme levels of hunger.
“It is fundamental that we hold the Taliban accountable by their policies and actions on the ground rather than what they do in exceptional cases like Charlotte’s,” Dr Sadr said.
But women like Noorai have urged the international community to stand firm until all women in Afghanistan, not just foreigners, are given basic rights.
“Our message is to not recognise the Taliban until they really change themselves and treat us properly.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
OPEN LETTER:A reply to Charlotte Bellis from Afghanistani mother and former broadcaster Muzhgan Samarqandi
My name is Muzhgan Samarqandi and I am from Baghlan, Afghanistan, but living in New Zealand with my Kiwi husband and our son. Like Charlotte Bellis, I too was a broadcaster in Afghanistan, back when this was possible for a woman without being a foreigner.
As a mother, my heart goes out to Charlotte, and I sincerely hope she and her partner get to New Zealand so she can give birth at home surrounded by her family.
As someone who has travelled for study and work and love, and who does not share the same passport as their significant other, my heart goes out to everyone stranded overseas, and I sincerely hope they can all get home and be reunited with their loved ones.
But as an Afghanistani woman, who has only recently emigrated from Afghanistan to New Zealand, I have to speak up.
I almost did so when Charlotte interviewed Abdul Qahar Balkhi, the Taliban spokesperson with the Kiwi accent. She went easy on him. For example, at the end of the interview, she asked what he had to say to those who called the Taliban “terrorists”.
He said people didn’t really believe they were terrorists, but this was just a word the US used for anyone who didn’t fall in line with their agenda. There were no further questions.
This was a man who claimed responsibility on behalf of the Taliban for attacks on innocent civilians. A man who has admitted to crimes against humanity. It made me so upset to see him get away with answers like that. But then my energy was taken up just coping with the reality of what was happening to my friends and family in Afghanistan.
Social media responses
But now, when I read Charlotte’s letter in the New Zealand Herald and see the media and social media responses, I see the situation in my country being trivialised, and it makes me angry.
Charlotte refers to herself asking the Taliban in a press conference what they would do for women and girls, and says she is now asking the same question of the New Zealand government.
I understand there are problems with MIQ. And I understand the value in provoking change with controversy. But what I don’t understand is how someone who has lived and worked in Afghanistan, and seen the impact of the Taliban’s regime on women and girls, can seriously compare that situation to New Zealand.
Afghanistani women who resist or protest the regime are being arrested, tortured, raped and killed. Young girls are being married off to Talibs (a member of the Taliban). Education and employment are no longer available to them.
A 19-year-old girl I know from my village, who was in her first year of law last year is now, instead, a housewife to a Talib.
There are so many stories like this.
Pregnant New Zealand journalist Charlotte Bellis was unsuccessful in gaining an emergency MIQ spot. Image: Al Jazeera English screenshot APR
The Taliban distort Islam
Charlotte says the Taliban have given her a safe haven when she is not welcome in her own country. This is obviously a good headline and good way to make a point. But it is an inaccurate and unhelpful representation of the situation.
One commentary on Instagram, re-posted by Charlotte, suggested her story represents the truly Muslim acts of the Taliban, which the Western media have not shown. This makes me angry.
If a person in power extends privileges to someone who doesn’t threaten their power, it doesn’t mean they are not oppressive or extremist or dangerous.
The Taliban distort Islam and manipulate Muslims for their political gain. They violate the rights of women and girls, and it is offensive to compare them to the New Zealand government in this regard.
New Zealand is no paradise, I have experienced my fair share of racism here, and I am sure the MIQ situation can be improved.
But relying on the protection of a regime that is violently oppressive, and then using that to try to shame the New Zealand government into action, is not the way to achieve that improvement.
It exploits and trivialises the situation in Afghanistan, at a time when the rights of Afghanistani women and girls desperately need to be taken seriously.
Muzhgan Samarqandi works for an international aid agency in New Zealand. Her article was first published on the TV One News website and is republished here with the author’s permission.
The Indonesian government has denied claims by an umbrella group representing Papuan students on scholarships abroad that it is “assassinating” the provincial programme supporting studies in New Zealand and several other countries.
An open letter last week signed by the presidents of the International Alliance of Papuan Student Associations Overseas (IAPSAO) and five affiliated associations headed “Do not disturb and hinder [us] — leave us [to] study in peace” declared that funding policy changes created under the controversial new autonomy statute would impact on their education.
Student sources said that at least 125 Papuan students — 41 of them studying in New Zealand — had been ordered home under a new policy reallocating education funds.
Some Papuan students studying in Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, Russia, and the United Sates were also affected, the alliance said.
