A large number of New Zealanders are facing a perfect storm at retirement, with minimal savings and no house, raising the risk that thousands will enter old age in poverty.
According to the latest retirement expenditure guidelines from Massey University, a two-person retiree household living an urban “choices” lifestyle, which includes some luxuries, would need to have saved NZ$809,000.
In the provinces, a couple would need to have saved $511,000.
New Zealanders have traditionally relied on owning a home to support themselves during their retirement years. But many of the New Zealanders now aged between 50 and 65 – a cohort of almost half a million people – will go into retirement as renters after skyrocketing house prices over the last three decades put home ownership out of reach.
At the same time, this generation were already working adults when the Labour government introduced KiwiSaver in 2007, and are less likely to have a significant savings cushion.
Then Prime Minister Helen Clark introduced KiwiSaver in 2007 as a way to address New Zealand’s low rate of savings. Image: The Conversation/Phil Walter/Getty Images
Last year, Treasury raised concerns that this mixed group of baby boomers and generation X will not be able to financially manage retirement on their own.
Declining home ownership Home ownership in New Zealand has fallen to the lowest rate in 70 years, with just 65 percent of people living in houses they own, down from the peak of 74 percent in the 1990s.
According to the 2018 Census, around one in four people between 50 and 65 don’t own the home they live in.
Research by Kay Saville-Smith from the Centre for Research Evaluation and Social Assessment suggests that by 2053 almost half of over-65s would be renting. That would mean 640,000 over-65s renting, including 326,000 renters aged over 85.
This issue of declining home ownership disproportionately affects those who have remained on low incomes throughout their working life. This, in turn, has stark consequences for Māori and Pacific people in New Zealand.
Between 1986 and 2013 the proportion of Māori and Pacific peoples living in owner occupied housing fell at a faster rate than the overall population (down 20 percent and 34.8 percent, respectively).
Skyrocketing rents Also, in the last five years nationwide rents have risen 28 percent across all property types and regions.
High rents make it harder for New Zealanders to save for a house. Image: The Conversation/Getty
For increasing numbers of people, housing — whether through ownership or renting — has become unaffordable.
The rapidly increasing rental costs have also reduced the ability of people to save for their own home.
KiwiSaver came too late
In 2007, the Labour-led government set up KiwiSaver as a voluntary savings scheme to help New Zealanders save for their retirement and to lift New Zealand’s low national savings rate.
But New Zealanders aged 50 to 64 were already adults and mid-career when KiwiSaver was launched. In our low-wage economy, they are likely to have contributed only 3 percent of wages, in addition to the employer’s 3 percent.
While some will have used their KiwiSaver account plus the government subsidy to put a deposit on a home purchase, few will have saved a significant nest egg for retirement. The 2021 Financial Markets Authority KiwiSaver Report showed average balances of only $26,410.
Squeaking by on superannuation There is some support for retirees. When a person reaches the qualifying age of 65 years, they receive New Zealand Superannuation, currently $437 per week after tax for a single person.
But superannuation is predicated on owning your home rather than renting. Home ownership means effectively living rent free, with only rates and maintenance as regular necessary expenses in addition to food, power and phone.
A couple looking to retire comfortably in the city in New Zealand would need to have $809,000 saved, while the same couple looking to retire in the provinces would need $511,000. Image: The Conversation/Didier Marti/Getty
Those people renting are currently confronted by a median weekly rental for a small house or apartment of $390 per week. While they may also be able to access the accommodation supplement and temporary additional support to assist with costs, a new threat has emerged in the form of inflation.
Consumer price index inflation peaked at close to 6.35 percent in early 2022, its highest level in three decades.
As well as steady increases in the price of electricity, petrol prices increased by 10 percent over the past year, and annual food prices rose 6.85 percent in February year-on-year. Fruit and vegetables are the largest contributors to the price rise. Car use can be contained with less recreational outings, but electricity, fruit and vegetables are needed for health.
None of this is going unnoticed. Treasury has raised the alarm about the increase of old age poverty. Many in the 50-65 age group share those concerns, and are approaching retirement with rational trepidation.
The West Papua National Liberation Army-Free Papua Organisation (TPNPB-OPM) has rejected peace talks with the Indonesian government if it is only mediated by the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM).
It is also asking President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to be prepared to sit down with them at the negotiating table.
TPNPB-OPM spokesperson Sebby Sambom said that the OPM wants the peaceful dialogue or negotiations to be mediated by the United Nations because the armed conflict in Papua was already on an international scale.
“In principle we agree [that] if the negotiations are in accordance with UN mechanisms, but we are not interested in Indonesia’s methods,” said Sambom in a written statement.
Sambom said that they also do not want to hold the dialogue in Indonesia but want it to be held in a neutral country in accordance with UN mechanisms.
“The negotiations must be held in a neutral country, in accordance with UN mechanisms”, he said.
Sambom said President Widodo must be aware and must have the courage to sit down at the negotiating table with the TPNPB-OPM’s negotiating team.
He also reminded Widodo that the UN was an international institution which can act as a mediator in resolving armed conflicts.
Peaceful dialogue
“In the statement to Jakarta we are asking that Indonesian President Jokowi be aware and have the courage to sit at the negotiating table with the TPNPB-OPM’s negotiating team together with all the delegates from the organisations which are struggling [for independence],” he said.
Earlier, the Komnas HAM claimed it would initiate peace talks between the government and the OPM.
Komnas HAM had also claimed that the proposal for talks had been agreed to by the government, ranging from President Widodo, Coordinating Minister for Security, Politics and Legal Affairs Mahfud MD to the TNI (Indonesian military) and Polri (Indonesian police).
Komnas HAM, along with the Komnas HAM Papua representative office, began sounding out peaceful dialogue by meeting with a series of groups in Papua on March 16-23.
In the initial stage, Komnas HAM was endeavoring to hear and ask for the views of key parties on the issue, especially the OPM, both those within the country as well as those overseas. The other key people were religious, traditional community and intellectual figures.
Carving up the Papuan provincial cake. Graphic: Image: Lugas/tirto.id
On Thursday, 10 March 2022, thousands of Papuan people in the Lapago Wamena Cultural Area took to the streets to paralyse Wamena city. They occupied Wamena City. They rejected the Indonesian colonial plan to expand Papua province.
Remember: The voice of the people is the voice of God. The Papuan people, people and leaders of Indonesia, Melanesia, Pacific, Africa, European Union. USA, Australia, listen to the voices of the two million Melanesian people in West Papua who are currently on their way to being annihilated due to Indonesia’s systemic racist politics.
The expansion of Papua provinces, Special Autonomy Volume 2 and military operations in six regencies in Papua is not a solution for West Papua. Only one order — give us the right of self-determination for the political rights of the Papuan nation in West Papua. Our greetings and prayers from Wamena, the heart of Papua.
Waaa … waaa … waaa.
SPECIAL REPORT:By Yamin Kogoya
The above text was written by Markus Haluk, director of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) on Thursday, March 10. The text encapsulates the sentiments of Papuans protesting across West Papua and Indonesia, calling for Jakarta to stop the creation of new provinces.
Haluk’s words were written amid escalating protests in various parts of West Papua’s customary lands and across Indonesia over Jakarta’s plans to create six new provinces under the unilaterally renewed — and unpopular — Special Autonomy Law 21/2001.
15/3/22 Yahukimo, West Papua
Indonesian forces shot dead Yakub Meklok (39) and Herson Wisapla (21) during forced dispersal of thousands of people protesting against Jakarta’s plan to create new provinces.
Jayapura – Mamta customary land
Tuesday, March 8: Hundreds of students and communities clashed with Indonesian security forces at university campuses in Waena and Abepura cities, protesting against the expansion. The protest coordinator, Alfa Hisage, stated that this demonstration was to reject the creation of a new province altogether.
Wamena – La Pago customary land
Thursday, March 10: Doni Tabuni, the coordinator of the demonstration in the highlands of Wamena (the location that Markus Haluk refers to in his text) warned on March 10 that the expansion would wipe out Papuans. Protesters declared: “We will stop all government office activities in the Lapago region if the central government does not stop the expansion,” reported CNN Indonesia (10 March 2022).
“The expansion will not bring prosperity to Papuans; it will only serve to benefit the elites, bring more migrants, and create more opportunities for military and human rights violations,” said Doni Tabuni.
14/3/22 Paniai, West Papua
Hundreds of West Papuans protested against Jakarta’s plan to create new provinces – which will lead to further dispossession and militarisation.
Paniai – Meepago customary land
Monday, March 14: thousands of residents of Paniai took to the streets to demonstrate against the expansion of the “New Autonomous Region”, also known as “Daerah Otonomy Baru” (DOB). The demonstrators repeatedly shouted against the new proposal and do not want to join the province of Central Papua, which would become a new autonomous region.
Petrus Yeimo, a member of the Paniai Regency Legislative Council (DPRD), said that communities are not involved in the formation of this new region.
“That’s why we Paniai people firmly reject the expansion,” said Petrus, when he was met by the mass in front of the DPRD office (innews.id).
West Papuan women against the creation of new provinces by Jakarta that will cause further dispossession and militarisation.
Manokwari – Domberai customary land
Tuesday, March 8: The same message also echoed in Manokwari city — a coastal town popularly known as a “city of the gospel” for its historical significance of the landing of the first two German missionaries (C.W. Ottow and J.G. Geissler) for the “Christianisation” project in the mid-1800s.
17/3/22 Sorong, West Papua
Another big protest against Jakarta’s plan to create new provinces.
Sorong – Domberai customary land Monday, March 21: A series of protests has also taken place in Sorong city, at the Western tip of West Papua, involving sections of Papuan society, including students and communities.
Protesters in Sorong carry a banner saying, “The expansion of the new autonomous region is oppression against the Papuan people.” Image: APR
“The expansion of new autonomous region depletes our forests, depriving us of our land rights. The goal of our meeting is to convince the mayor, who is also the head of the creation of the new Southwest Papua province that we Papuans all over Sorong Raya oppose the expansion,” said action coordinator Sepnat Yewen on Monday. But they were disappointed that they were unable to see the mayor twice (Compass.com, 21 March 2022).
11/3/22 Jakarta
102 West Papuan students were forcibly dispersed and arrested during a protest. They reject Jakarta’s plan to create new provinces in West Papua that would lead to further dispossession.
Jakarta – the heartland of the colonial powerhouse
Tuesday, March 11: Papuan students held protests in central Jakarta, calling on Jakarta to stop the colonial expansion of their homeland, during which one police officer, Ferikson Tampubolon, was injured on the head (Detiknews, 12 March 2022).
Indonesian security forces line up against Papuan protesters in Jakarta. Image: APR
South Sulawesi – an Indonesian island
In Kendari city of South Sulawesi, the Papuan Student Association declared that the newly created provinces would not benefit Papuans. Kiminma Gwijangge, the group coordinator, said that this was a game of the political elites and rulers who control the public service in Papua and ignoring the rights and wishes of Papuans. These Papuan students demanded that the Papuan elites, who eat money and expand on behalf of Papua, be stopped immediately.
15/3/22 Yahukimo, West Papua
Earlier today, speaker: “people reject expansion, people want independence”.
Yahukimo – La Pago customary land
Tuesday, March 15: Tragically, a peaceful demonstration for the same cause in the Yahukimo region did not go well. Two young men, Yakop Deal, 30, and Erson Weipsa, 22, have been martyred for this cause by the Indonesian police — the cause for which Papuan men and women courageously risked their lives to fight against fully armed, western-backed, modern security forces with advanced mechanical weapons.
Two young Papuans gunned down and a dozen wounded
Witness accounts of the Yahukimo tragedy stated that the protest initially went ahead safely and peacefully. However, provocation by police intelligence officers posing as journalists in the midst of the protest led to the shooting.
