2014 saw two pivotal events that led to the current conflict in Ukraine.
The first, familiar to all, was the coup in Ukraine in which a democratically elected government was overthrown at the direction of the United States and with the assistance of neo-Nazi elements which Ukraine has long harbored.
Shortly thereafter the first shots in the present war were fired on the Russian-sympathetic Donbass region by the newly installed Ukrainian government. The shelling of the Donbass which claimed 14,000 lives, has continued for 8 years, despite attempts at a cease-fire under the Minsk accords which Russia, France and Germany agreed upon but Ukraine backed by the US refused to implement. On February 24, 2022, Russia finally responded to the slaughter in Donbass and the threat of NATO on its doorstep.
Russia Turns to the East – China Provides an Alternative Economic Powerhouse
The second pivotal event of 2014 was less noticed and, in fact, rarely mentioned in the Western mainstream media. In November of that year according to the IMF, China’s GDP surpassed that of the U.S. in purchasing power parity terms (PPP GDP). (This measure of GDP is calculated and published by the IMF, World Bank and even the CIA. Students of international relations like economics Nobel Laureate, Joseph Stiglitz, Graham Allison and many others consider this metric the best measure of a nation’s comparative economic power.) One person who took note and who often mentions China’s standing in the PPP-GDP ranking is none other than Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
From one point of view, the Russian action in Ukraine represents a decisive turn away from the hostile West to the more dynamic East and the Global South. This follows decades of importuning the West for a peaceful relationship since the Cold War’s end. As Russia makes its Pivot to the East, it is doing its best to ensure that its Western border with Ukraine is secured.
Following the Russian action in Ukraine, the inevitable U.S. sanctions poured onto Russia. China refused to join them and refused to condemn Russia. This was no surprise; after all Putin’s Russia and Xi’s China had been drawing ever closer for years, most notably with trade denominated in ruble-renminbi exchange, thus moving toward independence from the West’s dollar dominated trade regime.
The World Majority Refuses to Back U.S. Sanctions
But then a big surprise. India joined China in refusing to honor the US sanctions regime. And India kept to its resolve despite enormous pressure including calls from Biden to Modi and a train of high level US, UK and EU officials trekking off to India to bully, threaten and otherwise attempting to intimidate India. India would face “consequences,” the tired US threat went up. India did not budge.
India’s close military and diplomatic ties with Russia were forged during the anti-colonial struggles of the Soviet era. India’s economic interests in Russian exports could not be countermanded by U.S. threats. India and Russia are now working on trade via ruble-rupee exchange. In fact, Russia has turned out to be a factor that put India and China on the same side, pursuing their own interests and independence in the face of U.S. diktat. Moreover with trade in ruble-renminbi exchange already a reality and with ruble-rupee exchange in the offing, are we about to witness a Renminbi-Ruble-Rupee world of trade – a “3R” alternative to the Dollar-Euro monopoly? Is the world’s second most important political relationship, that between India and China, about to take a more peaceful direction? What’s the world’s first most important relationship?
India is but one example of the shift in power. Out of 195 countries, only 30 have honored the US sanctions on Russia. That means about 165 countries in the world have refused to join the sanctions. Those countries represent by far the majority of the world’s population. Most of Africa, Latin America (including Mexico and Brazil), East Asia (excepting Japan, South Korea, both occupied by U.S. troops and hence not sovereign, Singapore and the renegade Chinese Province of Taiwan) have refused. (India and China alone represent 35% of humanity.)
Add to that fact that 40 different countries are now the targets of US sanctions and there is a powerful constituency to oppose the thuggish economic tactics of the U.S.
Finally, at the recent G-20 Summit a walkout led by the US when the Russia delegate spoke was joined by the representatives of only 3 other G-20 countries, with 80% of these leading financial nations refusing to join! Similarly, a US attempt to bar a Russian delegate from a G-20 meeting later in the year in Bali was rebuffed by Indonesia which currently holds the G-20 Presidency.
Nations Taking Russia’s side are no longer poor as in Cold War 1.0.
These dissenting countries of the Global South are no longer as poor as they were during the Cold War. Of the top 10 countries in PPP-GDP, 5 do not support the sanctions. And these include China (number one) and India (number 3). So the first and third most powerful economies stand against the US on this matter. (Russia is number 6 on that list about equal to Germany, number 5, the two being close to equal, belying the idea that Russia’s economy is negligible.)
These stands are vastly more significant than any UN vote. Such votes can be coerced by a great power and little attention is paid to them in the world. But the economic interests of a nation and its view of the main danger in the world are important determinants of how it reacts economically – for example, to sanctions. A “no” to US sanctions is putting one’s money where one’s mouth is.
We in the West hear that Russia is “isolated in the world” as a result of the crisis in Ukraine. If one is speaking about the Eurovassal states and the Anglosphere, that is true. But considering humanity as a whole and among the rising economies of the world, it is the US that stands isolated. And even in Europe, cracks are emerging. Hungary and Serbia have not joined the sanctions regime and, of course, most European countries will not and indeed cannot turn away from Russian energy imports crucial to their economies. It appears that the grand scheme of U.S. global hegemony to be brought about by the US move to WWII Redux, both Cold and Hot, has hit a mighty snag.
For those who look forward to a multipolar world, this is a welcome turn of events emerging out of the cruel tragedy of the U.S. proxy war in Ukraine. The possibility of a saner, more prosperous multipolar world lies ahead – if we can get there.
Indonesia is beginning a new chapter in its democracy. In the midst of increasing number of expressive platforms, state power is actually tightening its supervision. It is not impossible: expressions considered detrimental to certain parties in power will be muzzled on behalf of the state.
A recent case involves the criminalisation of two Indonesian NGO activists, Fatia Maulidiyanti (Coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, or KontraS) and Haris Azhar (Director of Lokataru). The two activists were reported to the Jaya Metro Regional Police by Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, accusing them of defamation.
This began when Fatia and Haris recorded and uploaded to Youtube their discussion of the results of research conducted by a number of large Indonesian NGOs—such as WALHI, Jatam, YLBHI, Kontras, and Pustaka—titled “Economic-Political Military Placement in Papua: The Case of Intan Jaya.” The video appeared on Haris Azhar’s Youtube channel in August 2021 with the title “There is Lord Luhut Behind Economic Relations-OPS Military Intan Jaya.”
In that video Fatia and Haris revealed that a number of retired Indonesian National Army (TNI) were involved in gold mining business and plans to exploit the Wabu Block area in Intan Jaya, Papua, which allegedly led to economic crimes. Luhut was directly mentioned: now retired he is still actively involved in Jokowi’s government. On that basis, Fatia and Haris were visited by police shortly after the video went public.
Their position could be seen as a reimagining of, to borrow Ariel Heryanto’s term, the post-colonial public intellectual in Indonesia. With an academic basis in the research conducted by a number of large NGOs in Indonesia, Fatia and Haris spoke with a “style” that is in harmony with the character of the Indonesian public.
The embedding of “public intellectuals” deserves to be given to Fatia and Haris, as well as all parties who have an important role in the research process. It seems to give our democracy a breath of fresh air in delivering comments and criticisms. However, Luhut’s oppressive response reveals the same irony that Heryanto illustrates in the characteristics of the post-colonial intellectual in Indonesia during the New Order.
First, public intellectual groups in Indonesia often gain public influence or trust because they have experienced oppression by authorities who try to eliminate their voices. However, this act of oppression actually strengthens their message. As Heryanto summarises: “Detention in police custody often generates respect and boosts the credentials of young activists.” Efforts to criminalise Fatia and Haris actually consolidated resistance to Luhut’s power.
After Fatia and Haris were reported, several NGOs belonging to the civil society coalition supported the two men to report Luhut to the police for alleged economic crimes of accepting gratifications, along with several Australian mining companies. Unfortunately, the report was immediately rejected by the police. Unlike Luhut’s report, which was quickly processed, theirs was immediately rejected.
All the evidence submitted was based on scientific findings and official state documents. Not only that, they also received a wave of public support. Through various social media platforms, the public showed their support with the hashtag “We are with Fatia and Haris.”
Second, the actions of public intellectuals in challenging the status quo of gives them special status to perform such actions. Simply put, they will be the public’s reference in response to phenomena that intersect with power. Returning pressure onto public intellectuals, as Luhut did, will only increase the public’s support for the dissenters. Furthermore, it will etch the names of public intellectuals into people’s memories.
These two things at least show that the flow of civil movement and Indonesian criticism is still alive on the one hand. Activism is never tolerated by the oppressor. However, on the other hand this is also a bad sign for the Indonesia’s democracy today. If public intellectual activism still inherits the context faced by post-colonial intellectuals of the New Order, then the power entrenched in Indonesia also retains those patterns, which is precisely the authoritarianism of the New Order.
Luhut’s actions leave at least two black stains on democracy in Indonesia today. First, there is anti-intellectualism, which is used to silence opposition voices that harm the interests of power. Luhut tried to muzzle public intellectualism and undermine freedom of expression. It is clear that these intellectuals and the research they are publicising strongly threatens Luhut’s interests in the mining business in Papua.
Second, the function of the police is again as an apparatus for the right hand of power. Instead of conducting objective law enforcement, the police force becomes a tool to silence public expression. This is done solely to protect the interests of the rulers. The case is still rolling. In the process, the reputation of Indonesian democracy is again at stake.
As a child, Efika Kora remembers watching planes glide over her remote village in the Pacific.
Transfixed, she imagined that one day she would be the one flying them.
Now, just two semesters away from completing a diploma of aviation at an Adelaide school, the 24-year-old has been told by Indonesian authorities she must return to her home country.
It came as a complete shock to Kora, who is among a group of more than 140 Indigenous West Papuan students in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States who had their Papuan government scholarships terminated without warning.
It means they would have to return home part way through their degrees or diplomas, a situation that has been described as highly unusual.
“To be honest, I cried,” Kora said.
“In a way, [it’s] like your right to education has been stripped away from you.”
16 students ordered home
In Australia, 16 students have been told to return home.
A letter to the Indonesian embassy in Canberra, dated February 8, from the Papuan provincial government said the students were to be repatriated because they had not finished their studies on time.
The letter said they had to return to West Papua by February 15, but it wasn’t until a month later — on March 8 — that the students were first told about the letter in a meeting with the Indonesian embassy.
“I was very, very shocked. And my mind just went blank,” Kora said.
The Indonesian Embassy and the Papuan provincial government have not responded to the ABC’s questions, including about the delay in relaying the message.
Students told ‘you have to take turns’ When the students asked for more details, they were told by the Indonesian Embassy that the five-year duration of their scholarships had now lapsed.
The ABC has seen text messages from an embassy official to one of the students, saying the decision was final.
“There will be no extension of the scholarship because there are still many Papuan students who also need scholarships. So you have to take turns,” one message read.
Like Efika Kora, Jaliron Kogoya (right) was told to return home to Papua, even though his scholarship is guaranteed until July this year. Image: ABC Pacific Beat
Kora said she wasn’t aware of a five-year limit to her scholarship.
“We never had like a written letter [saying] our scholarship will be going for five years,” she said.
She said she was told, verbally, she had been awarded the scholarship in 2015, and began her aviation diploma in 2018 after completing language studies.
A number of students have told the ABC they were also not given a formal offer letter or contract stipulating the conditions and duration of their scholarship.
Some students signed contract
Some students said they signed a contract in 2019 — well after their scholarships had commenced — which outlined durations for certain degrees, but Kora said she didn’t sign this document.