The IAPSAO open letter was also signed by the presidents of five affiliated Papuan student associations around the world.
But the recently appointed new Indonesian Ambassador to New Zealand and the Pacific, Fientje Maritje Suebu, said in a letter to Asia Pacific Report today that the repatriation of students was based on a “thorough assessment” begun in 2017 by the provincial government of Papua over their achievements at their respective educational institutions.
“On 5 January 2022, the provincial government of Papua informed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the planned repatriation of 98 students – 51 students in the US, 5 students in the Philippines, 3 students in Canada and 39 students in New Zealand,” she said.
593 students on Papua scholarship
The recalled students were part of a total of 593 students receiving the “Papua Autonomy Scholarship”.
The Indonesian Embassy letter to Asia Pacific Report today. Image: APR screenshot
The ambassador said the repatriation decision did not impact on students who remained “on-track” with their studies abroad.
The assessment was also conducted to “ensure that other eligible students from Papua province” would have the same opportunity to study.
Ambassador Suebu said there were no budget cuts for Papuan autonomy funds, including for education.
She said the government was “committed to ensuring the fulfilment of the right to education and capacity building for all Indonesian citizens, including through the provision of scholarships to pursue academic degrees overseas”.
She criticised “those elements who shamelessly manipulate the situation of Papuan students abroad for their own deceitful political agenda”.
The ambassador also criticised Asia Pacific Report over publishing the “baseless account” by the students, a criticism rejected by the APR editors who said the news website was one of the very few news portals that consistently gave comprehensive and fair coverage on West Papuan and human rights affairs in the region.
The editors also pointed out that the ambassador failed to acknowledge either the students’ open letter or their concerns.
The IAPSAO open letter was signed by the presidents of the Papuan Students Association in Oceania, Papuan Students Association in the United States of America and Canada, Papuan Students Association in Russia, Papua Students Association in Germany and the Papua Students Association in Japan.
Papuan students in New Zealand with the Papuan provincial Governor Lukas Enembe in Palmerston North during his visit to New Zealand in 2019. Image: APR File
Amnesty International Indonesia is urging the government — and the police in particular — to tighten supervision of the palm oil industry following the finding of a human cage with at least 27 people living there at the home of non-active Langkat Regent Terbit Rencana Perangin Angin, reports CNN Indonesia.
Amnesty International executive director Usman Hamid said that greater supervision of the palm oil industry was needed because the business sector was prone to exploitation of workers, traditional communities and the environment.
“Moreover this is not the first time that the exploitation of workers has occurred in Indonesia’s palm oil industry. In 2016, Amnesty International found serious human rights violations at several palm oil plantations in Indonesia,” he said in a media release.
“The findings included forced labour, the use of child labour, gender discrimination and labour practices which were exploitative and endangered workers.”
Amnesty said that the human cage found at the Langkat regent’s house was of great concern.
Hamid said that he could not imagine how the practice of human slavery could have gone on for years.
“Law enforcement officials must fully investigate this case and ensure that all of the people involved are brought before the courts in hearings which meet international standards on justice and not end with the application of the death penalty,” said Hamid.
UN convention against torture
Amnesty also reminded the state about the United Nations convention against torture, which Indonesia had ratified.
“The UN Convention on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishments also prohibits all forms of torture and inhuman treatment,” Hamid said.
In addition to this, he noted that Article 8 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) — which has been ratified by Indonesia — stated that no person could be treated as a slave or enslaved.
“All forms of torture are explicitly prohibited in a number of instruments on the protection of human rights, such as under Article 7 of the ICCPR for example,” Hamid said.
The finding of the human cage came to the fore after Migrant Care reported it to the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) on January 24. In its report, Migrant Care reported that there were seven alleged cases of slavery.
The human cage was found when a Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) team arrived at the Langkat regent’s house during a sting operation on January 18. At the time, the KPK team, which was backed by the police, found at least 27 people inhabiting a cage when it was conducting the raid.
Based on the results of a preliminary examination, the North Sumatra regional police said that it was claimed that the cage was used for narcotics rehabilitation and had been there since 2012 or around 10 years.
Dwelling had no licence
The dwelling referred to as a rehabilitation facility had no licence even though it had been known about by the Langkat National Narcotics Agency (BNN) since 2017.
National police spokesperson Brigadier General Ahmad Ramadhan said that the dozens of people occupying the cage at the regent’s house were also employed as palm oil factory workers, although they were not paid.
He said that they had recorded at least 48 people occupying the cage on the pretext of narcotics rehabilitation.
“Some were employed at the palm oil factory owned by the Langkat regent. [But] they were not paid a wage like [ordinary] workers,” Ramadhan told journalists.