It is alleged that an unidentified Indonesian person flew a drone camera during the demonstration. Seeing that action, protesters warned the Indonesian man not to use drones to record the protest, creating fear.
The protestors also asked for his identity and whether or not he was a journalist, but he failed to respond. The crowd protested against his action. He then ran for cover towards hidden police officers who had been on standby with weapons. Immediately, members of the police fired tear gas at the crowd without asking for the person responsible for the peaceful demonstration. Soon after, police opened fire on the crowd.
Papuan Police public relations chief Kombes Pol Ahmad Musthofa Kamal confirmed that two protesters had died, and others suffered gunshot wounds (Suara.com).
Gathering evidence of the Yahukimu atrocity – alleged shootings by the Indonesian military. This Papuan man was shot in the back. Image: APR
OPM and civil society groups
The Free Papua Movement, also known as Organisasi Papua Merdeka (OPM), and their military wing, The West Papua National Liberation Army, which was launched in the 1960s to protest against the Indonesian invasion, are opposed to the new expansion of provinces.
Sebby Sambon, the group spokesperson released a statement that threatened to shoot Papuan elites who imposed Jakarta’s agenda onto Papuans (tribunnews.com, 12 February 2022)
More than 700,000 people have also signed the Papuan People’s Petition which represents 111 organisations opposing Special Autonomy.
These protests are not the first and they will not be the last. Papuans will continue to resist any policy introduced by Jakarta that threatens their lives, cultural identities, and lands.
This is an existential war, not a political one — it is a war of survival and resisting extinction.
The genesis of these recent protests
Those protests are not simply a reaction against the new expansion, but a part of a movement against the Indonesian invasion that began when Papuans’ independent state was seized by the Western governments and given to Indonesia by the United Nations in 1963.
This is a conflict between two states — the state of Papua and the state of Indonesia.
Having the big picture is vital to prevent misrepresentation of these protesters as just another angry mob on the street demanding equal pay in Indonesia.
However, the protests that cost those two men their lives in Yahukimo had a specific genesis. It began in 1999 when 100 Papuan delegates went to then-President Habibie and demanded independence after the collapse of Suharto’s 31-year New Order regime.
Habibie and his cabinet were shocked by this demand, as people whom they thought were members of his family suddenly told him they no longer wanted to be part of the great Indonesian family.
Having been shocked by this unexpected news, Habibie and his cabinet told the Papuan delegation to go home and think it over in case it had been a mistake. But this was not a mistake. It was the deepest desire of Papuans being communicated directly in a dignified manner to the country’s highest presidential palace.
This occurred during a time of great turmoil in Indonesia’s history. Strongman national father figure Suharto, once considered immortal, no longer was. His empire had crumbled.
Suddenly, across the archipelago, a cacophony of demonstrators unleashed more than 30 years of dormant human desires for freedom, frustrations, and fear, combined with the ravages of the Asian economic collapse.
If there was a time when the Papuans could escape the tormented house, this was it. One hundred Papuan delegates marching to Habibie indeed made their mark in that respect.
At this momentous time, the man who understood this deepest desire and would help Papuans escape was President Abdurrahman Wahid, better known as Gus Dur. He lives on in the memories of Papuans because of his valiant acts.
President Gus Dur – a political messianic figure
On 30 December 1999, or exactly two months and 10 days after being inaugurated as the 4th President, Gus Dur visited Irian Jaya (as it was known back then) with two purposes — to listen to Papuan people during the congress, which he funded, and to see the first millennium sunrise on January 1, 2000. On this day, a significant moment in human history, he chose to stand with Papuans and for Papuans.
During his stay, he changed the region’s name from Irian Jaya to Papua and allowed the banned Papuan Morning Star flag to be flown alongside Indonesia’s red and white flag.
Changing the name was significant for Papuans because these changes marked a significant shift in how the region would be governed. The former name symbolised Indonesia’s victory and the latter symbolized Papuan victory.
Prior to these historical occurrences, the region was known as Netherlands New Guinea during Dutch rule, then as West Papua during a short-lived, Dutch-supported Papuan rule in 1961, then from Irian Barat to Irian Jaya when Indonesia annexed it in May 1963.
Just as their island has been dissected and tortured by European and Asian colonial powers, so too have Papuans, being tortured with all manner of racism and violence in the name of the civilisation project.
The messianic Gus Dur’s spark of hope instilled in the hearts of Papuans was short-lived. In July 2001, he was forced out of office after being accused of encouraging Indonesia’s disintegration. Gus Dur’s window of opportunity for Papuans to escape the tortured house was closed. The new chapter that Gus Dur wrote in Indonesia-Papua’s tale of horror was ripped out of his hands during the most pivotal year of human history — the new millennium 2000.
The demand for independence conveyed to President Habibie a year earlier by one hundred Papuan delegates was discarded. Instead, Jakarta offered a special gift for Papuans — gift the Special Autonomy Law 21/2001.
There was a belief among foreign observers, and Papua and Jakarta elites that this would lead to something special. It reflects Jakarta’s ability in terms of its semantic structure and highly curated selection used in law.
Rod McGibbon, an analyst and writer on Southeast Asian politics in Jakarta, noted in a Wall Street Journal article on 14 August 2001 that despite the challenges Jakarta faces in its dealings with Irian Jaya (Papua), the Special Autonomy approach represents the best opportunity for Jakarta to begin meaningful dialogue with provincial leaders. He also predicted that if Jakarta fails special autonomy, the province will suffer further ethnic and regional conflicts in the future.
He was right, 20 years later Special Autonomy turned out to be a big mess.
The law consisted of 79 articles, most of which were designed to give Papuans greater control over their fate — to safeguard their land and culture.
Furthermore, under this law, one important institution, the Papuan People’s Assembly (Majelis Rakyat Papua-MRP), together with provincial governments and the Papuan People’s Representative Council (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Papua-DPRP), was given the authority to deal with matters that are most important to them, such as land, population control, cultural identity, and symbols.
Section B in the introduction part of the Special Autonomy law reads as follows: “That the Papua community as God’s creation and is a part of a civilised people, who hold high human rights, religious values, democracy, law and cultural values in the adat (customary) law community and who have the right to fairly enjoy the results of development”
Assassination of prominent Papuan leader and Papuan chief
Three weeks after the law was passed, popular independence leader Theys H. Eluay was killed by Indonesian special forces (Kopassus). Ryamizard Ryacudu, then-army chief of staff, who in 2014 became Jokowi’s first Defence Minister, later called the killers “heroes” (Tempo.co, August 19, 2003).
In 2003, the Megawati Soekarnoputri government divided the province into two. She was violating a provision of the Special Autonomy Law, which was based on the idea that Papua remains a single territory. As prescribed by law, any division would need to be approved by the Papuan provincial legislature and MRP.
Governor Lukas Enembe – Melanesian chief
On August 22, 2019, Narasi (central Jakarta’s TV programme) invited Papua provincial Governor Lukas Enembe and others (both Papuans and Indonesians) to discuss mass demonstrations that erupted across West Papua and Indonesia after Papuan students were racially attacked in Surabaya.
The programme host, Najwa Shihab, was shocked to hear the governor’s response. When asked about his opinion about the situation, the governor said that Papuans already had their own concept to address problems in West Papua, but they needed an agreement/treaty under international auspices — or something of the sort — because no Jakarta-made law would work in Papua.
The host then asked, “you are a governor, but why don’t you believe the authority of Special Autonomy Law?” Governor Enembe replied, “The Special Autonomy Law 21/2001 has not worked until now.”
The governor stressed that Papuans do not have political power or free will to make any meaningful decision.
“We are supposed to make our own law under this Special Autonomy, but Jakarta refuses to allow it. Jakarta only gives money under this law, that’s all.”
The statements come from Papua’s number one man and not from someone on the street. The ruling elites in Jakarta are not fazed about breaking their own laws, showing their disrespect of the Papuan people and their integrity as a nation.
The governor is not the only official in the country’s highest office who lacks faith in the central government. Otopianus Tebai, a young Papuan senator who represents Papua in the central government said in a response to this new expansion plan that most Papuans reject the divisions (Suara.com, March 18, 2022). Divisions of which Papuans are being coerced into by the old special autonomy law renewal, which Governor Enembe declared as a total failure.
The MRP, Papua’s highest institution established under the special autonomy law to safeguard cultural identities, no longer has the power to act as intended. This institution has been stripped of its power, as well as other things, as a result of the 2021 amendment to the law which was passed two decades ago.
Timotius Murib, the chairman of this institution, said that the plan to create an autonomous region did not reflect the wishes of the people of Papua and would probably create more problems if Papuans were divided over it.
The chairman emphasised the law was designed for Papuans to have specific authority to implement local laws pertaining to our affairs, but the central government removed that authority by destroying any legal or government mechanism that materialised this authority.
Adding to these statements from the highest offices, more than 700,000 people have signed the Papuan People’s Petition, which represents 111 organisations opposing Special Autonomy.
Indonesian Brimob forces ready to move against Papuan protesters in Jakarta. Image: APR
Deep psychological war against Papuans – ‘divide and rule’ tactic
Despite overwhelming opposition from many segments of Papuan society, the Indonesian government persists in imposing its will upon Papuans. It is precisely this action that is causing protests and havoc in recent weeks.
But not all Papuans are against it. Several regents (mostly Papuans) are supporting this expansion with their cronies and supporters, in conjunction with the Indonesian government, a few Papuan elites in Jakarta, and other misfits and opportunists.
The issue has caused division among indigenous Papuans. Among the Papuans, it plays directly into identity politics, as many tribes speak different languages, live in different ancestral and customary lands, and even practise different religions.
A protracted horizontal conflict between these languages, cultural, and geographical lines was already being created by the creation of more regencies and districts in the past. Adding three new provinces would lead to more regencies, which means more districts, which means more security forces and settlers and more problems.
In the midst of this drama, Jakarta is setting traps for Papuans by forcing them to face each other and preventing them from collectively confronting the system that is tearing them apart. The creation of more provinces and regions is leading to such traps since this will divide the people — which is clearly Indonesia’s ultimate goal.
If Papuans are too busy fighting one another, then the atrocities of the elites will fly under the radar, unopposed. What West Papua needs is unity, which has been demonstrated in recent protests. Together, Papuans will always be stronger than apart in their cause, and Jakarta will stop it with all its tricks.
If you are an imperial strategist or scammer in an empirical office somewhere in London, Canberra, Washington DC, or Jakarta, you might think that this is the best way to control and destroy a nation.
But history shows that, all dead ancient empires and the current dying Anglo-American led Western empires use this little magical trick “divide and rule” over others until it collapses from its wicked pathological and hypocritical weights from within.
Imperial planners in Jakarta should be focusing on overcoming their own internal weaknesses that would eventually bring them down rather than chasing after the monster they created out of West Papua.
In this frame of mind, any vestige of hope for Papua’s restoration and unity, whether contained within or outside the law, is a threat that will be undermined at any cost.
The term autonomy is also defined differently in Papua’s affairs because Jakarta does not intend to empower Papuans to stand on their own two feet.
There is no real intention for Jakarta to give Papuans a chance to have some level of self-rule, which is exactly what being autonomous means in essence.
Papua’s autonomous status seems to be all part of the settler-colonial regime: occupation, expansion, and extermination. Papuans have been told that West Papua is special, but Jakarta is undermining and paralysing any mechanism it agrees upon to convince them that that is truly not the case.
In other words, Jakarta introduces a law, but it is Jakarta that violates it. The situation is analogous to students having a teacher who is not just negligent but hypocritical; everything the teacher believes in, they teach, not taking time to critically analyse their actions and how it all contradicts itself.