Business student Jaliron Kogoya said he also didn’t sign any such agreements.
A sponsorship letter from the Papuan government, issued in 2020, guarantees funding for his degree at the University of South Australia until July this year.
He has also been cut off.
“They just tell us to go home and then there is no hope for us,” Kogoya said.
The University of South Australia said it had been working closely with the students and the Papuan government since they began studying at the university two years ago.
“We are continuing to provide a range of supports to the students at this challenging time,” a spokeswoman said.
About 84 students in the United States and Canada, plus 41 in New Zealand, have also been told by the Papuan government that their scholarships had ended and they must return home.
Programme plagued with administrative issues While the Papuan government scholarship aims to boost education for Indigenous students, the programme has been plagued with administrative problems.
Several students told the ABC their living allowances, worth $1500 per month, and tuition fees, were sometimes paid late, meaning they could not enrol in university courses and struggled to pay rent.
Kora said late payments held back her academic progression.
West Papuan students hope to gain new skills by studying in Australia and New Zealand.Image: ABC Pacific Beat
Her aviation degree takes approximately four semesters to complete, but Kora said there were certain aspects of her training that she could not do because of unpaid fees.
The ABC has seen invoices from her aviation school, Hartwig Air, that were due in 2018 but were not paid until two years later.
Fees for her current semester, worth $24,500, were paid more than three months late, in October last year.
Kora said there were moments when she felt like giving up.
‘What’s the point?’
“What’s the point of even studying if these things are delaying my studies?” she said.
Kora believes she may have been able to graduate sooner if her fees had been paid on time.
Hartwig Air would not comment on her situation.
But an academic report issued by the school in February this year said Kora was “progressing well with her flying” and getting good results on most of her exams.
Kora said it did not make sense to send her home now because her fees for the current semester had already been paid.
“It’s a waste of investment,” she said.
“If we’re not bringing any qualifications back home, it’s a shame not just for us, but also for the government in a way.”
Students turn to food banks, churches In the United States, Daniel Game has faced similar struggles.
He was awarded a Papuan government scholarship in 2017.
Game said he was told the scholarship would last five years but did not receive a formal offer letter or contract at the time.
After completing a general science degree, he was accepted into Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Oregon, to begin studying aeronautical science in 2019.
It is a prestigious institution and he was proud to get in.
But, when it came time to enrol, he couldn’t because the government did not issue a sponsorship letter to guarantee his funding.
Game sent multiple emails and made calls to the government’s human resources department requesting the document.
The letter never came
He said he was told the letter would be issued, but that never happened.
During this time, Game continued to receive a living allowance from the Papuan government and was told his scholarship was still valid.
In 2020, Game paid for his own flight back to West Papua in the middle of the pandemic to try to resolve the issue in person.
When he visited the department office, his sponsorship letter was issued immediately.
The ordeal set Game’s studies back more than 18 months.
Papuan student Daniel Game in the United States is fulfilling his dream of flying, despite setbacks over his scholarship. Image: ABC Pacific Beat
His sponsorship letter, seen by the ABC, guarantees his funding until July 2023 but now he’s also been told to return home.
“Most of us, we spend our time and energy and work really hard … it’s not fair,” Game said.
Staying in the US
With just a few months until he’s due to graduate, Game has decided to stay in the US.
His family are funding his university tuition, but without a living allowance, Game said he was struggling to make ends meet.
“It’s really hard, especially being in the US,” he said.
“For food, I usually go out searching local churches and food pantries where I’ll be able to get free stuff.”
‘It doesn’t make sense’
Back in Australia, students are also in financial strife.
Kora has started picking fruit and vegetables on local farms to make ends meet since her living allowance was cut off in November last year.
Tried to find part-time jobs
“We tried to find part-time jobs here and there to just cover us for our rent,” she said.
She and other students are hoping to stay in Australia and finish their degrees.
From a low-income family, Kora cannot rely on her parents, so she is calling on Australian universities and the federal government for support.
“I just want to make my family proud back home to know that actually, someone like me, can be something,” she said.
The Australian West Papua Association of South Australia has launched a fundraising campaign to pay some students’ university fees and rent.
Kylie Agnew, a psychologist and association member, said she was concerned for their wellbeing.
“Not being able to finish your studies, returning to a place with very low job prospects … there’s a lot of stress that the students are under,” she said.
Perplexing decision
Jim Elmslie is co-convenor of the West Papua Project at the University of Wollongong, which advocates for peace and justice in West Papua.
He said the decision to send students home so close to finishing their degrees was perplexing.
“After having expended probably in excess of $100,000, or maybe considerably more, in paying multiple years’ university fees and living allowances … it doesn’t make sense,” Dr Elmslie said.
In a text message to one student in Australia, an Indonesian Embassy official said the students could seek alternative funding for their studies, but they were “no longer the responsibility” of the Papuan provincial government.
The text message also said the students would receive help to transfer to relevant degrees at universities in Indonesia when they returned home.
But Dr Elmslie said the alternatives were not ideal.
“If you start a degree course in Australia, to me, it’s much better … to finish that degree course,” he said.
“And then you have a substantial academic qualification.”
President of the Council of International Students Australia Oscar Ong said the situation was highly unusual.
He said that, while some international students weren’t able to graduate within the duration of their scholarship, for so many to be recalled at once was unprecedented.
Legislative change and redistribution of funding The Papuan provincial government did not respond to the ABC’s detailed questions about the scholarship program.
Local media reports suggest the issue may be linked to a redistribution of funding.
The scholarship programme was set up by the Papuan provincial government, with money from the Indonesian central government under a Special Autonomy Law.
Passed in 2001, the bill granted special autonomy to the West Papua region, following a violent and decades-long fight for independence.
The old law expired in November and new legislation was passed, with an overall boost in finance to the region but with certain funds, including support for education, going towards districts and cities instead of provincial governments.
That revised law has sparked protests in West Papua, with critics claiming it is an extension of colonial rule that denies Indigenous peoples’ rights to self-determination.
An Interior Ministry official from the Indonesian government is quoted in local media as saying there needed to be a joint conversation between the Papuan provincial government and the region’s districts and cities about the future of scholarship funding.
The ABC has been unable to independently verify whether the students’ scholarship terminations are linked to this legislative change.
Additional reporting for Pacific Beat by Hellena Souisa and Erwin Renaldi. Republished with permission.
Independence leader and Nobel laureate José Ramos-Horta has declared victory in Timor-Leste’s presidential election, saying he had secured “overwhelming” support and would now work to foster dialogue and unity.
Data from the country’s election administration body (STAE) with all votes counted showed Ramos-Horta secured a decisive 62 percent win in Tuesday’s ballot, well ahead of his opponent, incumbent President Francisco “Lu Olo” Guterres with 37 percent.
“I have received this mandate from our people, from the nation in an overwhelming demonstration of our people’s commitment to democracy,” Ramos-Horta told reporters in Dili.
The 72-year-old statesman is one of Timor-Leste’s best known political figures and was previously president from 2007-12, and prime minister and foreign minister before that.
Addressing concerns over political instability in the country, Ramos-Horta said he would work to heal divisions in Timor-Leste.
“I will do what I have always done throughout my life… I will always pursue dialogue, patiently, relentlessly, to find common ground to find solutions to the challenges this country faces,” he said.
Ramos-Horta said he had not spoken to his election rival Lu Olo, but had received an invitation from the President’s Office to discuss a handover of power.
Political instability, oil dependency
Home to 1.3 million people, the half-island and predominately Roman Catholic nation of Timor-Leste has for years grappled with bouts of political instability and the challenge of diversifying its economy, which is largely dependent on oil and gas.
Ramos-Horta said he expected Timor-Leste to become the 11th member of the regional bloc the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) “within this year or next year at the latest”.
Timor-Leste currently holds observer status in ASEAN.
The president-elect, who will be inaugurated on May 20, the 20th anniversary of the country’s restoration of independence, said he would work with the government to respond to global economic pressures, including the impact on supply chains from the war in Ukraine and covid-19 lockdowns in China.
“Of course, we start feeling it here in Timor Leste. Oil prices went up, rice went up, that is a reality of what has happened in the world. It requires wise leadership.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
The Pacific Elders’ Voice has expressed deep concern about reports of deteriorating human rights in West Papua and has appealed to Indonesia to allow the proposed UN high commissioner’s visit there before the Bali G20 meeting in November.
A statement from the PEV says the reports suggest an “increased number of extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances and the internal displacement of Melanesian Papuans”.
The Pacific Elders said that they recalled the Pacific Island Forum Leaders’ Communique made in Tuvalu in 2019 which welcomed an invitation by Indonesia for a mission to West Papua by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
“The communique strongly encouraged both sides to finalise the timing of the visit and for an evidence-based, informed report on the situation be provided before next Pacific Island Forum Leaders meeting in 2020,” the statement said.
“Despite such undertaking, we understand that the Indonesian government has not allowed UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit West Papua.
“We find this unacceptable and believe that such behaviour can only exacerbate the tensions in the region.”
The Pacific Elders said Indonesia must “take responsibility for its actions and abuses and make amends for the harm” caused to the Indigenous people of West Papua.
The statement said the elders urgently called for the Indonesian government to allow the UN High Commission for Human Rights to visit West Papua and to prepare a report for the Human Rights Council.
“We call on all members of the Human Rights Council to pass a resolution condemning the current human rights abuses in West Papua,” the statement said.
“We further call on the Human Rights Council to clearly identify the human rights abuses in Indonesia’s Universal Periodic Review and to identify clear steps to rectify the abuses that are taking place.
“We further note that the next G20 Heads of State and Government Summit will take place [on November 15-16] in Bali. We call on all G20 member countries to ensure that a visit by the UN High Commission for Human Rights is allowed to take place before this meeting and that the HCHR is able to prepare a report on her findings for consideration by the G20.
“We believe that no G20 Head of State and Government should attend the meeting without a clear understanding of the human rights situation in West Papua” .
Pacific Elders’ Voice is an independent alliance of Pacific elders whose purpose is to draw on their collective experience and wisdom to provide thought leadership, perspectives, and guidance that strengthens Pacific resilience.
They include former Marshall islands president Hilde Heine, former Palau president Tommy Remengesau, former Kiribati president Anote Tong, former Tuvalu prime minister Enele Sopoaga, former Pacific Island Forum Secretariat secretary-general Dame Meg Taylor, former Guam University president Robert Underwood, former Fiji ambassador Kaliopate Tavola, and former University of the South Pacific professor Konai Helu Thaman.
‘State terrorism’ over special autonomy
Meanwhile, United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP) interim president Benny Wenda has detailed “disturbing reports” of increased militarisation and state terrorism in a recent statement about the region.
“Our people have been taking to the streets to show their rejection of Indonesia’s plan to divide us further by the creation of 7 provinces and to demonstrate against the imposition of ‘special autonomy’,” Wenda said.
“Peaceful protestors in Nabire and Jayapura have been met with increasing brutality, with water cannons and tear gas used against them and fully armed police firing indiscriminately at protesters and civilians alike.
“This is state terrorism. Indonesia is trying to use their full military might to impose their will onto West Papuans, to force acceptance of ‘special autonomy’.
The pattern of increased militarisation and state repression over the past few years had been clear, with an alarming escalation in violence, said Wenda.
Last month two protesters were shot dead in Yahukimo Regency for peacefully demonstrating against the expansion of provinces.
“History is repeating itself and we are witnessing a second Act of No Choice. West Papuans are being forced to relive this trauma on a daily basis,” said Wenda.
“The same methods of oppression were used in 1969, with thousands of troops harassing, intimidating and killing any West Papuans who spoke out for independence.”
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.
Where China is growing its unmanned aerial vehicle fleet, nations across Asia Pacific are finding budgets too for these more strategic assets. Military forces are rapidly adopting larger and more capable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as they modernise their force structures to better deal with ever more capable adversaries. While many of these forces have […]
West Papuan students stranded in Aotearoa New Zealand by an abrupt cancellation of their Indonesian government scholarships earlier this year while trying to complete their degrees and diplomas can breathe mire easily with the latest news.
It is understood they have been told by Immigration New Zealand that they will not be deported while New Zealand is considering their plight.
After weeks of advocacy by Green MPs, an immigration team will now be formed to assess the future needs of the students.
“The Green Party has been calling on the government to do its part to support the indigenous communities of West Papua and we’re pleased that action is being taken,” said Teanau Tuiono, Green Party spokesperson for Pacific Peoples.
Tuiono — along with Papuan student spokesperson Laurens Ikinia, Professor David Robie, editor of Asia Pacific Report, and opposition National Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad, a former academic at the University of the South Pacific — addressed a seminar about the issue at the Whānau Community Hub in Auckland yesterday.
Ikinia welcomed the news that none of the Papuan students would be deported and praised the community support that they were receiving in New Zealand.
“Dozens of West Papuan students are facing hardship and the prospect of not being able to finish their studies due to the cancellation of their scholarship by the Indonesian government,’ Tuiono said in a statement.
Green Party posting about the Papuan students on Te Mātāwaka today. Image: APR screenshot
Requested urgent action
“We wrote to [Immigration Minister Kris] Faafoi asking him to act urgently to issue new visas for the students of West Papua.
“We are pleased that government agencies are taking action to assess the needs of the West Papuan students and ideally grant them renewed visas for them to remain in Aotearoa.
“West Papuans are indigenous peoples who have been occupied by Indonesia. As a Pacific nation and signatory of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples we have a responsibility to support West Papuans and their struggle for self-determination.
“Supporting students to come to Aotearoa to study and to stay is a tangible way we can do our part to support the people of West Papua,” Tuiono said.
Dr Robie published an open letter in Asia Pacific Report yesterday appealing for help from the minister for the 34 students in New Zealand, ranging from masters degree and diploma students to one high school student.
“They must finish their studies here in New Zealand because returning home to a low wage economy, high unemployment, the ravages of the covid-19 pandemic, and an insurgency war for independence will ruin their education prospects,” he said.
“Papuan students studying in Australia and New Zealand face tough and stressful challenges apart from the language barrier.”
The open letter added:
“Minister Faafoi, surely New Zealand can open its arms and embrace the Papuan students, offering them humanitarian assistance, first through extended visas, and second helping out with their financial plight.”
Alarming human rights abuses
Ricardo Menéndez March, Green Party spokesperson for immigration said:
“The ongoing alarming reports of human rights abuses in West Papua, mean the students could have been forced to return to their homelands without the security and tools they need to support their communities”
“The government has shown us that where there is political will we can guarantee certainty and security for temporary visa holders.
“The prompt issuing of the Ukraine Special Visa and the renewal of up to 19,500 working holiday visas demonstrate there are levers the Minister of Immigration can pull to guarantee a safe pathway to remain in Aotearoa for students from West Papua.
“We are calling on the government to guarantee replacement visas for the West Papuan students and to explore setting up a scholarship fund to do our part supporting indigenous peoples in the Pacific,” said Menéndez March.
Papuan students in Auckland sort donated food for their colleagues stranded in New Zealand while completing their studies. Image: IAPSAO
It is unconscionable. A bewildering and grossly unfair crisis for 34 young Papuan students – 25 male and 9 female – the hope for the future of the West Papua region, the Melanesian half of Papua New Guinea island ruled by Indonesia.
They were part of a cohort of 93 Papuan students studying in Aotearoa New Zealand on local provincial autonomy government scholarships, preparing for their careers, and learning or improving their English along the way. They were also making Pacific friendships and contacts.
They were fast becoming a “bridge” to New Zealand. Ambassadors for their people.
And then it all changed. Suddenly through no fault of their own, 41 of them were told out of the blue their scholarships were being cancelled and they had to return home.
Their funds were cut with no warning. Many of them had accommodation bills to pay, university fees to cover and other student survival debts.
They were abandoned by their own government, some of them being close to completing their degrees of diplomas. Appeals to both the provincial governments in Papua and the central government in Jakarta – even to President Joko Widodo — were ignored.
Yes, it is unconscionable.
New Zealand help?
Surely New Zealand can respond to this Pacific plea for help?
An interview by Laurens Ikinia with Tagata Pasifika last month. Video: Sunpix
They must finish their studies here in New Zealand because returning home to a low wage economy, high unemployment, the ravages of the covid-19 pandemic, and an insurgency war for independence will ruin their education prospects.
Papuan students studying in Australia and New Zealand face tough and stressful challenges apart from the language barrier. As Yamin Kogoya, a Brisbane-based West Papuan commentator, says from first-hand experience:
“Papuan students abroad face many difficulties, including culture shock and adjustments, along with anxiety due to the deaths of their family members back in West Papua, which take a toll on their study.
“As well as inconsistencies and delays in Jakarta’s handling of funds, corruption, harassment, and intimidation also contribute to this crisis.”
At present, out of 17 students currently studying at the Universal College of Learning (UCOL) in Palmerston North, only 10 are able to attend classes. Seven students cannot attend because of their visa status and tuition fees which have not been paid.
Five students at AUT
At Auckland University of Technology, out of five students studying there, one is doing a masters degree, four are studying for diplomas and one is not enrolled because the government has not paid tuition fees.
Out of the 41 recalled students, the visas for some of them have already expired while others are expiring this month.
Of the 34 students still in New Zealand and determined to complete their studies, the breakdown is understood to be as follows:
UCOL Palmerston North – 15
Institute of the Pacific United (IPU) New Zealand – 6
AUT University – 4
Ardmore Flying School – 2
Waikato University – 2
Canterbury University – 1
Massey University – 1
Unitec – 1
Victoria University – 1
Awatapu College – 1
Papuan students in Auckland sort donated food for their colleagues stranded in New Zealand while completing their studies. Image: IAPSAO
The students have rallied and are working hard to try to rescue their situation as they are optimistic about completing their studies. The Green Party has taken up advocacy on their behalf.
The Papuans are communicating with the NZ International Students Association, NZ Students Union and NZ Pasifika Students.
Community groups such as the Whānau Hub in Mt Roskill, Auckland, have assisted with food and living funds. A givealittle page has been set up for relief and has raised more than $6500 so far.
But far more is needed, and an urgent extension of their student visas is a must.
Papuan Governor Lukas Enembe (centre in purple shirt) talks with students in Jayapura. Image: Jubi
‘Grateful for support’
“We’re so grateful to all Kiwis across the country for their generous support for us at our time of desperate need,” says communication coordinator Laurens Ikinia of the International Alliance of Papuan Students Associations Overseas (IAPSAO) and who is a postgraduate student at AUT.
“We’re also grateful to all the tertiary institutions and universities for understanding the plight of the West Papuan students.”
Papuan students are speaking today on the issue at a Pacific “media lunch” in a double billing along with Fiji’s opposition National Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad at the Whānau Community Centre in Auckland’s Mt Roskill.
Today’s “media lunch” featuring the forthcoming Fiji general election and the West Papuan students. Image: Whānau Community Hub
Just last Monday, many worried parents and families of students affected by this sudden change of scholarship policy gathered to meet Papua Governor Lukas Enembe in Jayapura to plead their case.
Hopefully, Indonesian Ambassador Fientje Maritje Suebu, ironically also a Papuan, will read this appeal too. The situation is an embarrassment for Indonesia at a time when the republic is trying to foster a better image with our Pacific neighbours.
Minister Faafoi, surely New Zealand can open its arms and embrace the Papuan students, offering them humanitarian assistance, first through extended visas, and second helping out with their financial plight.
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.
The first of three articles on this major recurring exhibition by the author.
At the 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT10) in Brisbane, the high-ceilinged, brutalist, echoing white walls of the Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) have transformed into spaces for play. Across two sites, 150 artists from 30 countries have joined together to probe the issues of the present, and of the futures yet to come.
One such artist is the Kuala Lumpur-based Chong Kim Chiew, whose series of painted maps on tarpaulin, Boundary fluidity (2014–), hangs across and up the expansive walls of the ground-floor long gallery at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA). Blue, black and white patterns and lines bring a harmony to the series—the colours of cartography. Looking closer, however, the artist has cut up, blacked out and rearranged place names and geography into imaginary sites.
Chong Kim Chiew, Boundary fluidity [multiple works] (2014–). Synthetic polymer paint on tarpaulin. Dimensions variable.
Throughout his practice, Chong emphasises ideas of mischief and attitude; in Boundary Fluidity, he uses the language of the map to subvert understandings of space, place and borders. And, as you walk past the installation into the Triennial’s gallery rooms, Chong’s series of map-paintings serve as an important reminder of the fluidity of borders and our place in the world, and of the need to look and connect across geopolitical divides.
The themes explored in Chong’s series of maps resonate in many artworks at the Triennial. With a curatorial rationale centred on ‘the future of art and the world we inhabit together’, there is an emphasis on the importance of interconnectedness. Although some artworks on display – such as Boundary Fluidity – were made prior to the onset of pandemic restrictions, the experiences of isolation and loss we have all felt over the last two years provide additional ways of reading and elucidating meaning from art. But to look at the art in APT10 solely through the prisms of pandemic life—as some commentators have done in their own analyses of the Triennial—is to miss some other important motivations that have informed the stories behind key works of art, and the meanings we uncover within them.
Across the Triennial, there is a clear emphasis on ideas of journeys, lines, histories, connections and storytelling between one place and another. In many instances, these perspectives are explored through experimental forms and mediums to communicate such ideas; emphasising expressions of curiosity and cosmopolitan thought, and an inquisitiveness that looks out from home to the world beyond.
Blue-and-white
In an alcove at the Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) is a mixed-media installation with ceramics, the space arranged as a shrine. Under the bright radiance of spotlights, royal blue velvet shimmers and the large, gold-and-white ceramic deities placed within the shrine glow. Shrine of Life (2021) is by the Bangkok-born, Melbourne-based artist, Vipoo Srivilasa. To produce Shrine of Life, Srivilasa brought together ideas and visual forms from many different sources: including the culture and stories of Thailand and his Buddhist faith, influences from Australian art, and his connections to the LGBTIQ community.
Vipoo Srivilasa, Shrine of Life (2021). Mixed media installation with five ceramic deities. Dimensions variable.
In the palette of blue, gold and white, there is a nod to Lai Krarm—Thai domestic tableware—a recurring motif in the artist’s work. But the artist acknowledges too a direct reference in blue-and-white to the ostentatious, celebrated form of Chinese porcelain that also uses this palette: a ceramic technique that originated in the early 14th Century, during the Yuan dynasty. These valuable goods were so admired that they were later traded along the Silk Roads to the Middle East, and were—later still—exported to Europe in the Early Modern period for specific, interested, ruling-class markets of Chinese export porcelain.