Under the whole scheme, Indonesia is presented as a self-appointed head of the class that they are holding hostage. They believe they are the only ones capable of teaching the stupid Papuans, of civilising the naked cave men, of saving the wild beasts, and developing the underdeveloped people.
But under the guise of the pathological civilisational myths, Jakarta poisons and destroy Papuans with food, alcohol, drugs, pornography, gambling, diseases and the ammunition which is used against them.
Rulers in Jakarta act as narcissistic sociopaths — they promise development, happiness, or even heaven while committing genocidal and homicidal acts against Papuans.
They portray themselves as the “civilised” and the Papuans as the “uncivilised” – a psychological manipulation that allows them to avoid accountability for their crimes. Jakarta makes Papuans sick, then prescribes medication to cure the very same illness it caused.
A deep psychological game is being played to convince themselves (colonisers), and the Papuans (colonised) that Indonesia exists so that West Papua can be saved, improved, and developed. This pathological game is then embedded into the psyche of Papuans through all the colonial development products Jakarta sells to Papuans through education and indoctrination.
This programming is evident in the way that a few Papuans (with Jakarta acting as the puppeteer) fool their own people by telling them that Indonesian rule will bring salvation and prosperity.
Even the mental work of most Indonesians is being reprogrammed to view West Papua with that lens – they believe that Indonesia is saving and improving West Papua. Unbeknownst to them, this entity called “Indonesia” annihilates Papuans.
Local Papuan elites legitimize their power by saying that their own people also have serious problems (backwardness, stupidity, poverty) and that they have solutions to solve these problems. However, the solution is Jakarta-made, not Papuan-made, and that is the problem.
When governor Enembe said we need an international solution rather than a national one, he was conscious of these games being played against his people in his homeland.
The Indonesian government exterminates Papuans by controlling both poison and antidote, but there is no antidote to begin with. It is all poison; the only difference is the label.
Markus Haluk’s words
Markus Haluk’s words make a desperate plea for help as they face what he terms “annihilation” due to Indonesia’s racism, responding to mass demonstration in his own homeland.
His words highlight that the only viable solution is to grant the people the right to self-determination to establish their nation-state and declare that the people’s voice is the voice of God.
As tragic and ironic as it is, it is highly unlikely that Haluk’s words “the voice of the people is the voice of God” will mean anything to the ruling class in Jakarta since in the past 20 years all the attacks, betrayals, torture, racism, and killings have been committed after these words were written on the Special Autonomy Law No 21/2001.
Section B in the Introduction part of the law reads: “That the Papua community as God’s creation and is part of a civilized people, who hold high Human Rights, religious values, democracy, law and cultural values in the adat (customary) law community and who have the right to fairly enjoy the results of development.”
It seems that these words are merely part of the theatrics — the drama of cruelty, torture and death.
Settler-colony – the logic of ‘destroy to replace’
Indonesia’s occupation in West Papua is not temporary — they are not simply taking resources and going home. The Indonesians want to make West Papua their permanent home.
This is a permanent population resettlement colonial project based on the logic of destroy to replace. Papuans are being destroyed — and even worse, they are being replaced by Indonesian settlers. They are powerless to stop the annihilation and perversion of their ancestral homelands.
To occupy and own the land is the ultimate goal of settlers. Settler states aim to eradicate Indigenous societies through what an Australian historian and scholar, Patrick Wolfe, refers to as a the “logic of elimination” in his paper, Settler colonialism and the elimination of the native (2006).
Colonialism through population resettlement is the most destructive form of colonial project underpinned by self-righteous, pathological rationality which exterminates the original inhabitants as a moral requirement to justify the process of replacing itself.
In this pathological project, genocide is not considered evil but a necessity to achieve its exterminating objective. That is why the assassination of Theys H. Eluay just three weeks after the passing of the Special Autonomy Law was perhaps seen as a necessary evil to satisfy this colonial project.
West Papua: not just another one of Indonesia’s provinces
Over the past 60 years, virtually all literature ever produced on West Papua failed to refer to it as a settler colony. The region is still treated as if it were just another province of Indonesia, and Jakarta insist on creating more provinces as if they have legal and moral rights. This is misleading and illegal considering Indonesia’s genocidal actions and the circumstances in which the region was incorporated into Indonesia in the 1960s.
Indonesia did not merely incorporate West Papua; it invaded an independent state by military force supported by Western governments by manipulating the UN’s system.
Our continued use of West Papua as a part of Indonesia has distorted our understanding of the nature of the Indonesianisation programme being carried out there.
We need to scrutinise Jakarta’s activities on West Papua’s soil with a settler-colonial lens. This will help us frame our questions and structure our languages differently regarding Indonesian activities in West Papua.
It will also help us to see how West Papua is being destroyed under settler colony, similar to how European colonisation destroyed Indigenous people in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and Canada.
We need to frame any administration centres of any type, whether religious, political, cultural, educational, legal, social or security forces established on West Papuan soil with a settler-colonial lens.
This will allow us to see how Jakarta created these parasitic colonial spaces camouflaged as province and regency to occupy, expand, and eventually exterminate its original inhabitants.
The settler-colonial system is a structure that facilitates this whole extermination project. Replacing one landscape for another, one people for another, one language for another, one system for another.
In light of this, it would appear that any law, policy, decree, regulation, or project enacted and enforced by Jakarta serves the purpose of eradicating the Papuan population from the land and replacing them with Indonesian settlers.
This has been done in Australia, America, Canada, and New Zealand, and now these Western powers are aiding Indonesia to do the same in West Papua.
Physically and psychologically, these new provinces (whether materialised or not) have become new battlefields in the war on Papuans. Indeed, Papuans are being forced onto these battle grounds, as in Rome’s Colosseums, to fight for their lives.
The most tragic outcome for Papuans is going to be Jakarta pitting brother against brother and sister against sister in Indonesian’s controlled colosseum of vile games. The blood of these young Papuans that was shed in Yahukimo during the recent demonstration, shows how Papuans are paying the ultimate price in this theatre of killing.
A way forward
Let the same mechanism of the UN that was used to betray West Papua 60 years ago be used to deliver overdue justice for the Papuan people.
United States of America, the Netherlands, Indonesia and their allies of all kinds — thieves, criminals, thugs, militias and multinational bandits who betrayed the Papuan people and continue to drain them of their natural resources must take responsibility for their crimes against Papuans.
Countless of Resolutions on West Papuan human rights issues that have been written on paper in the offices of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), African, Caribbean, and Pacific States (ACP), UN Human Rights Council (UNHC), and European Union (EU) must be materialised to end this tragic and unjust war Papuans are forced to face on their own.
These institutions need to unite and put their words into actions if they place any value on human life.
If no action is taken in these resolutions, their words only serve the imperial purposes, such as these meaningless words used in the Law 21/2001 on Special Autonomy, providing false hope to deceive people whose lives and lands are already at stake.
Remember what Markus Haluk wrote on March 10 — reproduced in the introduction to this article — calling on the world’s humanity to listen to the voices of two million Papuans and to intervene.
Yamin Kogoya is a West Papuan academic who has a Master of Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development from the Australian National University and who contributes to Asia Pacific Report. From the Lani tribe in the Papuan Highlands, he is currently living in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
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.”
Students from West Papua have been facing a stressful time in New Zealand since the beginning of the year after Indonesia said it would no longer fund their autonomous Papuan scholarships and wanted them repatriated home.
One student from the Central Highlands in West Papua that RNZ Pacific has spoken to says he has had his dreams of a brighter future shattered by the Indonesian government.
Laurens Ikinia is a Master of Communications student at Auckland University of Technology (AUT), who has been ordered home just when he was due to complete his studies this month.
“The government has terminated the scholarships of 42 students here in Aotearoa who are the recipients of Papua provincial government scholarships and I am one of the students who was terminated, and this is worrying me,” Ikinia said.
West Papua’s struggles began in 1962 when the former Dutch colony was controversially and forcibly annexed by the Indonesian military through the New York agreement signed by the Netherlands and Indonesia.
In 1969, Western countries oversaw the takeover from the Netherlands to Indonesia and the right of self-determination was stripped from West Papuans.
“We are just surviving and 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.
Of the 42 students impacted on by the new policy, 27 were on course to finish their studies.
‘Lame’ reason for policy change
The reason given by Indonesian authorities that the students were being recalled because they were failing in their studies was “lame”, Ikenia said.
“We don’t see that there will be a good future when the concerned students will go home. Most of the students come from low-income families. Even some parents cannot afford to send their children to pursue education up to tertiary level.
“I have not finished my thesis yet because my team and I have been busy with advocacy. However, I am determined to finish my study within this month,” he said.
“We have tried our best through various channels to communicate and negotiate with the Indonesian government in Jakarta, and the Papuan provincial government. However, as of today, there is no positive response.
“The provincial government stated in the letter that they would no longer support the students on the list. We have provided the complete data of the concerned students to clarify the data that the provincial government has, but they still stick to their decision to repatriate the concerned students.
“We are so heartbroken by this decision,” Ikinia said.
The students have approached the Green Party to lobby the New Zealand government on their behalf to try to resolve the issue.
Some of the West Papuan students in Aotearoa New Zealand pictured with Papua Provincial Governor Lukas Enembe (front centre) during his visit in 2019. Image: APR
Green MPs meet students
Green Party MPs Ricardo Menendez March and Teanau Tuiono met with West Papuan students last week.
The Greens have asked the government for a scholarship fund to support those West Papuan students impacted by this funding decision.
They are also seeking a residency pathway for West Papuan students whose welfare is impacted on as a result of their scholarship fund being cut.
Additionally, they have asked the government to ensure students from West Papua remain safely housed in affordable accommodation because many students are on the verge of termination by their landlords.
The Greens were awaiting a response from the government.
All the West Papuan students, the recipients of the Papua provincial foreign scholarship in New Zealand, have not received their allowance and living costs since January.
“We have been receiving a lot of pressure from landlords and property owners. Some students have received a final warning from the owners,” Ikinia said.
“I still don’t know what is going to happen if we don’t pay the rent. For instance, I received the final warning email today.”
He thanked AUT for understanding his plight.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
It may be hard, but Sam Wainwright argues we can show solidarity with Ukrainian peoples’ struggle for self-determination and the Russian peace movement and, at the same time, call out the West’s hypocrisy and militarism.
However, we cannot take our eyes off our own rulers’ militarism. That means campaigning to stop Australia’s participation in AUKUS, the Quad and ANZUS and ending the $100 billion nuclear submarine deal including the setting up a nuclear-powered submarine base on the east coast.
Three years on from the Christchurch terror attacks on 15 March 2019, Mahvash Ikram writes an open letter to her young son telling him one day he will learn how the Muslim community was targeted, but that shouldn’t scare him from going to a mosque.
Dear son,
You’re not yet two, but you’ve already been to the mosque several times. You don’t understand what happens there, but you love to copy what everyone does. You already know how to say Allah-o-Akbar, and it has become an essential part of your ever-growing vocabulary.
Some would say Muslims start early with their young and I agree wholeheartedly.
So, here’s your first lesson — never be ashamed of your beliefs.
But, remember your vocabulary also includes salam, which means peace. So, practise your faith in peace.
Not long from now, you will understand the concept of standing in prayer behind the imam.
And that’s when we will take you to the mosque for your first ever Friday prayer, Jummah.
We will most likely go as a family, and maybe a few friends will come along too. I will make a big deal out of it. Mothers are embarrassing in all cultures — especially your mum, just ask your older sister.
A white shirt
We will dress you in new clothes, probably a white shirt that will be a bit tight around your pudgy little tummy. It will no doubt get stained with your favourite lunch, which will be ready for you when you come home.
Soon you will learn Friday prayer is a bit of a celebration for Muslims — clean clothes, a hearty home-cooked meal and lots of people to meet at the mosque. It will be an important part of your social calendar, second only to the two big festival prayers.