Through the status of export porcelain as a sought-after treasure and commodity in Europe in the early-modern period, it is difficult to escape uncomfortable associations with ideas of expansionism and the “exotic”, ideas which Srivilasa probes within his broader practice and in other works of art. But here, Srivilasa uses the metaphor of border-crossing blue-and-white to explore ideas of cross-cultural connections from East to West, and his own travels from Thailand to Australia. In an article for Garland Magazine, Srivilasa commented that “nowadays … I find it hard to tell which culture is which in my work”; speaking to ideas of hybridity.
Srivilasa’s practice meshes sacred and secular ideals, with the five contemporary deities representing love equality, spirituality, security, identity, and creativity—qualities that are of special significance to the artist. He invites viewers to make an “offering” to the deities in the form of a paper flower, invoking participatory elements. In doing so, the artist creates a space for reflection on ideas of devotion, and on the journeys-through-life all of us have embarked upon. In this way, the language and metaphor of blue-and-white is apt to explore themes of personal travel and movement, and also to articulate and convey ideas of not only being in the world, but belonging within it too.
Sound
Back at GOMA, Bandung-based artist Bagus Pandega’s artwork is making some noise—literally. On the third floor at the River Lounge is an immersive sound artwork that brings together lighting, sound, tea plants, kinetic and machine elements to create a complex mixed-media installation. A Diasporic Mythology (2021) uses sound to explore historical roots, routes and exchanges between Indonesia and Japan, drawing on connections through music as a point of inspiration and departure.
Bagus Pandega, A Diasporic Mythology (2021), Mixed media installation; with string instruments (Taishogoto, Mandaliong, Balinese Penting, Kecapi Sijobang, Lombok Penting), tea plants, LED screens, motors, solenoids, MIDI Sprout, custom electronic and mechanical systems, glass jar, vinyl paper, custom 3D-printed parts, steel, teak wood, copper, acrylic, and instrument stand. Dimensions variable.
A Diasporic Mythology stems from the artist’s fascination with a particular form of Japanese koto instrument, which is known as a Taishogoto. These instruments date back to the Taisho period in Japan, from 1912 to 1926. Bagus has searched in Indonesia for instruments similar to and modelled off the form of a Taishogoto, but which are unique to Indonesian locations and cultures. He brings his findings together in this installation; the assemblage of instruments includes a Balinese Penting, Lombok Penting, Kecapi Sijobang and Mandaliong brought together in dialogue with a Japanese Taishogoto.
Japanese tea plants are placed at the centre of the artwork. Bagus has connected the plants to kinetic and sonic parts of the installation through MIDI sprouts—technology that converts bio-information from plants into data, which in turn is transposed into musical arrangement. These sensors follow musical notations on paper rolls, which triggers a process where technology can work to automate and play sound from the instruments. Then, a cacophony.
The placement of tea plants signifies the long histories and cultural influences that weave between the two nations. These are not always positive markers. In the late 1600s, the first tea seeds were brought to Indonesia from Japan by the German botanist, Andreas Cleyer, who worked for the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Tea plants were brought to Indonesia to serve a decorative function. Later, owing to the growing popularity of this plant as a beverage and in food, more tea plantations would be established in Java as attempts to set up commercial enterprises that rivalled colonial plantations elsewhere in the world. Of course, there is also another point of tension and dark history from modern times that is implicit in this artwork, too: namely, the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies from 1942 to 1945.
Although the tensions in Indonesian and Japanese shared histories are evident in this artwork, there is also an acknowledgement of the many ways that Japanese cultural life has integrated with Indonesian cultural practices and vice versa over the centuries. A Diasporic Mythology makes visible the cultural impacts of this exchange on music and its histories across the archipelago. Through a highly experimental, immersive form of contemporary art, Bagus offers a multisensory environment through which to reflect on the forms and meanings of cross-cultural links, and articulates the history of these connections in a surprising and novel way.
Movement
Five paintings by the Sydney-based and Sidoarjo-born artist, Jumaadi, are also featured at APT10. Using simplified, pared-back materials of cotton cloth and acrylic paint, the emphasis of the artwork stays unwaveringly on the shimmering qualities of warmth and storytelling that are characteristic of his artworks. Across his practice, Jumaadi has worked with mediums such as painting, puppetry, music and poetry in order to offer visual stories that emphasise imagination and observation. Through these mediums, he explores such themes as migration, family, connection and the environment, bringing together Javanese and Australian influences and materials to do so.
For over a decade, Jumaadi has collaborated with artisans from the Kamasan villiage in eastern Bali, home to the traditional forms of Kamasan painting. This is a style of painting for illustrating religious teachings and also for ceremonies, and derives from painting styles of the Hindu-Buddhist kingdom of Majapahit in East Java. Jumaadi has ancestral connections to Majapahit and has found the experience of working at Kamasan a way to connect to these traditions. For APT10, Jumaadi has painted on Kamasan cloth, blending these age-old ways-of-working with contemporary painting techniques and subject matter. It is in the final painting of the series, Flying artist (2021), that ideas of storytelling, connection, movement and make-believe take flight.
Jumaadi, Flying artist (2021), Synthetic polymer paint on cotton Kamasan cloth, primed with rice paste. 308 x 386 cm.
In the centre, the horizon; beneath, the sun-drenched waves. Clear, bright, rippling across the picture surface in lines and breaks. Islands dot the water; untouched, volcanic, and the use of motifs such as trees, leaves and blood vessels represent “the beauty of time and geographic location”. Above, amongst the stars, the artist carries an aeroplane on his back, moving and gliding across the sky.
Flying artist uses the ideas and visual language of dreams, a constant theme and pattern within Jumaadi’s practice. In this composition, there is a reference to the early blueprint for a flying machine, dreamed up by the Renaissance artist, Leonardo da Vinci. As the flight path keeps moving and the islands drift below, the artist stares straight ahead in solitude, focused and steering with unwavering attention.
Although Jumaadi intends the references to da Vinci and ideas of loneliness in this work to be a critique of the “artist-as-hero” trope, there is too a feeling of community and transit that also shines through within this painting. In these ways, Flying artist presents an opportunity to reflect on the many ways that art, invention and travel have shaped our worlds and communities, and the creative influences and movements that underpin them.
The works of art at APT10 provide us with the time and space to contemplate the links between here and elsewhere—between Australia and Southeast Asia, and Southeast Asia and the world. In exploring and articulating ideas of beyond-ness, APT10 forces us to look past the categories of nation or ethnicity to embrace perspectives in life that are centred on multiplicity and hybridity, on community and friendship. Jumaadi and Vipoo Srivilasa express these ideas through a fusion of contemporary art practice, traditional ways-of-working, and ideas of personal travel and storytelling. Bagus Pandega’s sonic installation draws on experimental art forms to convey deeper understandings of migration, movement, and cross-cultural connections. Meanwhile, in Boundary Fluidity, Chong Kim Chiew unmaps, disorganises, and redraws the world; in the process, playing with the concepts and visual forms of lines, text and borders. In each of these artworks, the viewpoints put forward by the artists voice visions for the future that embrace new ways of thinking about relations to places, people, and communities.
APT10 is showing at the Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art until the 24th of April. All images are provided by New Mandala.
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
The Post-Courier newspaper today compared Papua New Guinean Prime Minister James Marape to the infamous emperor Nero who fiddled while Rome burned over his controversial one-day Indonesian visit while facing an election in June.
“The frivolities of life abounded in his rule and perhaps, in his greatest haste, when his Rome roared into flames, the adage, ‘Nero fiddles while Rome burns’ has stuck to this day to depict his indifference to the suffering of his people.”
Often used in a critical way, the paper said, the phrase had been applied colloquially to a leader who was “simply irresponsible in the face of responsibility”.
The Post-Courier said there were many examples of this in Papua New Guinea, “none more morbid and clarified as the disappearing act of our Prime Minister James Marape yesterday”.
The newspaper was criticising Marape for taking an entourage of 71 musicians on a sightseeing tour of Jakarta across the border while his “restive electorate of Tari, significant to Papua New Guinea for its oil and gas fields, sparked and is still burning today”.
Pai police barracks torched, 1 dead One police reservist was reported dead and three houses were torched in an attack by gunmen on the Pai Police Barracks in Tari.
“How irresponsible is that? How can a Prime Minister ignore his own scorching electorate and simply fiddle his way on an overseas trip in the face of a tough upcoming national election?” the Post-Courier asked.
“His political opponents must be fiddling in glee at the very thought of political suicide.
“But the notion of our PM ignoring a serious matter such as Tuesday’s killings and injuring of policemen in his home town of Tari by angry armed locals, and the torching of a police barracks and a settlement, is tantamount to sacrilege of the code of leadership.
“Electing instead to go on a trip is akin to the ancient testament of Nero.
“Simply foolish pride and deserting one’s responsibilities in a time of grave danger is unforgivable.”
The problem with PNG leaders was that only a handful knew and practised their responsibilities with “faithful commitment”.
Marape criticises Post-Courier
Marape retorted with a statement carried by the Sunday Bulletin Facebook page denying that he had “run away from electoral duties”. He criticised the paper for stooping “low” and comparing the “once respected” Post-Courier unflatteringly with past versions.
The prime minister said the Indonesian visit had been long planned and the violence in his Tari-Pori electorate the night before the state visit was coincidental.
“The Post-Courier of today is nowhere like in the past where it had respected editors like Luke Sela, Oseah Philemon and the likes, and equally distinguished reporters,” Marape said.
“The people of PNG yearn for the once-great newspaper of old.
“I do not dictate [to] the newspapers, nor give inducements to reporters and editors, like my predecessor [as prime minister] Peter O’Neill was known for.” I did not run away from responsibilities, far from it.
“Police, and other agencies of government, have been tasked to handle Tari-Pori and other national issues.
“Tari is not burning, as [the] Post-Courier claims.
“Three police houses were torched due to a tribal conflict that had police caught in the crossfire.
“I may be MP for Tari-Pori, but I am Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, I have a country to run.”
Amidst the grapple with the COVID-19 recovery, President Joko Widodo’s ambitious $32 billion mega project to relocate the national capital continues.
This mega project is one of a variety of ambitious developments planned in the second term of President Jokowi’s administration. His “Indonesia Maju” Vision has spurred many development projects to stimulate economic growth.
This “new developmentalism” is widely adopted by emerging and developing countries to expedite economic progress. Eve Warburton argues that this “new developmentalism” is entrenched in Jokowi’s developmental agendas, revealed in the advent of “activist state” in present governance practices. In practice, an activist state will beget “developmentalism governance” that intervenes the market, policymakers, and other state’s key players to expedite the developmental agendas.
However, political constraints will inevitably impede the implementation of any developmental agendas. The challenge for the state is to integrate the interests among political actors, policymakers, and civil unrest to evade the socio-political fragmentation during implementation. President Jokowi is coping with this situation through two main actions.
First, he integrated various political interests in parliament, backed by his coalition that has already controlled 471 of the 575 seats in the Indonesian parliament. With almost no opposition the majority coalition successfully spawned the fastest bill ever to pass the Indonesian parliament. Second, he appointed the Chief of the National Capital Authority (Kepala Badan Otorita Negara) with full discretionary rights. According to Article 9 (1) of Law No. 3/2022 (download here), the Chief of the Capital Authority will be selected, inaugurated, and dismissed by the president after consultation with the People’s Representative Council (DPR).
The former denotes President Jokowi’s prowess in consolidating political power. The latter has raised a potential threat to constitutional democracy in the future, notably at the regional level of governance.