I look forward to all of it, except one thing — one day you will learn about the March 15 terrorist attacks.
You will learn someone targeted innocent members of your community for their faith.
Al Noor Mosque in Christchurch … strewn with flowers and offerings honouring the victims of the terror attack there on 15 March 2019. Image: Alex Perrottet/RNZ
And that’s your second lesson, sometimes you will be treated unkindly for your beliefs. You are not alone, there are other communities that suffer the same fate.
Remember — this has nothing to do with you. You are not responsible for a fault in another person’s head.
Trust me, it will be a rude awakening — just like it was for the rest of our country. It is often called the end of Aotearoa’s innocence. Lots of people, including children, were killed and injured that day.
It still hurts
One of those who died was a three-year-old who went to the mosque with his older brother.
Another child was shot but survived. Lots of children lost their parents too. It still hurts.
Tributes and flowers left outside Al-Noor Mosque in Christchurch after the terror attacks. Image: Isra’a Emhail/RNZ
Most grown-ups around you are trying to make sure something like this never happens again in Aotearoa and around the world.
Sometimes we fail, but we are trying.
Hate is an ugly emotion, too big for one’s body. When it takes over, it makes people cruel. They say and do things that can seriously hurt for a very long time. The worst part is these people don’t even realise how horrible they are.
You will also hear of people who practise your faith, but carry a similar hatred. Stay away from them. They, too, destroy families. Denounce them openly.
People may call you names, they may provoke you to fight back and say your religion teaches violence. It is not true. Ignore them.
Keep this verse of the Quran close to your heart and have patience with what they say and leave them with noble (dignity).
Don’t be scared
Don’t let all of this scare you from going to the mosque.
In fact, when you are a bit older I encourage you to go to all sorts of places of worship, whether it’s a mosque, a temple or a church, you will find tranquility and calm.
Don’t be afraid to know others and learn about their views, it is how we rid the world of hate.
Our religion teaches us to respect all other humans regardless of their faith, race, ethnic origin, gender, or social status.
I understand all this information might make you a bit nervous. It is a lot to take in for a little boy your age. But some grown ups just never got on to it and look at what that’s done.
So, let’s get started. After all, we Muslims do start a bit early with our young.
All my love,
Xoxoxo
Mummy
Mahvash Ikram is on the staff at Radio New Zealand. This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
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.
Two parties of New Caledonia’s pro-independence FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front) movement have restated their intention to attain the territory’s decolonisation from France after last December’s referendum – mostly boycotted by the indigenous Kanak population — in which a majority of voters opted to stay with France.
The two parties, Palika and the Caledonian Union, held their first key meetings since the plebiscite over the weekend after the covid-19 outbreak forced the cancellation of their planned gatherings in January.
They restated that they did not recognise the referendum result, which showed 96.5 percent voted against independence.
Pro-independence parties boycotted the vote after France refused to defer the third and final referendum under the Noumea Accord, rejecting concerns about the impact of the pandemic on the indigenous Kanak population.
Consequently, turnout plummeted to below 44 percent, in contrast to the second referendum in 2020 when turnout was more than 85 percent.
The Kanak said already before the last vote that the result would be invalid because it excluded the voice of the colonised people.
Rejecting the outcome of the plebiscite, the pro-independence parties mounted a court challenge in France, and plan to campaign internationally for its annulment.
New independence referendum by 2024
At the weekend Palika Congress, spokesperson Charles Washetine suggested holding another independence referendum by 2024 to complete the decolonisation process — this time with the participation of the Kanak people.
Washetine added that it should be run by the United Nations.
In December, the pro-independence side also said it would not enter any negotiations with Paris until after the French presidential election in April.
Political parties have been asked to submit suggestions of what the new statute of a New Caledonia with France should look like.
The plan is to include civil society in its preparation and have a document ready by June next year for New Caledonians to vote on.
The pro-independence side has so far rejected any co-operation in any such project, insisting that its talks with Paris will only be about ways of winning independence.
The vote in December ended the 1998 Noumea Accord, but its provisions leave the current institutions in place until a post-accord arrangement has been adopted.
Caledonian Union leader Daniel Goa … changing the roll would be a “serious political mistake”. Image: RNZ/AFP
Restrictions in the electoral roll to indigenous people and long-term residents remain, but the anti-independence side would like the voter eligibility widened to include the about 40,000 French citizens currently excluded from referendums and provincial elections.
The Caledonian Union leader, Daniel Goa, told the weekend party meeting that changing the roll would be a serious political mistake.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Women’s participation in decision-making is fundamental to improving gender equality but despite making up half of Fiji’s population, representation at all levels of leadership for women is severely lacking, says an opposition political leader.
The leader of the Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA), Viliame Gavoka, said this in his statement as the international community commemorates International Women’s Day today.
He said knowing that bias existed was not enough, action was needed to level the playing field.
Gavoka said that for far too long, Fiji had continued to “shamelessly lag behind” in protecting and promoting women’s rights and their peace-building expertise.
“A study carried out by the Fiji Women Right’s Movement reveals that 42 percent of Fiji boards or executive committees of for-profit or non-profit organisations or government agencies have no women at all and 26 percent have less than one-third female participation,” Gavoka said.
“The research on gender diversity and equality on boards looked at 192 board members across 38 government-controlled organisations and state-owned enterprises,” he said.
“The purpose of the research was to determine the level of women’s representation in the boards of the 38 entities.”
Lack of diversity
He said the research also identified challenges that limited the participation of women in Fiji’s leadership, such as lack of diversity and opportunity for women elected to preside as board chair.
“According to the research, women hold only 18 percent of board chair positions and sometimes it is the same women appointed as chair of boards in multiple organisations,” he said.
“In many cases, the same people are on multiple boards. This curtails the opportunities for others to join, contribute and gain board experience.
“Ensuring that women are better represented on boards is important to dismantle patriarchal ideals that are heavily entrenched into our society and limit women’s participation in decision-making.
“There is strong evidence that a gender-equal and diverse governance board improves accountability and diversifies the expertise, knowledge and skills available.”
Gavoka said that when SODELPA would be voted into government, they would ensure to “break barriers and accelerate progress”, including:
setting specific targets and timelines to achieve gender balance in all branches of government and at all levels through temporary special measures such as quotas and appointments; and
encouraging political parties to nominate equal numbers of women and men as candidates and implement policies and programmes promoting women’s leadership.
“On this year’s International Women’s Day, we should also pause and reflect on the sacrifices of our women in all facets of society despite the challenges they’ve endured to bring change and progress.”
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;
SPECIAL REPORT:By Giff Johnson, editor of the Marshall Islands Journal and RNZ Pacific correspondent
Micronitor News and Printing Company founder Joe Murphy moved the goal posts of freedom of press and freedom of expression in the Marshall Islands, a country that had virtually no tradition of either, by establishing an independent newspaper that today is the longest running weekly in the Micronesia region.
Murphy’s sharp intellect, fierce independence, vision for creating a community newspaper, bilingual language ability, and resilience in the face of adversity saw him navigate hurdles — including high tide waves that in 1979 washed printing presses out of the Micronitor building and into the street — to successfully establish a printing company and newspaper in the challenging business environment of 1970s Majuro.
Murphy, who died at age 79 in the United States last week, was the original sceptic, who revelled in the politically incorrect.
At 25, he arrived in the Marshall Islands capital Majuro in the mid-1960s and was dispatched by the Peace Corps to Ujelang, the atoll of the nuclear exiles from Enewetak bomb tests that was a textbook definition of the term “in the back of beyond.” A ship once a year, and no radio, TV, telephones or mail.
Still, Joe thrived as an elementary teacher, survived food shortages and hordes of rats, endearing him to a generation of Ujelang people as an honorary member of the exiled community.
After Ujelang, he wrapped up his two-year Peace Corps stint by taking over teaching an unruly urban centre public school class after the previous teacher walked out. He rewrote what he deemed boring curriculum and taught in military style, replete with chants in English.
These experiences in pre-1970s Marshall Islands fuelled his desire to return. After his Peace Corps tour, some time to travel the world, and a brief return to the US, Murphy headed back to Majuro.
No money, but a vision
He had no money to speak of, but he had a vision and he set out to make it happen.
“He was determined to start a newspaper written in both the English and Marshallese languages,” recalls fellow Peace Corps Volunteer Mike Malone, the co-founder with Murphy of what was initially known as Micronitor.
Marshall Islands Journal founder and publisher Joe Murphy in the late 2010s … “Freedom of the press belongs to those who own one.” – “I own one.” Image: Giff Johnson/RNZ
In late 1969, they began constructing a small newspaper building, mixing concrete and laying the foundation block-by-block with the help of a few friends.
Before the building was completed, however, they launched the Micronitor in 1970, printing from Malone’s house.
The Micronitor would be renamed later to the Micronesian Independent for a bit before finding its identity as the Marshall Islands Journal.
Writing in the Journal in 1999, Murphy commented: “The 30th anniversary of this publication is an event most of us who remember the humble beginnings of the Journal are surprised to see.
“February 13, 1970 was a Friday, an unlucky day to begin an enterprise by most reckonings, and the two guys who were spearheading the operation were Irish-extract alcohol aficionados with very little or no newspaper experience.
A worthy undertaking
“They also, between the two of them, had practically no money, and of course should never, had they any commonsense, even attempted such a worthy undertaking.
“But circumstances and time were on their side, and with all potential serious investors steering clear of such a dubious exercise they had the opportunity to make a great number of mistakes without an eager competitor ready and willing to capitalise on them.”
With Murphy at the helm, it wasn’t long before the Journal earned a reputation far beyond the shores of the tiny Pacific outpost of Majuro. Murphy encouraged local writers, and spiced the newspaper with pithy comment and attacks on US Trust Territory authorities and the Congress of Micronesia.
Joe Murphy in Majuro in the mid-1970s, a few years after launching the Marshall Islands Journal, which would go on to be the longest publishing weekly newspaper in the Micronesia area. Image: Giff Johnson/RNZ
In the late 1980s and 1990s Murphy built two bars and restaurants, local-style places that appealed to Majuro residents as well as visitors. He also built the Backpacker Hotel, a modest cost accommodation that turned into a popular outpost for fisheries observers awaiting their next assignment at sea, low-budget journalists, environmentalists and assorted consultants.
“The first thing that people think about when it comes to my father is that he is a very successful businessman here in the Marshall Islands,” said his eldest daughter Rose Murphy, who manages the company today.
“But we need to remember him as someone who wanted to give the Republic of the Marshall Islands a voice.”
“To say Joe was a unique person is a large understatement,” said Health Secretary and former Peace Corps Volunteer Jack Niedenthal.
An icon with impact
“He was an icon and had a profound impact on our country because he fostered free speech and demanded that those in our government always be held publicly accountable for their actions.”
A plaque in his office defined his independent personality and his appreciation of the power of the press. It quoted the famous American journalist AJ Liebling: “Freedom of the press belongs to those who own one.” This was followed by a three-word comment: “I own one.” – Joe Murphy.
“He fought for freedom of speech and fought against discrimination,” said Rose Murphy. “Regardless of race, religion, and even status, he befriended people from all parts of the world and from all walks of life.”
In the mid-1990s, Joe Murphy created what became the justly famous motto of the Journal, the “world’s worst newspaper.” It was a reaction to the more politically correct mottos of other newspapers.
Those three words led to wide international media exposure. In 1994, the Boston Globe conducted a survey of the world’s worst newspapers, reviewing a batch of Journals Murphy mailed.
When the Globe reporter concluded that despite its claim, the Journal not only didn’t rank as the world’s worst newspaper it was “a first-class newspaper,” Murphy’s reaction was to say, “We must have sent you the wrong issues.”