On the one hand, minimising political competition may help mitigate political tension between parties who are in contention for the seat at the Authority and for the people to reduce horizontal conflicts. On the other hand, this moves against the basic principles of constitutional democracy, eliminating the people’s political rights to elect their leaders at the local level and to participate in the government.
The new legislation does not allow the direct election of the Chief of the Authority by the people, unlike any other region in Indonesia and in apparent contradiction with Article 18 (4) of the 1945 Constitution, which mandates that every regional leader be democratically elected. No constitutional provision states otherwise or gives leeway in the form of open legal policy regarding the democratic election of the leaders.
Of course, political constraints can hinder the developmentalism and stability that Jokowi’s regime has targeted since the beginning of this relocation, but achieving that objective should not mean eliminating political freedom at the local level. Political freedom is a guaranteed basic right in the constitution, as a manifestation of the people’s sovereignty over the state. Therefore, the right to vote as means to participate in governance and assert dominance over political groups should be protected.
If the central government insists on implementing this model of Authority in the capital, every regional decision in the city will be centralised without the political participation of local residents. This phenomenon is an example of what Tom Ginsburg and Azis Huq called “constitutional retrogression”: a slow decline to a flawed democracy by using constitutional measures to fulfil political agendas, although the substance is against the constitution. Jokowi’s means for achieving stability in the end result in authoritarianism.
Should the government continue with the implementation of the Capital Authority as stipulated in Law No. 3/2022, the people will have no forum to participate in the local government. Normally, every region in Indonesia has its own Regional Representative Council (DPRD) as a forum to represent the residents in the region, to hold the executive accountable to their residents, and to exercise checks and balances at the local level.
Without the council the central government will have exclusive control, the effectiveness of which would be questionable if the Chief comes from the government’s inner circle and reflects a possible patron-client relationship. Without agency or voice for the regions constituents, their aspirations will be less likely to be heard, to influence the policies. Further their rights are more vulnerable to violation in the name of ‘maintaining order.’
The government should at least consider the regional government model of the Special Region of Yogyakarta, There, although the positions of Governor and Vice Governor are not democratically elected—instead being inherited by the Sultan and “Paku Alam” respectively—room for regional democracy remains through the retention of the democratically elected DPRD as a channel for constituent aspirations.
President Joko Widodo and the central government are looking for a shortcut to enable their vision of new developmentalism in the new capital city. Though the Capital Authority acts as a “fast track” for the goal, they have to bear in mind the cost for constitutional democracy at the local level in the future. It is never too late to rethink the model, to create room for the people to engage in governance, to protect basic rights protection. Creating stability is one thing and respecting people’s sovereignty is another.
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.
Time is running out for a group of West Papuan students in New Zealand whose scholarships were cut — out of the blue — by the Indonesian government
The sudden removal of government funding for the Papuan students has left many of them in financial dire straits on visas that are running out.
Forty two students learned of the termination of their scholarships at the beginning of this year. With deadlines approaching they have appealed to both the Indonesian government and MPs in New Zealand to see if they can fix their dashed hopes of a completed education.
Green Party MPs Ricardo Menendez March, Golriz Ghahraman and Teanau Tuiono penned a letter to Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta requesting government to support for the students before they are deported.
They are calling for a scholarship fund to support the impacted students, a residency pathway for West Papuan students whose welfare has been affected, and an assurance that the students will have access to safe housing in affordable accommodation.
But according to Menendez March, the most urgent issue is the students’ visas — he is calling on the government to extend them due to special circumstances, such as those for Ukrainian nationals.
“What the situation in Ukraine taught us is that when there is political will, our immigration system can move relatively fast to provide solutions for people who are facing uncertainty,” he said. “The special visa that was created to support Ukrainian families show we could have an intervention to support these students.”
Quick move for Ukraine
Immigration moved quickly to ensure Ukrainians with family in New Zealand had an easier avenue to a two-year work visa as a part of the humanitarian support developed in response to the refugee crisis.
“Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi said last week when the details were unveiled: ‘This is the largest special visa category we have established in decades to support an international humanitarian effort and, alongside the additional $4 million in humanitarian funding also announced today, it adds to a number of measures we’ve already implemented to respond to the worsening situation in Ukraine.’”
West Papuan masters student Laurens Ikinia … “It is really heartbreaking for us as the central government of Indonesia and the provincial government have not given any positive responses.” Image: MTS screenshot APR
The Ukraine policy is expected to benefit around 4000 people, with Immigration streamlining processes to make sure they are supported sooner rather than later.
With just 42 West Papuan students now in this visa crisis, Menendez March said it would be easy enough for the Government to create a special category.
And more than that, it would be an opportunity for New Zealand to stand up for a Pacific neighbour.
“As a Pacific nation we do have a responsibility to support West Papuans,” he said. “I think this is a small but really tangible way that we could supporting the West Papuan community.”
For some of the students, returning home isn’t just a matter of giving up on whatever ambitions lay past graduation day – but also a safety risk.
Openly communicated
“The students have openly communicated in the past some of them may not necessarily face safe living conditions back at home,” Menendez March said, who met with the students last week along with Greens spokesperson for Pacific people Teanau Tuiono to discuss possible solutions.
Tuiono said there were multiple reasons why the New Zealand government should step in and offer support to the students.
“First, there’s the consistency thing — if we’re going to do this for people from the Ukraine, why not for West Papuans,” he said. “Also, we are part of the Pacific and we have signed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.”
The declaration, first adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2007, establishes a framework of minimum standards for the survival, dignity and well-being of the indigenous peoples of the world.
“West Papuans are indigenous peoples who have been occupied by Indonesia, so there’s that recognition of a responsibility on an international level that we have signed up to,” Tuiono said.
The letter signed by the Green MPs was sent to Mahuta at the beginning of this month, but they say there has been no meaningful response. Meanwhile, some of the students are potentially just a matter of weeks away from deportation.
The decision to rescind the scholarship funds came as a shock to West Papuan students in New Zealand like Laurens Ikinia, who is in the final year of his Master of Communication at AUT. He hopes he will be allowed in the country until his upcoming graduation.
“It is really heartbreaking for us as the central government of Indonesia and the provincial government have not given any positive responses to us,” Ikinia said. “The government still stick to their decision.”
Matthew Scott is a journalist writing for Newsroom on inequality, MIQ and border issues. Republished with permission.
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.
In July 2018, an earthquake struck Lombok island, leaving North Lombok heavily damaged. During that time, I was in touch with a local art collective called Komunitas Pasir Putih, which operated in a badly affected neighbourhood, and they told me that they had initiated a project called Art Quake in response. It included many artistic activities: mini-concerts, movie screenings, and video and drawing workshops.
I was intrigued to explore how Pasir Putih as a community is transforming itself in response to the disaster situation. According to Oka one of Pasir Putih artists, Pasir Putih had not experienced major earthquakes nor about humanitarian reliefs before the 2018 earthquake struck. A year after the earthquake, Pasir Putih’s activities were all in response to the problems in North Lombok in a post-disaster context. I spent four weeks observing the Pasir Putih camp, in the Pemenang district in June 2019. In this article, I will focus on Pasir Putih’s use of art as a medium to raise women’s empowerment in a post-disaster situation, and the personal experience of Martini Supiana, or Ana.
Ana is a performer from West Pemenang village. Before marrying Gazali (director of Pasir Putih), Ana lived with her parents in the Bayan district, a one-hour drive from Pemenang. I mentioned her as “a performer” in this story, but it is a simplification. Ana does many other things in Pasir Putih other than just artistic work. “I am a theatre performer, rudat instructor, farmer, crafter, and play-group teacher.” She spends the first half of the day in school and teaches rudat, a traditional dance that is well known in many different parts of Indonesia, including Bali, West Nusa Tenggara, West Java, and Lampung, in different places afterward. Ana was involved in a lot of rudat rehearsals, preparing several teams to attend a competition when I was in Pasir Putih. Once a week, she also organized a routine class for rudat. Through Ana’s story, we can see rudat as a collective art performance can be moulded into different functions: from trauma healing activities post-earthquake to raising women’s participation in performing arts.
Rudat is adapted from a komidi-rudat theatrical performance, “featuring Arabian and Persian soldiers,” and a male group martial arts from Muslim tradition. In Lombok, rudat transformed into a more secular form, while the Muslim theatrical aspect disappeared from the performance.
Some of Pasir Putih’s artists, including Ana, told me that rudat is strongly related to Dutch and Japanese colonial history in Indonesia. However, Pasir Putih, as an art community in Lombok, has adapted rudat into a more contemporary form, called senam rudat (rudat aerobics). As Ana put it, Pasir Putih tried to “make rudat viral again,” after the earthquake a year before. Gazali, as the director of Pasir Putih, was invited to join a trauma healing project meeting by the Ministry of Education and he suggested rudat to be a collective performance activity for earthquake victims. “My husband suggested it to the forum, and he asked someone from a dance community here to help us in modifying the movements.” Senam rudat became a regular activity in Pemenang from February 2019, and the activity became a part of the Artquake program August 2019 and a month after.
To get to know Ana’s perspectives and experiences of senam rudat as a woman artist, I joined her in some senam rudat exercises and one competition. I found out that senam rudat as a contemporary performance contributes to the reproduction of gendered social relations. The first time I tried to get involved with senam rudat was on my second day in the Pasir Putih community, and I learned that most of the participants are women from Pemenang district. Some male Pasir Putih artists encouraged me to join the senam rudat exercise in the evening, but they did not get involved themselves—they just sat around and chatted with each other. Ana was the instructor, standing in front of the group and giving instructions on how the movements should be done.
Later I discovered that senam rudat, or senam in general, is associated with ibu-ibu (middle-aged women). Most of the women are part of Perempuan Pemenang group, a small community for women in West Pemenang village that is also part of Pasir Putih community. Ana is also a leader of Perempuan Pemenang. Jaka, a leader of the dance community in the Pemenang sub-district, is usually acknowledged as the person who shaped rudat into a more contemporary form.
Rudat as a traditional performance is usually performed by male artists. Ana told me that the first time (February 2019) the Pasir Putih community performed rudat at the Bangsal Menggawe festival, held annually by the Pasir Putih Community, the participants were male. Ana invited ibu-ibu in Pemenang to join the performance. “They were shy and hesitant to join the performance at that time in the harbour. I joined the performance and invited them. Knowing that more women were joining the performance, other women in the village also wanted to join.” Ana teaches rudat almost every day of the week because, as she told me when we had lunch together at her house, she taught different groups of women, not only in Pemenang village but also in other parts of North Lombok.
Ana also noticed that women in Pemenang like to do aerobics in their leisure time, and some of them were involved in common aerobic activities from other countries such as zumba. She used this as a chance to introduce an alternative performance from their local culture. For Ana, the most important thing is that rudat becomes popular and women are proud to be in the performance. As she said, “I want that people here can also be proud that they have senam rudat, not only senam dari luar (aerobics from other countries) and teach it to their children. Because who else can do it?”. The adaptation of rudat into its contemporary version, senam rudat, from Ana’s perspective, opens opportunities for women in the village to participate.
This year, Ana and the Pasir Putih community have sought support from the local government to make senam rudat a part of commodified local culture in North Lombok. In one informal conversation with Gazali, he said that the local government always said that they wanted to support senam rudat, but never followed through with concrete actions. When a group of Pemenang villagers performed senam rudat in an aerobics competition at the district level, people, including the local government, started to pay attention.
The local government initiated a senam rudat competition as part of North Lombok dies natalis and Indonesia Independence Day celebrations, in the first and second week of August. Ana is involved in teaching three different groups: a group from the Pemenang village, a local women’s organization on a sub-district level, and a group of local women at the district level. Ana herself was also a part of a group of performers from the Pemenang village. She is happy with this achievement, and she is even tempted to insert senam rudat movements into the march parade for Independence Day.
Ana is not just focused on developing rudat to become more popular, but also advocates on behalf of participating women to Pasir Putih members. For example, when Ana and other artists, including Jaka, tried some experiments for rudat music, some women found it made them unable to focus on the choreography. Ana took this on board and negotiated with Gazali and Jaka to change the music back.
As a female artist who also has many responsibilities in the household as well as her job in the kindergarten, Ana related to women in Pemenang whenever she invited them to join rudat and was faced with challenges or objections. Ana usually said, “Biasalah, ibu-ibusibuk (I understand the situation, they are busy)”, whenever the groups cancelled the exercise schedule or came late. On one hand, senam rudat appears as a very gendered activity since none of the male artists of Pasir Putih participate. On the other, developing rudat into an aerobics form gained the attention of women groups in Pemenang village and encouraged them to participate.
During my four week stay, I noticed that apart from senam rudat, women are invisible in some Pasir Putih activities. Ana is the only female artist and is never included in artists’ meetings unless the meeting is about senam rudat. As the person who carries the responsibility of senam rudat, Ana was to some extent unable to join other activities in Pasir Putih, as she was too busy teaching rudat to different women’s groups. For instance, after I held an informal class (part of the Kelas Wah program) about alternative development, Ana told to me that she had wanted to join. “I wanted to join your discussion, but I had to teach senam rudat at the same time.”
Even though Pasir Putih artists often mentioned that Jaka played a big role in inventing senam rudat, in practice, it was Ana who mobilised women to perform. Not content with doing senam rudat for leisure, Ana and a group of women in the Pemenang sub-district also prepared themselves to join the district-level competition.
Through senam rudat, Ana played a significant role in transforming rudat performance into a more contemporary form. Although it’s form initially functioned as trauma healing after the earthquake, Ana successfully invited more women to participate in senam rudat. From Ana’s perspective, inviting more women to participate in senam rudat is an achievement because rudat in its traditional form was only performed by men. Secondly, she believes that women and mothers have an essential role in preserving culture, because women, she says, “can teach their children how to dance rudat in the future.”
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.
Timor-Leste’s citizens voted for a new president at the weekend, hoping the most competitive election in the history of the Asia-Pacific’s youngest country will end a protracted political impasse, reports France 24.
Voters lined up outside polling stations at the crack of dawn on Saturday to choose between a record 16 candidates led by two revolutionary heroes in incumbent Francisco “Lu-Olo” Guterres and former president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jose Ramos-Horta.
Three days on, the official result is yet to be announced, but appears to be headed for a run-off vote next month with president Ramos-Horta well in the lead, ahead of Guterres, the candidate of the party that led Timor-Leste to independence, Fretilin.
Although Ramos has more than double (46.58 percent) the vote of Guterres, the lead is still short of the needed 50 percent and a second round of voting is expected to be declared for April 19 with the other 14 candidates dropping out.
The winner will take office on May 20, Timor-Leste’s 20th anniversary of the restoration of independence from Indonesia, which invaded and occupied the former Portuguese colony for 24 years.
Following temperature checks and hand sanitisation on election day, voters were ushered to the polling booths where they dabbed their fingers in ink to show they had voted.
Several mothers carrying babies were among those eager to elect a new president.
“I hope the leader that I have voted for can pay more attention to the education, infrastructure and farming sectors. I am very happy that I’ve voted for a candidate based on my consciousness,” 35-year-old Filomena Tavares Maria told AFP news agency outside the polls that opened at 7 am and shut at 3 pm.
Struck by Cyclone Seroja
First hammered by the covid-19 pandemic, Timor-Leste’s economy took another hit last year when Cyclone Seroja struck, killing at least 40 people on its half of the island and transforming communities into wastelands of mud and uprooted trees.
Former Timor-Leste President José Ramos-Horta … “The most important thing for me is to strengthen the stability and build a better economy”.” Image: Lusa
Political tensions between the two largest parties — Guterres’ Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (Fretilin) and the National Congress of the Reconstruction of Timor-Leste (CNRT) — have also risen in the past four years, leading to a political deadlock that has seen the government fail to pass a budget.
Sidalia dos Santos said she hoped the new president could lead an economic recovery.
“I hope the candidate that I voted for can improve our lives, especially in the health and education sector,” the 22-year-old student said.
Outside the polling station, Ramos-Horta said the financial situation would be his main priority: “The most important thing for me is to strengthen the stability and build a better economy”.
President Francisco “Lu Olo” Guterres … “If I am re-elected, I will keep defending the democratic rights of our country.” Image: Presidential Power
Earlier in the week, he said he felt compelled to return to politics because Guterres had “breached the constitution” and overstepped his presidential role.
But Guterres, a 67-year-old former guerilla fighter, said he was confident the elections would bring him a second term.
“I believe I will win this election and people will reconfirm their rights through the election. If I am re-elected, I will keep defending the democratic rights of our country and create sustainable development.”
Since the attacks, arson, and demolition of several churches in Aceh Singkil Regency, Aceh Province, Indonesia (2015), religious freedoms in churches in Aceh Singkil Regency has been disrupted. The settlement’s direction has remained unclear for the past six years, as evidenced by the ambiguous responses of central and regional governments to reconciliation and religious freedom. According to information from field interviews, this problem is further complicated as the role of civil society and ecumenical institutions in advocacy in Aceh Singkil Regency has weakened, including the growing cracks and suspicions among struggling churches at local level. The local government has exploited these problems to weaken the struggle for the right to worship in Aceh Singkil Regency.
According to the records of the Aceh Singkil Peace Forum (Forcidas), there are currently 20 churches whose permits have been denied by the local government, with no resolution in sight. Furthermore, 7 churches continue to worship under tents in unsuitable conditions, particularly for coaching activities for children, who are exposed to hot weather, mosquitoes, and a lack of supporting facilities. This is evident in the field data related to the struggles of churches in Aceh Singkil in advocating for freedom of religion or belief (FORB) in the public sphere. Data is gathered through in-depth interviews with several churches in Aceh Singkil that have been affected by disturbances such as fire-raising, demolition, and obstruction of church buildings, and includes information from the Forcidas and some officials from synods whose congregations are disrupted.
Issues arose after 13 October 2015, when an intolerant crowd set fire to the Church of Huria Kristen Indonesia (HKI) in Gunung Meriah District and attacked the Church of Pak-Pak Dairi (GKPPD) in Simpang Kanan District. This was followed by the demolition of 9 churches by the local government, through the Civil Service Police Unit (Satpol PP), from 19-24 October 2024. Police also supervised the demolition process. The approval for the demolition of the 9 churches was given under pressure, as happened at the Church of GKPPD Sanggaberu (located in the Gunung Meriah sub-district) where the Satpol PP and security forces sought out church administrators to compel them to sign a demolishment agreement. As a result, according to in-depth interview in GKPPD Sanggaberu, some church officials were forced to seek refuge in the forest to escape the pressure.
Looking further back, the events of 13 October 2015 were preceded by the Aceh Singkil Regional Government’s sealing of 20 churches in 2012. Unfortunately, the central and local governments lack the political will to address the various socio-political, cultural, and legal issues surrounding the sealing.
This issue is further complicated by the Aceh Regional Government’s step to issue local regulations (Aceh Qanun No. 4/2016) concerning Guidelines for Maintaining Religious Harmony and Establishment of Places of Worship. This regulation further narrows the space for reconciliation and human rights-based pluralism in Aceh Province, particularly in Aceh Singkil. This is because the Aceh Qanun No. 4/2016 is, according to the 2020 position paper made by joint working team of 3 human right-related organizations (Kontras Aceh, Philosufi institute and LBH Aceh), in violation of the Indonesian government’s ratification of human rights principles, namely the Universal Declaration of Human Rights document, which has been ratified in Law no. 39 of 1999 on Human Rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), ratified in Law no. 12 of 2005, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) which was ratified in Law Number 11 of 2005.
Aceh Qanun No. 4/2016 also violates the Helsinki agreement (2005) which emphasises that human rights principles must be the basis for the formulation of the written law (legal code) in Aceh. In addition, the Helsinki agreement also places matters of freedom of religion (justice and freedom of religion) within the authority of the central government, not local governments. These two points are also reflected in Law No. 11 of 2006 concerning the Government of Aceh (Law No. 11/2006).
Furthermore, Aceh Qanun No. 4/2016 includes inseparable link between territorial claims and political system in Aceh. This is then followed by a process of exclusion of those categorised as outsiders, carried out by both state actors (local governments) and non-state actors (Islamic organizations). This direction can be seen from the pressure applied through Aceh Qanun No. 4/2016 which places the management of religious life within the framework of Islamic law (aqidah or religious creed), stressing ethnic identity and Aceh region as an area claimed exclusively by Acehnese Muslims. Consequently, in practice Aceh Qanun No. 4/2016 does not allow space for the establishment of non-Islamic houses of worship.
Complicating matters further, this implicit prohibition is framed by Islamic law. As a result, questioning the regulation may be interpreted as a violation of Islamic doctrine. In some cases, according to in-depth interview with the Forcidas and officials from the Church of HKI in Gunung Meriah District and the Church of GKPPD Sanggaberu, local community support for church construction was eventually withdrawn due to doctrinal pressure from local Islamic elites, who deemed such support contrary to Islamic law.
Aceh Qanun No. 4/2016 raises the requirement for the number worshippers from 90 people (according to PBM 2006) to 140 people, and as the number of community supporters from 60 people (according to PBM 2006) to 110 people.
The term “house of worship” was replaced with “places of worship”. This is consistent with the argument used by the Aceh Singkil local government and intolerant groups to obstruct church construction, particularly by referring to the 2001 agreement that only permitted one church building (house of worship) and four undung-undung (small place of worship) in Aceh Singkil. In other words, churches do not have permission at all to construct new church buildings to accommodate the growing number of Christians in Aceh Singkil. The agreement, according to in-depth interviews with the Forcidas and the 2016 legal opinion document on Aceh Singkil, is problematic because it was carried out in an opaque and coercive manner for Christian groups.
Aceh Qanun No. 4/2016 also specifies five recommendations that must be met to construct a house of worship, three more than the earlier PBM 2006. One complication in this regard is the requirement to obtain a recommendation from the Imeum Mukim, a traditional and religious leader (imeum) who leads a mukim (residential area). An imeum is in charge of ensuring the implementation of Islamic law and traditional life in the area and may use their social and religious power to complicate, if not obstruct, the legally enshrined right of other religions to worship, particularly the right to own a house of worship.
The actions of local community members who support the establishment of houses of worship for other religions are read by local elites as contrary to Islamic law. Strong social regulation resulting from the overlapping of territorial claims (the entire Aceh region) with ethnoreligious identities in Aceh further disincentives supporters.
Aceh Qanun No. 4/2016 also substitutes the term “local community support” in the PBM 2006 with the term “non-users of places of worship support”, implicitly specifying Muslim support. As a result, even in villages where the majority, or the entire, population is Christian, the construction of churches continues to be difficult, considering support for church construction is considered contrary to Islamic Shari’a (aqidah). Thus, exclusion of church construction also gains doctrinal justification.