The Marshall Islands Journal was the subject of scrutiny by the Boston Globe to determine if publisher Joe Murphy’s claim that the Journal was the “World’s Worst Newspaper” was accurate. Image: Giff Johnson/RNZ
Murphy knew the key to successful newspaper publishing was not how nicely or otherwise the newspaper was packaged, or if a photograph was in colour. The most important ingredient in any successful local newspaper is original content, intelligently and interestingly written.
‘Livened up’ the Journal
He did more than his fair share to liven up the Journal, from the time of its launch until poor health after 2019 prevented his engagement in the newspaper.
“My father experienced extreme hardships on Ujelang along with his adopted Marshallese family, the exiled people of Enewetak Atoll, who were moved to Ujelang to make way for US nuclear tests in the late 1940s,” said daughter Rose.
“He shared these hardships with his children to give them the perspective of being grateful for any little thing we had. If we had a broken shoe or little food, he shared with us this story.
“Our father, to us, is a symbol of resilience and gratitude. Be resilient in tough situations.”
From growing up among eight children of Irish immigrant parents in the United States to the austerity of Ujelang Atoll to the early days of establishing what would become the longest publishing weekly newspaper in the Micronesia region, Murphy was indeed a symbol of resilience and independence, able to navigate tough situations with alacrity.
One of the first editions of the Majuro newspaper in 1970, then known as Micronitor. Image: Giff Johnson/RNZ
“Democracy was able to establish a toehold, and then a firm grip, in the Western Pacific in part because of a handful of journalism pioneers who believed in the power of truth, particularly Joe Murphy on Majuro,” said veteran Pacific island journalist Floyd K Takeuchi.
“He had the courage to challenge the powers that be, including those of the chiefly kind, to be better, and to do better.
“People forget that for many years, the long-term future of the Marshall Islands Journal wasn’t a sure thing. With every issue of the weekly newspaper, Joe’s legacy is made firmer in the islands he so loved.”
Murphy is survived by his wife Thelma, by children Rose, Catherine “Katty,” John, Suzanne, Margaret “Peggy,” Molly, Fintan, Sam, Charles “Kainoa,” Colleen “Naki,” Patrick “Jojo”, Sean, Sylvia Zedkaia and Deardre Korean, and by 32 grandchildren.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Like the many similar movements against vaccine mandates and other pandemic restrictions around the world, New Zealand’s protests have expressed a unifying concern with personal freedoms.
One of the highest-profile groups at the occupation of Parliament grounds in Wellington was “Voices for Freedom”. The occupation itself began with a “freedom convoy”, and many of the signs and placards around the makeshift camp made “freedom” their focus.
And while that particular protest ended in chaos, it seems likely the various movements behind it will continue to make “freedom” their rallying cry.
The extent to which personal freedoms are limited as part of living in a functioning society is ultimately a moral concern about the role of government. But this also requires a clear understanding of the nature of freedom in the first place, and what it means to be a free person in a free society.
At the heart of this lies the distinction between a narrow conception of freedom known as “negative liberty” and the wider concept of “positive liberty”.
The former, seemingly preferred by the protesters, implies a freedom from imposed restrictions on people’s behaviour — such as lockdowns and vaccine passes or mandates.
The counter-argument is that reasonable restrictions, if justified to prevent significant harm from covid-19, actually increase overall freedom. In that sense, the freedom to behave in certain ways becomes a “positive liberty”.
Negative liberty, he said, means the absence of external obstacles or constraints, such as coercive interference by governments.
Negative liberty … a sign erected by protesters camped outside Parliament buildings. Image: The Conversation/GettyImages
By contrast, positive liberty means the ability to do the things you want to do. It is associated with self-realisation or self-determination — being in control of one’s own destiny. The protest slogan “my body, my choice”, for instance, is an appeal to individual negative liberty — freedom from mandates and restrictions.
But it’s not possible to simultaneously maximise both negative and positive liberty. There are inevitably trade-offs. If the protesters had their way, New Zealanders would have more negative liberty but less positive liberty.
Overall, we argue, people would be less free.
Nearly all laws restrict negative liberty, but their effect on positive liberty varies dramatically. For example, laws prohibiting theft restrict negative liberty — they restrict people’s freedom to steal with impunity.
But do such restrictions make you feel un-free? Quite the contrary, laws against theft increase positive liberty. They allow us to feel more secure, and because we don’t have to keep a constant eye on our property, we can do other things.
Positive and negative liberty … Isaiah Berlin (standing) at a music festival in Britain in 1959. Image: The Conversation/GettyImages
Justified limits on liberty Thinking of freedom only through a lens of negative liberty involves a critical problem — it ignores the fact that our actions affect other people: the freedom to drink and drive restricts other people’s ability to use the streets safely; the freedom to smoke in public places exposes others to the potential harms of secondhand fumes.
In general, the choices we make — even concerning our own bodies and what we choose to consume — have moral implications for how and where we can participate in society. Giving people freedom to visit certain places while unvaccinated against covid-19 restricts other people’s ability to visit those places safely.
Vaccinated New Zealanders currently enjoy high levels of positive liberty. Life is nearly normal. Crucially, though, this freedom depends on policies designed to reduce the threat of the disease — high rates of vaccination, vaccine certificates and mandates for certain key roles, masks and temporary restrictions on large gatherings to reduce the spread.
Such policies constitute a slight loss of negative liberty. Without these policies, however, positive liberty would be much reduced. New Zealanders could not visit places like gyms, pools, restaurants and shops without fear of catching a potentially deadly disease.
New Zealand has enjoyed more freedom over the past two years than nearly anywhere else, but it has only been possible through restrictions on negative liberty to reduce the risk of covid-19.
Restriction and risk Isaiah Berlin was rightly concerned about the potential slippery slope towards totalitarian control inherent in appeals to positive freedom, as witnessed in the Soviet Union where severe restrictions on speech, movement, assembly, literary expression and much else were imposed in the name of “freedom” (namely the freedom to be a good Soviet).
But slippery slopes can be resisted and the risk here seems slight. For covid policies that restrict negative liberty to enhance overall freedom, they must be necessary to promote positive liberty, responsive to the evidence, and proportional to the threat.
One sign we are not on a slippery slope to totalitarianism: covid restrictions change with, and are proportional to, the risk.
Last year, when New Zealand had zero covid-19 cases, lockdowns ended and restrictions were few; when the threat increased, restrictions did, proportionally.
Restrictions on negative liberty should be adopted with care and subject to continual review. All citizens, protesters included, are right to value freedom and to be wary of heavy-handed, top-down control.
But that is not the same as calling for an end to covid-19 rules because such rules limit freedom. A clearer understanding of positive liberty allows us to see that restrictions designed to protect us from covid-19 actually enhance our overall freedom.
In the meantime, the country has embarked on an often haphazard reform programme of its military which has made it — while still vulnerable in many vital respects — a rather more formidable force.
Since 2014-15, Ukraine has tripled its defence budget and attempted to modernise its forces — not only to defend themselves against Russia, but to comply with the standards demanded by Nato as an entry requirement.
The results have been mixed. On paper their army looks impressive — with 800 or so heavy tanks and thousands of other armoured vehicles protecting and transporting a regular force of about 200,000.
These are far better trained troops than in 2014. They have good leadership, especially in the crucial non-commissioned officer cadre — the backbone of any army. Vitally, most observers report high morale and motivation.
But this is only part of the story. Most of their armour and equipment is relatively old and, although factories have been turning out modernised versions of old models such as the T72 tank, these provide little in the way of effective opposition to the far more modern Russian tanks and armoured vehicles — some of which are equal or superior to the best Nato stock.
A Russian armoured personnel carrier crippled in the opening exchanges of the invasion. Image: Ukrainian Defence Ministry handout/EPA-EFE/
Further, the Ukrainian army is vulnerable both to Russian artillery, traditionally the Red Army’s most formidable arm, and the threat posed by Russian strike aircraft.
Ukraine’s air force possesses a considerable fleet of Cold War-era aircraft and personnel are well-organised and trained. But Russia has configured its “aerospace forces” to gain and maintain crucial control of the air using, among other systems, the fearsome S400 long-range anti-aircraft missiles.
These systems give the most advanced Nato air forces serious pause for thought, let alone the 1990s vintage fighters and bombers of Ukraine.
Advanced Russian fighters and missiles will dominate the sky in due course although the Ukrainians have achieved some successes against the expectations of many.
There are credible reports that Ukrainian fighters are still flying and remarkably have shot down several Russian jets. Their old — but in the right hands still effective — anti-aircraft missiles have also caused Russian losses, according to Ukrainian sources.
The navy is now militarily insignificant — the more so since much of it appears to have been sunk in harbour within 24 hours of the beginning of hostilities.
Strengths and weaknesses But this is not a foregone conclusion. Ukrainian generals are highly unlikely to play to Russian strengths and deploy forces to be obliterated by their artillery or air power.
They have seen all too much of that in the past. In July 2014 a formation of Ukrainian troops was destroyed by a rocket artillery strike in eastern Ukraine.
What was notable was the way the rockets were guided to their targets by drones operated by Russian-supported separatist troops.
Focusing on equipment quality or quantity alone is always a big mistake. In the UK, military thinking outlines “three components of fighting power”. These are the moral (morale, cohesion, motivation), conceptual (strategy, innovation and military “doctine”) and material (weaponry).
It is one thing having the advantage in the material component of war, it is quite another to turn it into success. The Ukrainians will try to exploit Russia’s vulnerability to having to wage a lengthy military campaign with the potential to sustain politically damaging heavy casualties.
Many Ukrainians have a basic awareness of weapon handling — the several hundred thousand reservists called up as Russia invaded certainly do. They may be light on modern tanks and sophisticated weaponry, but may well have the edge in the moral and conceptual domains.
There is a strong tradition of partisan warfare in Ukraine where ideas of “territorial defence” — insurgent groups fighting small actions on ground they know well backed up, where possible, by regular army units — are deeply ingrained.
In the early days of the Cold War after the country had been liberated from German occupation, the anti-Soviet “Insurgent Army” was only finally defeated in 1953. During this time they caused tens of thousands of casualties.
It may have been largely forgotten by the rest of the world, but this conflict is well remembered in Ukraine.
The vaunted Russian armed forces have already deployed a large proportion of their ground troops, and have a very limited capability either to occupy ground contested by insurgents or — even more importantly — to sustain operations beyond the first “break-in” phase of the war.
The last thing Putin wants is a protracted war, with bloody urban combat and echoes of Chechnya — which is what Ukrainian forces are likely to give him.
War takes its own course, but the likely and sensible Ukrainian approach will be to trade land for time. They will hope to inflict casualties and draw Russian forces into urban areas where their advantages are less pronounced.
In the event of defeat in the field, Ukraine’s defenders could well default to a well-armed, highly-motivated and protracted insurgency, probably supported by the West. This is Putin’s nightmare.
The other side of that particular coin is that Western support of such “terrorism” could attract an unpredictable and highly dangerous response.
In his “declaration of war” speech, Putin threatened “such consequences as you have never encountered in your history” to those who “try to hinder us”, clearly referencing Russia’s vast nuclear arsenal. In the face of defeat or humiliation rationality may be in short supply.
West Papuan human rights defender Victor Yeimo has been formally indicted on charges of “treason” by Indonesian authorities at the Jayapura District Court.
The authorities have been trying to get Yeimo, who is the leader of the pro-independence West Papua National Committee (KNPB) in court since May last year.
In the indictment he is accused of treason for pushing for West Papua’s independence.
The court hearing was on Monday and he is due to appear again on Friday.
Yeimo had been arrested by police in Jayapura in May last year after they had been seeking to arrest him for two years.
The arrest was because Yeimo called for a referendum on Papuan independence during anti-racism protests which ended in riots in Papua and West Papua provinces in 2019.