Finally, Aceh Qanun No. 4/2016 alters the conditions that require local governments to provide places of worship. In PBM 2006, if 90 people or more require a place of worship, the local government must provide places of worship even without sufficient local community support. Aceh Qanun No. 4/2016 eliminates local governments’ responsibility to provide houses of worship for Christians, raising the level and specificity of support required and exploiting doctrinal justifications which discourage non-user support. Aside from all these issues, the local political landscape in Aceh has harmed Christians’ right to worship. According to the Forcidas, as regional and national elections take place, pressure on Christians in Aceh will increase as local political contestants exploit ethnoreligious sentiments that align with territorial claims. This is one of the concerns of Christians in Aceh as they prepare for the 2024 national election, where the “warming up” has begun.
Another barrier to worship in Aceh Singkil is the poor performance of civil society and the ecumenical network in freedom of religion advocacy at the local level. Forcidas has coordinated various civil society groups to bring the Aceh Singkil issue to the national level, including hearings with representatives from several European countries. Various advocacy documents have also been submitted by the Forcidas to churches via the Indonesian Communion of Churches (CCI/PGI). However, advocacy remains poor and has no clear direction at the local and national levels.
The CCI/PGI has asked the government of Indonesia to carry out its responsibility to protect the community and guarantee religious freedom in Aceh Singkil, including publishing a legal opinion regarding the sealing of houses of worship in Aceh Singkil. Meetings have been held, between the leaders of GKPPD Church with the government and Islamic religious leaders in Aceh Singkil, with the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia (Kemenko Polhukam RI), and in December 2020, the National Human Rights Commission facilitated a meeting between church representatives and local government officials in Aceh.
Unfortunately, the fate of churches in Aceh Singkil is still uncertain, and local government and religious elites continue to exert pressure. Central and local governments are unwilling to build reconciliation and ensure religious freedom in Aceh. Civil society organizations and the CCI/PGI-related ecumenical networks have failed to effectively advocate on behalf of churches. Consequently, there is no mitigation of regulatory, social, cultural, and economic barriers to religious freedom, and the pillars necessary to support pluralism and reduce bottlenecks at the local level are almost non-existent. In conflict areas like Aceh Singkil, we can see how interfaith and the CCI/PGI-related ecumenical networks fail to generate effective ongoing interfaith action or discussion at the grassroots level.
When we examine the CCI/PGI advocacy work over the last five years as detailed in the 2014-2019 PGI report, it appears that there has been no effective advocacy. CCI/PGI advocacy activities only included a PGI letter protesting the caning of non-Muslims and a request to review related regulations that infringe on religious freedom, media training conducted by The Yakoma-PGI and the Union of Journalists for Diversity in Indonesia. What emerges is the PGI perspective that challenges to religious freedom in Aceh Singkil are solely the government’s responsibility, because the CCI/PGI sees itself as an institution without power. This perspective is fallacious because advocacy work is by definition not an exercise of government power. Moreover, even though the Aceh Singkil problem has numerous variables the CCI/PGI does not take a dynamical view and thus fails to empower itself to act, particularly at local level.
As a result, the people of Aceh Singkil appear fragmented and suspicious, and thus become embers with the potential to explode.
Following the enactment of the National Capital Bill on 18 January 2022, Indonesia will legally begin the process of moving the capital from Jakarta to Kalimantan. Located between the two East Kalimantan cities of Balikpapan and Samarinda, the new city will be called “Nusantara”—the ancient name of the Indonesian archipelago. The move will begin by gradually relocating all ministerial personnel and civil servants, with a target of full relocation by 2045.
While the decision to relocate the capital is based on domestic considerations, it carries regional security implications, and will generate economic and environmental harm. Additionally, it requires considerable resources, constraining Indonesia’s capability to deal with regional tensions and possible security threats. With increasing tensions in the Indo-Pacific region, the government must address these implications to mitigate any future security risk associated with the relocation.
Rationales behind the relocation
There are at least two obvious reasons for the move: Jakarta’s overpopulation and its environmental vulnerability. Around 10.56 million people live in the current capital, which makes it overcrowded with traffic and complex urban development issues. The city has also been dealing with floods and vulnerability due to sea-level rise, especially in the last two decades. President Jokowi himself has preferred to stay in the presidential palace in Bogor, rather than Jakarta’s Presidential Palace.
But relocating the capital is not just about Jakarta’s urban condition. In terms of defence and military strategy, Indonesia’s security elites see the new capital as more easily defendable than Jakarta due to its geographic features. Nusantara is surrounded by forests, rivers, and mountains, which will benefit Indonesia’s military in case of any future armed attacks. In contrast, Jakarta is more vulnerable to conventional attacks by an enemy’s military given its location on the northern coast of Java.
The military has not specified who such a potential enemy might be, but in his reflections on moving the capital, Indonesia’s intelligence chief has mentioned several regional alliances and activities that might affect the country’s security including the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA), AUKUS, and Chinese geopolitical influence in the region. Indonesia has been critical of AUKUS and objects to the arms race and power projection in the region. In addition, while it participates in China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the military has repeatedly detected Chinese coast guard vessels in its maritime domains, which constitutes a major threat to Indonesia’s territorial integrity.
Regional security implications
The capital relocation has some implications that might affect the regional security in the Indo-Pacific, concerning not only military and defence issues, but also economic and environmental security.
The first regional security implication is Indonesia’s shifting strategic focus during the process of moving. Located on the island of Kalimantan, Nusantara is 1,300 km away from Jakarta. The relocation will require the government to move all civil servants and military personnel by air or sea. For this, analysts have noted that a high number of military troops and significant resources must be deployed. According to Indonesia’s Military Chief, the military will deploy at least 30,000-50,000 personnel in the new capital’s regional commands, which will require significant resources. The budget for establishing a new regional military command is estimated to be USD 8.2 billion; for context, the country’s Defence Ministry’s had a budget of USD 9.3 billion in 2022.
This massive resource allocated for the relocation will considerably affect Indonesia’s ongoing defence and military modernisation plans. Indonesia will likely shift its focus from developing defence capabilities to meeting ongoing security demands caused by the capital relocation. In times of increasing geopolitical tensions in the Indo-Pacific region, redeploying forces and resources to secure the relocation process could impede the mitigation of potential crises that Indonesia may face at its borders. For example, it must secure its maritime domain from any intrusion of foreign military forces, such as in the South China Sea.
The relocation also raises questions as to who will be financially involved in the development of Nusantara and its related infrastructure. The government has estimated around USD 33 billion as the budget for the move, which is around 17 per cent of the national budget for 2022. The funding is expected to be raised from the government’s national budget, a Public-Private Partnership scheme with the private sector, and international development cooperation.
While Indonesia has committed to seek funding from various sources—including from Middle Eastern and European partners—there are some concerns related to the number of China-funded investment projects around the new capital. Chinese corporations have expressed interest in funding or providing loans to finance several projects in Kalimantan, including tolled highways between Balikpapan and Samarinda. China has also financed a hydropower project in the Kayan River since 2018, which is located in the northern part of the new capital.
These new investment partnerships could have long-term geopolitical implications as the new capital will be surrounded by China-funded investment projects. The Indonesian government must review the long-term geopolitical impacts of all investment projects around the new capital to avoid influence from any foreign party.
Finally, there are environmental security implications, which primarily relate to the global need to thwart climate change and end deforestation as agreed at the Glasgow Climate Change Conference. Kalimantan has been considered the ‘world’s lung’ due to its massive rainforests and biodiversity. It is feared that the capital relocation will lead to further deforestation and biodiversity loss and affect ongoing global efforts to tackle climate change and deforestation.
A recent study has shown that three provinces in Kalimantan are highly vulnerable to forest fires, while East Kalimantan has been affected by devastating forest fires in the past. The forest fires not only had a disastrous environmental impact on the country but also repeatedly caused transboundary haze pollution to neighbouring countries. Therefore, the risks of haze, forest fires, and potential impacts on climate change must be properly mitigated before the relocation process begins.
Indonesian lawmakers have tried to anticipate these concerns by mentioning the principle of ‘sustainability’ in the National Capital Bill’s Academic Paper. However, environmentalists have criticised the White Paper as being vague on mitigating the environmental implications of the relocation. With the need to build new housing complexes and government offices, it is unclear to what extent the government will clear the land and how biodiversity could be preserved.
Addressing security implications in the long-term development plan
While Indonesia’s capital relocation is mostly related to the country’s domestic development priorities, it carries regional security implications that must be addressed as tensions in the Indo-Pacific region increase.
To address potential security issues, the government needs to pursue several possible policy options. To address security concerns in the South China Sea, Indonesia should strengthen its Maritime Security Agency (Bakamla) as the front-line of its security response to South China Sea disputes, as one analyst has suggested. In addition, Indonesia needs to stay on track to modernise its military and defence equipment by 2024 (according to the original plans).
Indonesia also needs to carefully assess the economic, social, and sustainability impact of the capital relocation. In particular, it is important to consider its long-term financial capacity in relocating the capital, as well as reviewing any foreign infrastructure or investment projects around the new capital.
These security concerns must be incorporated into the new national long-term development plan, which will become the guideline for Indonesia’s planning between 2025-2045. Given the ambitions of the capital relocation, the Indonesian government needs a comprehensive security assessment—considering capabilities and geopolitical tensions in the region—in the long-term plan, which will provide a framework for future governments. Only in this way can Indonesia mitigate potential risks from the capital relocation.
Indigenous students from West Papua studying at universities across Aotearoa are defying an order from the Indonesian government to return home.
In January, more than 40 students were told that Indonesia would no longer be funding autonomous West Papuan scholarships so they had to pack up and leave.
Laurens Ikinia of the Hubula tribe and fellow student Esniel Mirin of the Kimyal tribe, both from the central highlands of West Papua, say they have been stripped of their dream for a brighter future.
“The government has terminated about 42 students here in Aotearoa New Zealand who are the recipients of Papua provincial government scholarships and I am one of the students who was terminated and this is really worrying me,” Ikinia said.
Ikinia and Mirin have both been struggling to support themselves since the scholarship decision was made. Living costs are rising and tuition fees are high for overseas students here.
“What we are trying to do just to survive is do some part-time jobs as long as we can but, unfortunately, some students cannot work because of their visa conditions. I don’t know how long it’s going to take us but that’s what we are doing just to survive,” Ikinia said.
Mirin said he found it hard to talk about the issue as he was not able to support himself and not able to work.
“I’m trying to communicate with my close friends from the campus or the churches I attend and they help me a lot,” he said.
“We are calling the Indonesian President, Joko Widodo, to respond to our request so in the future we can continue our programmes and success because this is kind of Indonesians trying to manipulate our education rights.”
The Indonesian embassy gave a written response to Māori Television’s request for comment, stating that the scholarships were wholly managed by Papua’s democratically elected provincial government. The embassy also said:
“These students are part of a total of 593 students from Papua province receiving the ‘Papua Special Autonomy Scholarship’… only those who have exceeded the allocated time of the scholarship and those who cannot meet the academic requirements are being recalled.
“The decision to repatriate certain students does not impact on those students who remain on track with regards to their studies abroad.
“The assessment is also conducted to ensure other eligible students from Papua province also obtain the same opportunity in pursuing their studies.”