He had initially gone to court in August last year but he was very ill and his lawyers sought a postponement.
Yeimo’s international lawyer, Veronica Koman, said at that time that he was so ill he could die at anytime.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Ikinia was still a child when he witnessed Indonesian security forces open fire at a market in Wamena, the largest highland town in West Papua’s Baliem Valley.
What began as a raid on an armoury led to a two-month operation by the Indonesian Army and National Police. Thousands of villagers were displaced, civilians killed.
It was a response to increasing cries for West Papuan independence.
Some healing in NZ
The trauma of that day lasts, says Ikinia, but in the recent years, studying in New Zealand he has experienced some healing.
Ikinia is one of 125 West Papuan students in Aotearoa, arriving in 2015 and 2016 on a scholarship to study abroad.
He aspires to write Pasifika stories, about the people and places largely ignored by the international media.
He is close to completing a Master of Communications at Auckland University of Technology.
However, the domino effect of legislative changes in Jakarta means the 27-year-old stands to lose it all.
Papuan provincial Governor Lukas Enembe … established a scholarship programme for Papuans to study abroad. Image: West Papua Today
A couple of years before the violence in Wamena, Papua Provincial Governor Lukas Enembe established a scholarship programme for Papuans to study abroad.
‘Inspired thinking’
“It was inspired thinking on his part,” says Professor David Robie, retired director of the Pacific Media Centre and editor of Asia Pacific Report (APR).
“Get them educated outside West Papua, outside Indonesia, and come back with fresh ideas.”
But in 2021, the money dried up.
In a 20-year legislative review, the central Indonesian government passed a bill ratifying sweeping amendments to the Special Autonomy Law, effectively diverting money and authority away from the provinces.
Despite widespread opposition by West Papuans and calls for an independence referendum instead, the funds propping up several provincial programmes, including the scholarships were allocated elsewhere.
A letter to the Indonesian embassy with a list of names — 39 students in New Zealand, and dozens of others overseas, were to be sent home.
‘Underperforming’ students
A translation of the letter says underperforming students and those who had not completed their study in the allocated timeframe would be repatriated by December 31, 2021.
Ikinia’s name is on the list.
“It doesn’t make sense at all,” he says.
“Based on my track record, I was one of the ones that completed the programme the fastest.”
He says all postgraduate students were given a three-month thesis extension due to covid interruptions.
“I am just about to finish.”
He says the decision to recall students is based on incorrect data held by the Provincial Government’s Human Resources Department Bureau (HRDB).
Many phone calls
“We have had a number of phone calls. It seems like people in the department don’t hold the data according to the latest results.
“It’s totally wrong. I did not start my masters in 2016.”
Papuan Student Association in Oceania president Yan Wenda … an Indonesian law change “affects the students studying abroad”. Image: Otago Uni
It’s politics, says Yan Wenda, president of the Papuan Student Association in Oceania, and a postgraduate student at the University of Otago.
“The central government in Jakarta changed the law without any input from the provincial government.
“They did the review, and in some areas changed how they managed the money between the provinces and the districts.
“It affects the students studying abroad.”
He says calls to the bureau confirmed this.
‘The money is not here’
“[They said] ‘the money is not here. It’s just not happening for you guys, you’ll have to come back home.’”
He says not only have successful students been recalled, but also the allowance for others has stopped.
“As students we are desperate to pay our rent. We haven’t had any allowance in two months.
Wenda and student presidents from the United States and Canada — where 81 students were recalled, Russia, Germany, and Japan signed it.
Sustainability of the governor’s policy
They requested the 10 per cent fund allocation for the education sector return to the Papua Provincial Government “for the continuity and sustainability of the governor’s policy to develop Papuan human resources”.
“Don’t kill Papuan human resources anymore with political policy.”
The students have since demanded that the Indonesian Embassy facilitate a dialogue with Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
Professor David Robie … “self-determination … the rights of Melanesians to education” is at stake. Image: Alyson Young/APR
“It is a really sad development,” says Professor Robie.
“It’s all political by Jakarta. It’s all about self-determination, all about denying the rights of Melanesians in the two provinces of Papua to define their own future.”
He says the Jakarta government is uncomfortable with the student scholarships, and says the premise for repatriation was baseless.
“They are trying to curb the rights of Papuan students to get an education overseas.
‘Fundamentally changed’
“What has fundamentally changed is that (provincial) autonomy, that right to send those students to where they want to go.
The letter said the Indonesian government was committed to ensuring the right to education for all Indonesian citizens.
In response to questions from the Times-Age the embassy refuted claims that repatriation of students was politically motivated and said the HRDB did not recall students based on academic performance alone.
Length of study and the students’ disciplinary records were also taken into account.
A spokesperson said they could not speak to the accuracy of the information used recall students. However, they said the decision was the result of a thorough assessment by the bureau.
Conceded adjustments made
They denied budget cuts to the Papuan Special Autonomy Fund were responsible, but conceded adjustments were made to the “budgetary system”.
In response to the demands for dialogue with the president:
“[We] have duly engaged and in coordination with concerned students, Students’ Coordinator, student organisations, and the Provincial Government of Papua to further discuss the issue at hand.”
Wenda and Ikinia say scholarship students around the world are united in their stance, they will not return home.
“We are demanding our rights to education. We have no political agenda at all,” Ikinia says.
“The government claims that we have a hidden political agenda, this is totally incorrect and unacceptable. We have been always participating in the events that the Indonesian Embassy has been hosting.”
When Indonesia staged a Pacific Exposition in Auckland in 2019, Papuan students actively participated in the event. Most of the Papuan students participated as local ambassadors to accompany the diplomats and delegations who came from the Pacific.
“I myself have also been the president of the Indonesian Students Association in Palmerston North and at the same time vice-president of Indonesian Students in New Zealand in 2018-19.”
‘Trauma healing’
Ikinia says West Papuans have become a minority in their own land, and suffering is not an anomaly.
“In New Zealand I realised how other people could treat us, like family,” he says.
“This is the treatment we should receive from the Indonesian government.”
He believes coming to New Zealand goes beyond academic achievement.
“It is part of the journey to find the potential in my life. And it’s part of the trauma healing.”
He says the New Zealand government is in a position to help the students, by acknowledging their Pasifika status.
“We are not Asians, we are Melanesians.
“We know NZ is a generous country that helps minority groups. We hope in this difficult time the New Zealand government will open its arms and have us as part of their Pacific family.”
Some of the West Papuan students in Aotearoa New Zealand pictured with Papua provincial Governor Lukas Enembe (front centre) during his visit in 2019. Image: APR
Last week the Bougainville Autonomous Government announced an agreement had been reach with Panguna landowners to reopen the island’s controversial gold and copper mine.
Once the backbone of the Papua New Guinea economy, Panguna has been idle since the civil war began more than 30 years ago — a war the mine was at least partly responsible for.
But now the leaders of the five major clans in the Panguna area — Basikang, Kurabang, Bakoringu, Barapang and Mantaa — have said they will allow the mine to reopen.
KMcQ: “This is hugely significant. It’s significant for the people of Bougainville, the Bougainville Autonomous Government, the national government, and, dare I say, probably the whole region. But on the other hand, it also creates a huge dilemma for the national government. Panguna was probably the second biggest copper and gold mine in the world, and at one point and accounted for two fifths of Papua New Guinea’s GDP.
“So when it was operating, that was a huge source of income for the national government. But it wasn’t so much of course, for the people of Bougainville, which prompted the 10 years civil war in part. The other element of that civil war, apart from the poor income that the operators gave the people of Bougainville was the environmental damage to the island of Bougainville.”
DW: President Ishmael Toroama has said that being able to open Panguna again is a critical step on the road to independence, in terms of showing economic viability.
KMcQ: “Yes. And that’s reflected also in the fact that there’s been mounting pressure over the last probably 10 or more years for the mine to open because the generations coming through have had very little in the way of food, shelter, clothing, educational opportunities, so on and so forth. And a lot of that pressure to reopen has come from the younger generation, because they want the opportunities that they know exist.
“For the national government it creates the dilemma of having agreed to discuss Bougainville breaking away, but not wanting to break away. What does it do to keep Bougainville within the fold, because the potential income for not just for Bougainville but for the country as a whole is enormous — 42 percent of GDP when it was operating.
“It may not be as much when it does get back up and running, but it will certainly be a significant contributor to the PNG economy. So where [Prime Minister James] Marape and whoever takes over as prime minister, if he loses the election this year, goes with discussions on Bougainville and its independence is hugely significant for the country as a whole.”
DW: This idea that President Toroama has of it being a conduit to independence may in fact work in the other direction.
KMcQ: “Well, it all depends on the negotiating skills really. The other element that comes into play is that BCL — Bougainville Copper Ltd — is now jointly controlled by the Papua New Guinea government and the Bougainville Autonomous Government, through a company called Bougainville Minerals Ltd. They both own a 36.4 percent share in Bougainville Copper.
“Over the past few years there have been promises from the national government to transfer that 36.4 percent shareholding that the national government has to the people Bougainville, which would give it roughly 72 percent shareholding in Bougainville Copper. It’s never happened.
“The national government has held off transferring that money despite the promises that it would do so. And this is going to be a key negotiating point in the future of independence. The national government, of course, does not want Bougainville to go independent. And there are options. There are other options.
“It’s not a binary choice of either independence or not. It could be that the negotiations see the Bougainville area stay within, if you like the parameters of Papua New Guinea, but having a high degree of independence. But whatever that actually means, nobody’s really going to know until the negotiations finish.”
DW: Yes. So the PNG government could hold on to shareholding and still earn from Panguna. Even if it went to this lesser form of independence.
KMcQ: “Yes, it could. But you can really bet your bottom dollar that if the national government holds on to its 36.4 percent shareholding, which was given to it by Rio Tinto, despite those promises, that will be a matter of a court case.”
DW: Now you talk about a lot of people being very keen to see the mine reopened. But there are also many, many people who certainly don’t want to see it reopen.
KMcQ: “They do but what has given this announcement the impetus is that clan chiefs’ representatives from the five major clans from the area have agreed to this resolution to re-open the mine.
“There will always be opposition to reopening the mine. There always has been, even over the last 10 years, when previous president of Bougainville, Fr John Momis, wanted the mine to reopen.
“There was a significant minority. Well, a vocal minority is probably more accurate, deeply opposed to the reopening of mine on environmental grounds.”
Panguna tailings wasteland … “There will always be opposition to reopening the mine … on environmental grounds.” Image: HRLC/RNZ Pacific
DW: With these announcements the minuscule share price for Bougainville Copper has soared.
KMcQ: “Well, it has doubled on news of this announcement. And it means that BCL has a market capitalisation of around about NZ$260 to NZ$265 or NZ$270 million . The point about the doubling of the share prices is the support that it reflects for the re-opening of mine.
“Plus it also, it paves the way for a company to be a little bit more settled in the prospects of the process of reopening the mine. The last valuation that they had to reopen the mine, which was several years ago now, said that it would cost between around about NZ$6 billion to reopen the mine. But over its lifetime, it would earn roughly $75 billion.
“So it’s a high risk, high reward investment. But the fact that this resolution has been made, declared, share prices doubled. It means that Bougainville Copper is probably a lot more confident this week than it was last week that it could go ahead and do some preparatory work for the reopening of the mine, which could take five to seven years.”
DW: They are just eyewatering figures aren’t they?
KMcQ: Well, it shows the potential. I mean this is a mine that was the second biggest gold and copper mine in the world. And there will be a lot of companies, global companies keen to get involved. Rio Tinto has put its fingers into the air and sniffed the wind and it realises that this could finally happen.
DW: You mean Rio Tinto is lining up to to work with its former company?
KMcQ: “Well, it certainly looks that way. In 2016, because of the criticism that Rio Tinto had, or was receiving because of the huge environmental damage that it caused to the Bougainville area, it gave away its mine.