The Māori Television story on the plight of West Papuan students in Aotearoa. Image: MTS screenshot APR
The embassy also said it had tried to resolve various aspects of the issue including possible outstanding tuition and living fees.
But for students such as Ikinia the suggestion he is being sent home because he has been failing, has no foundation.
“I came to New Zealand in 2016, I did my New Zealand language programme for five months and then I studied my international contemporary studies, bachelor programme, I studied in 2017 and then I finished in 2019 in three years and then I studied for my master’s programme in 2020,” he says.
“I’m just about to finish and then they put my name on the list and then they claim that I’m not making any progress, which is baseless. This is something that we have written a letter to the government to clarify — the evidence that the government used to categorise all these 42 students not making progress.”
Ikinia is reaching out to institutions, organisations and communities for their support on behalf of the Papuan Students Association of Oceania.
“We humbly request the people of Aotearoa, New Zealand to open your arms to welcome us as a Pacific family.
“It’s been a long, long time where West Papuans, indigenous peoples have not spoken about our education rights and we are calling for the sake of humanity.”
For more information, readers can visit the Papuan Students Association Oceania social media pages to learn how to offer support:
Indonesian police have arrested a total of 90 Papuan students during a protest action near the Presidential Palace complex in Central Jakarta which ended in chaos with allegations of assaults on six protesters.
The demonstration by the Papuan students last Friday was to oppose the creation of new provinces in Papua.
“A total of 90 people”, said Metro Jaya regional police public relations division head Senior Commissioner E Zulpan when sought for confirmation on the arrests.
After being arrested, the students were taken to the Metro Jaya regional police headquarters.
Zulpan said that they would be returned home after being questioned.
“They will be returned home after being identified and questioned,” said Zulpan.
The protest, which ended in chaos, resulted in Central Jakarta district police intelligence unit head Assistant Superintendent Ferikson Tampubolon suffering head injuries after being allegedly assaulted by the protesters.
In addition to this, a number of other police officers were injured.
The demonstrators claimed that five protesters suffered injuries during the clash with police. One of them, a women, was knocked unconscious.
Zulpan however denied that police assaulted any of the demonstrators.
“There were no police officers who assaulted the demonstrators,” said Zulpan.
Advocacy Team slams police violence The Papua Advocacy Team has called on the Metro Jaya police chief to punish the police officers who allegedly committed violence against six Papuans during the rally near the Presidential Palace.
One of the Advocacy Team members, Teo Reffelsen, said that if the acts of violence by police were based on an order from a superior officer, then they must also be held responsible.
“Police must legally process police officers who committed the violence against the six Papuans,” said Reffelsen in a written release sent to CNN Indonesia.
“If it was based on an order, then their senior officer must also be held criminally responsible,” he said.
Reffelsen also said that based on information obtained from the participants in the action, one of the six students, Ince, was kicked in the chest by a police officer and fell unconscious.
Another, Bob, suffered scratches to his leg and chest after being kicked. Samuel Purwaro was kicked and dragged into a detention vehicle and suffered injuries to his right eye, and Deris Murib was kicked in the forehead and back of his body.
Daten meanwhile was struck in the head using a motorcycle helmet and a member of Solidarity Indonesia was kicked by police.
Suffered injuries, cracked teeth
“He suffered injuries to his body and cracked teeth. His genitals were grabbed, then his mobile phone. [But] his mobile phone has been returned,” said Reffelsen.
The Papuan students clashed with police near the Presidential Palace when they wanted to move off to the Home Affairs Ministry to protest against the creation of six new provinces in Papua.
Around 30 people claiming to be Papuan students tried to head off to the nearby Home Affairs Ministry on Jalan Medan Merdeka Utara via Jalan Veteran near the State Secretariat building in the presidential complex.
There, scores of police officers had already prepared a blockade and the demonstrators were prohibited from going any further. Tough negotiations between the two parties proceeded for up to 30 minutes.
The police continued to refuse to let the demonstrators pass and the two sides began pushing and shoving each other. A short time later the demonstrators broke through the blockade.
Police then chased the students and succeeded in breaking up the demonstration. Several were involved in fist fights.
IndoLeft News notes: A second article by CNN Indonesia later on the same day reported that 89 of those arrested had been returned home. “Yes, they’ve been sent home”, said Zulpan when sought for confirmation. Zulpan said however that one person named Alfius Wenda was still being questioned in relation to the alleged assault on Assistant Superintendent Ferikson Tampubolon.
Hundreds of Cendrawasih University (Uncen) students took to the streets last week to hold actions opposing the creation of new provinces in Papua, says Papua Legal Aid Foundation (LBH) director Emanuel Gobay.
He said that the actions were held at several places as well as a long march to the Papua Regional House of Representatives (DPRD) offices on Tuesday.
However, when the students wanted to hold the action, a joint unit of police was already on alert at each location with 20-30 officers on guard.
“During the action they planned to gather at several points, first at upper Uncen, lower Uncen, Expo and Abe. But since early morning police had already gathered at the places,” Gobay told CNN Indonesia.
Gobay explained that before the action was held, the students had already sent a notification to the district police that the action would be held peacefully.
But the police instead forcibly broke up the potests and sprayed the protesters with water cannon.
“When they used water cannon, the students ran into a boarding house located at Abepura,” he said.
“Then followed [the incident at] Uncen Abepura, where they were blocked by police. So the students couldn’t get out. In the end the Uncen Abepura [students] joined with those at Waena in Taruna Bakti. They gathered there, then those at Uncen also gathered at the Taruna Bakti senior high school,” he said.
Police ‘brutal’ with students
Gobay said the students tried to negotiate with police but were rebuffed. A joint unit of police kept forcing the protesters to disperse.
“What was most disappointing was that the head of the Jayapura district police intelligence unit was there and even he ordered them to disperse the protesters brutally,” he said.
“By brutal, I mean they didn’t heed one word from the students when they were invited to negotiate.”
According to Gobay, the police attitude showed that the democratic space for negotiating was not being heeded. Yet the right to negotiations was guaranteed under Law Number 19/1998 on the freedom to express an opinion in public.
Gobay said that the police should be “more human” and prioritise dialogue.
“There methods are excessive, as if they are dealing with a riot. This needs special attention from the Indonesian police chief to the Papua regional police chief, especially the Jayapura district police chief and the head of the intelligence unit.
“In particular, the use of firearms at peaceful actions.”
Papua regional police public relations chief Senior Commissioner Ahmad Musthofa Kamal said that the protests “proceeded normally”. He did not say how many police officers were deployed although the number “was sufficient”.
Papuan students protesting at Cendrawasih University (Uncen) last week over Indonesia’s unpopular plan to split Papua and West Papua provinces into six provinces. Image: Elfira-Cepos/IndoLeft News
Papuans oppose provincial break-up plan
Earlier, Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian had said Papua would be split up into six provinces, although the plan was not yet final and was still being debated.
The six provinces proposed by the government are Southwest Papua, West Papua, Central Papua, the Central Highlands, South Papua and Papua Tabi Saireri.
The plan however has been strongly opposed by Papuans.
Papua People’s Council (MRP) member Minggus Madai said that the plan was being pushed through despite the Papua region not meeting the demographic and other criteria for being split up.
Minggus said that if the plan went ahead, it would only add new problems in Papua.
“The Papuan people refer to this as a ‘killing machine’ for the Papuan people. It’s not appropriate to force it through,” said Minggus.
The world has enough food to feed every person on the planet, now and in the foreseeable future. This should not be a surprising fact. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated that 2,950 kcal worth of food supplies were available per person per day from 2018 to 2020. This is projected to increase up to 3,025 kcal per person per day by 2030. For reference, the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) from the Indonesian Ministry of Health is only 2100 kcal per person per day.
Despite this ostensible abundance, hunger is still a real problem for about ten percent of the world’s population, or more than 800 million people. In Indonesia alone, 20 million people, or almost twice the population of Jakarta, struggle to meet the RDA. It seems that, after all, we are missing the point by focusing on having enough food in aggregate.
Yet the latest innovation in Indonesian trade governance, the commodity balance or neraca komoditas, is designed specifically to ensure sufficiency. As regulated under the new Presidential Regulation 32/2022, the commodity balance is heralded as providing more certainty in import and export licensing and quota allocation by basing the decision directly on a national database of domestic supply and demand for the listed commodities.
The data are sourced from firms and government statistics and used to regulate imports of five pilot commodities: sugar, salt, fisheries products, rice, and beef. The list of commodity would eventually be expanded to include both food and non-food commodities in the agriculture, fisheries, mining, and industrial sectors.
As my colleagues at the Center for Indonesian Policy Studies (CIPS) write, the commodity balance is intended to help the government set import and export quotas in order to offset shortfalls and surpluses in the domestic market and achieve market clearing. The basic tenet is, of course, self-sufficiency, where import quota may not be granted at all should the balance show enough domestic production to cover domestic demand.
While the idea of a government database to determine food availability may be new in Indonesian food trade, and may actually help streamline the process by cutting out one step (applying for import recommendation), it is an old one in the history of food crisis, hunger, and the conceptual development of food security.
In his seminal work, Poverty and Famines (1981), Amartya Sen chronicles several case studies of famines, from the Bengal famine in 1943 to the Ethiopian famine in 1973-1975. In all these cases, famines occurred without a significant reduction in the amount of aggregate food available per head. Some famines even took place during the years with peak staple food production.
In the 1943 Bengal famine (which claimed 2-3 million lives), the British administration in India maintained a record of food availability and regular estimates of food shortages, calculated by comparing required amount of food per head and total food available. Based on the data, which Sen considers “fairly accurate,” the government found no reason for concern, and so the impending disaster went undetected.
Food estates are costly and fail to value the application of ecological principles, especially local agroecological practices rooted in local communities.
This misguided emphasis on food availability and sufficiency rests on a complacent view that Sen calls “Malthusian optimism.” Thomas Malthus’ pessimistic worldview of the inability of food production to catch up with population growth has not been well supported by history, as technological advancements have proven able to multiply food production. Yet the Malthusian preoccupation with the ratio of total food supply to population remains entrenched, though now coupled with the confidence in domestic production and the ability of statistics, like the shortage records of the British India or, indeed, the commodity balance, to provide accurate estimates.
The CIPS paper on commodity balance casts doubt on the government’s ability to accurately determine available supplies, which is not unfounded given frequentdisputes over stock figures among the ministries. Yet even if accurate reporting is somehow possible, as was the case in Bengal according to Sen, relying on it is detrimental to food security.
Despite the increase in rice price and inflation a year before the Bengal famine, Malthusian optimism led to ill-informed policies and outcomes such as import prohibition and late availability of imported foods when the famine became apparent.
Price is a better indicator for anticipating food shortages, but it is also missing from a non-automatic trade system like the neraca komoditas and its quotas. At the same time, prices of staple foods such as rice are higher in Indonesia than on the international market. Poor Indonesians, including rural populations and farmers who are mostly net consumers of rice, bear the heaviest burden of high food prices.
According to Sen, a better measure for access to food is entitlement, i.e. one’s ability to secure food, such as through own production or purchases. This establishes the connection between one’s livelihood mode, for example paid employment, and food security. A complete food security analysis then should look at livelihood situations of different groups of people, from urban dwellers to rural farmers.
Price is an important factor in one’s entitlement, but so are wages, lands, and other resources one has. To achieve welfare for its population, Indonesian food security policy should appreciate this diversity of factors and leave the decades-old pedestal of food sufficiency that it has been resting on.
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;
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.”