“It had a choice of either fixing up the environment or walking away, as it saw it. So it walked away — gave those shares equally to the Bougainville government and the national government. But now it wants to get back involved.
“And over the last week it has been talking about repairing some of the environmental damage that it caused during the mine’s operation. But there are other companies involved around the world, which could get involved.
“I’m thinking Glencore, the Swiss-based development company could get involved as well. Now, the reason why this is important is because BCL does not have the financial wherewithal to go and reopen the mine at a cost of $6 billion.
“And it’s only gotten roughly NZ$260 million in play. And really, it doesn’t have the expertise to reopen the mine, develop it, run it. It would have to go into partnership with one of the big mining companies Rio Tinto, or Glencore, or somebody else.
“The former president, Sir John Momis, had negotiations or had talked to China about the possibility of a Chinese company moving in and developing the mine. So in the current climate of debate around China’s role in South Pacific, one has to wonder just what impact that might have on the Australian, New Zealand, American governments.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
A global Papuan students abroad umbrella organisation has appealed for a meeting with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to air their grievances over changes to the scholarship system which they say are unfairly impacting on their studies.
In a statement today responding to a letter by the Indonesian Ambassador to New Zealand and the Pacific to Asia Pacific Report yesterday, the International Alliance of Papuan Students Association Overseas (IAPSAO) said: “Our demands are clear. So, the Indonesian Embassy should not obscure our demands.
“When the Indonesian Embassy does not fight to save 42 students in New Zealand and 84 students in the USA, we suspect that the Indonesian Embassy is also involved in the attempt to kill Papuan human resources.”
The student alliance which represents Papuan affiliates in Canada, Germany, Oceania (including Australia and New Zealand), Japan and Russia, challenged statements made by Ambassador Fientje Maritje Suebu published in Asia Pacific Report yesterday.
The embassy’s claim that students were being repatriated because of no progress “is not true and baseless”, according to the data issued by the Papua Province Human Resources Development Agency.
“Currently, all the students whose names are listed in the letter, are all studying in their respective programmes. Some are already in their second year, third year and some are finishing their final project or thesis,” said the IAPSAO statement signed by Oceania president Yan Piterson Wenda and four other student presidents.
The statement said that IAPSAO and the coordinator of the Papua province scholarship in New Zealand, “have investigated this … Some of the names listed on the list have completed their studies.
‘What is the motive?’
“We cannot find any reason why students who are making good progress are also listed. Therefore, we question what is the motive for this incorrect data?”
The statement cited a letter issued by the Papua Province Human Resources Development Agency dated 17 December 2021 regarding the termination of overseas scholarships — 42 students in New Zealand and 84 students in the USA.
“So, the numbers issued by the Indonesian Embassy — 39 students in New Zealand and 51 students in the United States — are incorrect.”
The IAPSAO reply to the Indonesian Embassy. Image: APR
While IAPSAO conceded there were no actual education budget cuts, it said the Jakarta central government had revoked the authority held by the governor as a regional head.
“The problem is not about the budget, but about the authority to set the budget and other important things,” the statement said.
“The sending and financing of Papuan students abroad are based on the ‘policy of the Governor’ Lukas Enembe, not from the central government.
“Once the Special Autonomy Law volume two was passed, the governor’s authority was also limited, and automatically it is affecting students, the recipients of Papua province Foreign Scholarship.”
The students added: “We have no political agenda in issuing public statements. We demand our right to study in peace and quiet.”
The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) plans to open a government branch office in the neighbouring Papua New Guinean capital of Port Moresby along with diplomacy offices to be based in Europe and the United Kingdom.
In a New Year message from interim president Benny Wenda, he has confirmed a strategic office reshuffle around the world.
“The headquarters will be based inside West Papua, and the international office in Port Vila,” he said in the statement.
“We are opening a government branch in Port Moresby, and our diplomatic coordination offices will be based in the UK and Europe.
“This is another step in our long road to reclaiming the sovereignty stolen from us by Indonesia in 1963.
“With the formation of our constitution, provisional government, cabinet and Green State Vision, all Indonesian laws in West Papua are over.”
Wenda said the Indonesian presence was “totally illegal, and totally redundant”.
“With our clandestine government departments operating within our borders, all West Papuans and Indonesian migrants working under our jurisdiction are now governed by the ULMWP,” said Wenda.
Presidential demands
The West Papua military wing and any organisation affiliated to the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation, the West Papua National Parliament, or the Federal Republic of West Papua — the three constituent organisations within the ULMWP — were automatically considered part of the provisional government.
“Everyone must respect our constitution, whether you are inside West Papua or part of our international solidarity networks. The world must trust us and our constitution — we want peace for all in the region and internationally, and to democratically govern ourselves,” Wenda said.
“I encourage all NGOs, churches and religious leaders, every West Papuan inside and in exile, to unite and pray for the provisional government. Support everyone within the government working to end our long suffering and complete our 60 year struggle.”
Wenda said the demands to the Indonesian President in 2022 remained those that had been first issued during the West Papua Uprising in 2019:
1. Hold a referendum on West Papuan independence;
2. Allow international supervision of any referendum;
3. Allow the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights into West Papua in accordance with the demand of 84 UN member states;
4. Withdraw all troops from West Papua, including the 21,000 additional troops deployed since December 2018, and end the Indonesian military’s illegal war;
5. Release all political prisoners, including Victor Yeimo and the “Abepura Eight”; and
6. Allow all international journalists and human rights, humanitarian and monitoring groups into West Papua to visit internally-displaced people in Nduga, Puncak, Intan Jaya, Oksibil, Maybrat and elsewhere.
“In 2022, we will redouble all efforts in our long struggle for the liberation of our nation,” Wenda said.
“We will peacefully bring an end to this bloodshed.”
A New Caledonian member of the French National Assembly says a consensus needs to be found on Kanaky New Caledonia’s future statute after last month’s referendum saw a third rejection of independence from France.
The vote formally concluded the decolonisation process provided under the 1998 Noumea Accord.
Philippe Gomes, a former New Caledonian territorial president, was speaking in Paris in the first parliamentary debate after the December vote, which had been marked by the boycott of the pro-independence camp determined not to recognise its outcome.
While 96.5 percent voted against independence, more than 56 percent of the electorate did not take part in the referendum.
Because of the impact of the pandemic on the indigenous Kanak people, the pro-independence parties wanted the vote to be deferred until September this year — after the French presidential election in April, but Paris insisted on the December date.
French National Assembly member for French Polynesia Moetai Brotherson. Image: Fedom
Gomes said that in the Pacific, political decisions build on consensus, and New Caledonia could become a nation without becoming a state.
He said the anti-independence side expected to remain under the protection of the French state while the rival pro-independence parties want a sovereignty which restored their dignity.
Joint approach needed
Gomes said a joint approach needed to be found to sidestep a process such as referendums.
Speaking on behalf of New Caledonia’s Kanaks, French Polynesian member of the National Assembly Moetai Brotherson said the latest referendum was of “no consequence” to them, and likened the vote to a “recolonisation”.
Rejecting the outcome of the plebiscite as illegitimate, the pro-independence parties last month mounted a court challenge in France, and plan to campaign internationally for its annulment.
France Unbowed leader Jean-Luc Melenchon … the 1998 Noumea Accord should remain in force for another 10 years to avoid confrontation. Image: RFI
Leader of French left-wing party La France Insoumise (LFI – France Unbowed) and candidate for the presidential election Jean-Luc Melenchon said New Caledonia should be maintained for another 10 years under the provisions of the Noumea Accord to avoid any confrontation.
French Overseas Minister Sebastien Lecornu said it would take time to assess the abstention but added that it must be noted that voters had rejected independence three times.
Paris plans to draw up a new statute by June next year and submit it to a vote.
Pro-independence leaders have ruled out any formal negotiations with Paris before this year’s French presidential and legislative elections.
They have also said they would not discuss another statute within the French republic but negotiate independence.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
The year is 2040 and Aotearoa New Zealand has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions consistent with the commitment to keep global heating below 1.5°C above pre-industrial temperatures.
The economy, society, local government, transport, housing and urban design, energy, land use, food production and water systems have all changed significantly. Fossil fuels have been mostly phased out internationally and import taxes are imposed on high emissions goods.
New Zealand is now a world leader in natural infrastructure, clean hydrogen energy, engineered wood and high quality low emissions food. Despite ongoing challenges, with a prosperous economy, most people think the transition was worth it.
Cities are more pleasant places to live, air and water are cleaner, nature is more abundant.
Following the emissions budgets stipulated by the Zero Carbon Act in late 2021, emissions are now properly priced into all economic decisions. The Emissions Trading Scheme has been reinforced and the price of emitting carbon has stabilised at $300 per tonne, after hitting $75 in 2022 and $200 by 2030.
In 2026, New Zealand signed the International Treaty to Phase out Fossil Fuels, which prohibits fossil fuel extraction, phases out use and requires international cooperation on renewable energy.
Carbon import taxes mean many high emissions commercial activities are no longer economically viable. Trade unions have played a major role in the industrial strategy underpinning the transition to a lower emissions economy.
Māori economy bigger than any other sector The Māori economy is bigger than any other sector and has benefited from wider international recognition of the long term value of climate and biodiversity work.
Queenstown … New Zealand’s economy is based on productive activity that stays within planetary boundaries while respecting social requirements, such as a decent standard of living for all. Image: The Conversation/Shutterstock
New Zealand’s economy is based on productive activity that stays within planetary boundaries – including emissions and pollution of land and water – while respecting social requirements, such as a decent standard of living for all.
Building on their successful response to the covid pandemic, marae-based organisations are prominent as centres of excellence for climate and economic strategy, health and social services, managed retreat from coastal areas and natural infrastructure development.
Public financing was radically rebalanced in the 2020s, delivering more for local government and a greater partnership between councils, government and Māori organisations. This has enabled far better delivery of local services and much more meaningful connections within communities.
Councils and council organisations laid the groundwork for the climate transition, helping address the unequal impacts of climate change on different groups. Councils and mana whenua collectively administer substantial funds for regional development.
People travel between cities primarily via electric rail, managed by a new national passenger rail agency InterCity, which acquired the InterCity regional bus operator in 2023. Image: The Conversation/Shutterstock
Fast, frequent rail
The government’s 2022 Climate Budget provided the massive injection of funds required to redesign our cities, which are now organised around mass transit, safe and segregated routes for cycling and vibrant pedestrian areas. People can access fast, frequent light rail and dedicated busways with low cost fares. Less road space is required for driving, which is more accessible now for those who need it, including disabled people and service vehicles.
People travel between cities primarily via electric rail, managed by a new national passenger rail agency InterCity, which acquired the InterCity regional bus operator in 2023. Through major reforms in 2024, KiwiRail became a dedicated rail freight operator. A new government agency, OnTrack, oversees maintenance and renewal of tracks and rail infrastructure.
Passenger rail services run across the North Island main trunk line on improved electrified tracks at up to 160kph. South Island rail uses hydrogen trains fuelled by locally produced green hydrogen.
Most of the work to upgrade transport, housing and energy infrastructure has been done by a new Ministry of Green Works set up in 2025. This Ministry partners with local hapū and iwi, as well as councils through regional hubs. It is backed by the government’s expanded Green Investment Finance company.
Anger at the divide between property owners and renters culminated in a general rent strike in 2024. Image: The Conversation/Shutterstock
Anger over housing for all Anger at the divide between property owners and renters culminated in a general rent strike in 2024. The government responded with new financial rules ending the treatment of housing as an asset class. Kāinga Ora, Māori organisations and councils have undertaken a massive public housing construction effort.
Most new housing is now public infrastructure rather than private homes built to store individual wealth. Public ownership has expanded, in particular for entities that provide core services such as transport, energy and water.
In 2024, the government worked with councils to focus plans on quality universal design housing. Since the new building code was adopted in 2025, all new homes have high standards for energy efficiency and accessibility. Higher density apartments line public transport routes in the main centres, with terraced homes in smaller towns. Structural timber has replaced concrete and steel in many construction projects.
Changes to housing, transport and urban design have supported improvements in health, well-being and physical activity. Health improved dramatically after universal basic services were introduced in 2024 to cover free visits to the doctor and dentist as well as free childcare and elderly care.
Electricity generation has doubled, with a mix of wind, solar and geothermal. Image: The Conversation/Shutterstock
Energy goes green Electricity generation has doubled, with a mix of wind, solar and geothermal. Many more energy storage facilities exist, including pumped hydroelectricity. Distributed energy is commonplace. Many councils have helped their communities set up local solar schemes and dozens of towns are completely independent of the national grid.
Green hydrogen is produced at the converted aluminium smelter at Tiwai Point using hydroelectricity. This is used in heavy industry and transport and exported from Southport.
In 2027, after New Zealand blew its first carbon budget, the government replaced MBIE with a new Ministry for Economic Transition. The ministry oversaw the transition to green jobs via a universal job guarantee scheme.
It also supported a dramatic reduction in energy use in all parts of society and the economy. This effort had a greater impact on emissions reduction than the replacement of energy and fuel with renewable sources.
The land heals In 2025, the government established a Natural Infrastructure Commission. The term “natural infrastructure” emerged in the 2020s as a term to include native forests, wetlands, coastal environments and other ecosystems that store and clean water, protect against drought, flooding and storms, boost biodiversity and absorb carbon.
The commission has supported massive land restoration for carbon sequestration and biodiversity purposes, with an annual budget of NZ$5 billion from emissions revenue. Among other uses, the fund compensates land owners for land use changes that reduce emissions and build up resilience.
Under the new Constitution of Aotearoa adopted in 2040, ownership of the Conservation Estate transferred from Crown ownership to its own status of legal personhood.
International carbon taxes have transformed agriculture. Dairy herds have reduced in size and New Zealand is known for organic, low emissions food and fibre. High quality meat and dairy products, as well as plant-based protein foods, supply international markets.
Seaweed and aquaculture operations have flourished. Along with regenerative agriculture, this transition has reduced pollution and emissions. With native ecosystems regenerated, tōtara and harakeke can now be sustainably harvested for timber and fibre.
In urban and industrial settings water use has dramatically reduced. Every business, home and building stores its own water. Water use is measured and charges are levied for excess water use beyond the needs of the household. No water is ever wasted.
The country feels steadier than 20 years ago. There is hope for the future in a world that was full of uncertainty after the pandemic stricken early 2020s. Image: The Conversation/Shutterstock
A better place The country feels steadier than 20 years ago. There is hope for the future in a world that was full of uncertainty after the pandemic stricken early 2020s.
Many government agencies and councils are now seen as useful and relevant, having been equipped with the money to provide housing, social services, environmental restoration and support for economic and land use change.
Moving away from high emissions exports was more successful than anyone expected, but it took strict rules to make it happen. Some in the business sector opposed more government direction and regulation, but it’s widely accepted that relying on market forces would not have delivered a successful transition.
That approach had driven the country to the brink of failure on climate, biodiversity and social cohesion. Having been leaders in milk powder and tourism, the country now leads on natural infrastructure and the future of food, timber and energy.
The Pacific year has closed with growing tensions over sovereignty and self-determination issues and growing stress over the ravages of covid-19 pandemic in a region that was largely virus-free in 2020.
Just two days before the year 2021 wrapped up, Bougainville President Ishmael Toroama took the extraordinary statement of denying any involvement by the people or government of the autonomous region of Papua New Guinea being involved in any “secret plot” to overthrow the Manasseh Sogavare government in Solomon Islands.
Insisting that Bougainville is “neutral” in the conflict in neighbouring Solomon Islands where riots last month were fuelled by anti-Chinese hostilities, Toroama blamed one of PNG’s two daily newspapers for stirring the controversy.
“Contrary to the sensationalised report in the Post-Courier (Thursday, December 30, 2021) we do not have a vested interest in the conflict and Bougainville has nothing to gain from overthrowing a democratically elected leader of a foreign nation,” Toroama said.
The frontpage report in the Post-Courier appeared to be a beat-up just at the time Australia was announcing a wind down of the peacekeeping role in the Solomon Islands. A multilateral Pacific force of more than 200 Australian, Fiji, New Zealand and PNG police and military have been deployed since the riots in a bid to ward off further strife.
PNG Police Commissioner David Manning confirmed to the newspaper having receiving reports of Papua New Guineans allegedly training with Solomon Islanders to overthrow the Sogavare government in the New Year.
According to the Post-Courier’s Gorethy Kenneth, reports reaching Manning had claimed that Bougainvilleans with connections to Solomon Islanders had “joined forces with an illegal group in Malaita to train them and supply arms”.
The Bougainvilleans were also accused of “leading this alleged covert operation” in an effort to cause division in Solomon Islands.
However, Foreign Affairs Minister Soroi Eoe told the newspaper there had been no official information or reports of this alleged operation. The Solomon Islands Foreign Ministry was also cool over the reports.
Warning over ‘sensationalism’
How the PNG Post-Courier reported the “secret plot” Bougainville claim on Thursday. Image: Screenshot PNG Post-Courier
Toroama warned news media against sensationalising national security issues with its Pacific neighbours, saying the Bougainville Peace Agreement “explicitly forbids Bougainville to engage in any foreign relations so it is absurd to assume that Bougainville would jeopardise our own political aspirations by acting in defiance” of these provisions.
This is a highly sensitive time for Bougainville’s political aspirations as it negotiates a path in response the 98 percent nonbinding vote in support of independence during the 2019 referendum.
In contrast, another Melanesian territory’s self-determination aspirations received a setback in the third and final referendum on independence in Kanaky New Caledonia on December 12 where a decisive more than 96 percent voted “non”.
Bougainville President Ishmael Toroama … responding to the PNG Post-Courier. Image: Bougainville Today
However, less than half (43.87 percent) of the electorate voted – far less than the “yes” vote last year – in response to the boycott called by a coalition of seven Kanak independence groups out of respect to the disproportionate number of indigenous people among the 280 who had died in the recent covid-19 outbreak.
The result was a dramatic reversal of the two previous referendums in 2018 and 2020 where there was a growing vote for independence and the flawed nature of the final plebiscite has been condemned by critics undoing three decades of progress in decolonisation and race relations.
In 2018, only 57 percent opposed independence and this dropped to 53 percent in 2020 with every indication that the pro-independence “oui” vote would rise further for this third plebiscite in spite of the demographic odds against the indigenous Kanaks who make up just 40 percent of the territory’s population of 280,000.
Kanaky turbulence in 1980s
A turbulent period in the 1980s – known locally as “Les événements”– culminated in a farcical referendum on independence in 1987 which returned a 98 percent rejection of independence. This was boycotted by the pro-independence groups when then President François Mitterrand broke a promise that short-term French residents would not be able to vote.
A Kanak international advocate of the Confédération Nationale du Travail (CNT) trade union and USTKE member, Rock Haocas, says from Paris that the latest referendum is “a betrayal” of the past three decades of progress and jeopardises negotiations for a future statute on the future of Kanaky New Caledonia.
The pro-independence parties have refused to negotiate on the future until after the French presidential elections in April this year. A new political arrangement is due in 18 months.
“The people have made concessions,” Haocas told Asia Pacific Report, referencing the many occasions indigenous Kanaks have done so, such as:
• Concessions to the “two colours, one people” agreement with the Union Caledonian party in 1953;
• Recognition of the “victims of history” in Nainville-Les-Roches in 1983;
• The Matignon and Oudnot Agreement in 1988;
• The Nouméa Accord in 1998; and
• The opening of the electoral body (to the native).
‘Getting closer to each other’
“The period of the agreements allowed the different communities to get to know each other, to get closer to each other, to be together in schools, to work together in companies and development projects, to travel in France, the Pacific, and in other countries,” says Haocas.
“It’s also the time of the internet. Colonisation is not hidden in Kanaky anymore; it faces the world. People talk about it more easily. The demand for independence has become more explainable, and more exportable. There has been more talk of interdependence, and no longer of a strict break with France.
“But for the last referendum France banked on the fear of one with the other to preserve its own interests.”
Is this a return to the dark days of 1987 when France conducted the “sham referendum”?
“We’re not really in the same context. We are here in the framework of the Nouméa Accord with three consultations — and for which we asked for the postponement of the last one scheduled for December 12,” says Haocas.
“It was for health reasons with its cultural and societal impacts that made the campaign difficult, it was not fundamentally for political reasons.
“The French state does not discuss, does not seek consensus — it imposes, even if it means going back on its word.”
Haocas says it is now time to reflect and analyse the results of the referendum.
“The result of the ballot box speaks for itself. Note the calm in the pro-independence world. Now there are no longer three actors — the indépendantistes, the anti-independence and the state – but two, the indépendantistes and the state.”
Rock Haocas in a 2018 interview before the the three referendums on independence. Video: CNT union
Comparisons between Kanaky and Palestine
In a devastating critique of the failings of the referendum and of the sincerity of France’s about-turn in its three-decade decolonisation policy, Professor Joseph Massad, a specialist in modern Arab politics and intellectual history at Columbia University, New York, made comparisons with Israeli occupation and apartheid in Palestine.
“Its expected result was a defeat for the cause of independence. It seems that European settler-colonies remain beholden to the white colonists, not only in the larger white settler-colonies in the Americas and Oceania, but also in the smaller ones, whether in the South Pacific, Southern Africa, Palestine, or Hawai’i,” wrote Dr Massad in Middle East Eye.
“Just as Palestine is the only intact European settler-colony in the Arab world after the end of Italian settler-colonialism in Libya in the 1940s and 1950s, the end of French settler-colonialism in Morocco and Tunisia in the 1950s, and the liberation of Algeria in 1962 (some of Algeria’s French colonists left for New Caledonia), Kanaky remains the only major country subject to French settler-colonialism after the independence of most of its island neighbours.
“As with the colonised Palestinians, who have less rights than those acquired by the Kanaks in the last half century, and who remain subject to the racialised power of their colonisers, the colonised Kanaks remain subject to the racialised power of the white French colonists and their mother country.
“No wonder [President Emmanuel] Macron is as ebullient and proud as Israel’s leaders.”
Professor Joseph Massad … “European settler-colonies remain beholden to the white colonists.” Image: Screenshot Middle East Eye
West Papuan hopes elusive as violence worsens
Hopes for a new United Nations-supervised referendum for West Papua have remained elusive for the Melanesian region colonised by Indonesia in the 1960s and annexed after a sham plebiscite known euphemistically as the “Act of Free Choice” in 1969 when 1025 men and women hand-picked by the Indonesian military voted unanimously in favour of Indonesian control of their former Dutch colony.
Two years ago the United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP) was formed to step up the international diplomatic effort for Papuan self-determination and independence. However, at the same time armed resistance has grown and Indonesia has responded with a massive build up of more than 20,000 troops in the two Melanesian provinces of Papua and West Papua and an exponential increase on human rights violations and draconian measures by the Jakarta authorities.
As 2021 ended, interim West Papuan president-in-exile Benny Wenda distributed a Christmas message thanking the widespread international support – “our solidarity groups, the International Parliamentarians for West Papua, the International Lawyers for West Papua, all those across the world who continue to tirelessly support us.
“Religious leaders, NGOs, politicians, diplomats, individuals, everyone who has helped us in the Pacific, Caribbean, Africa, America, Europe, UK: thank you.”
Wenda sounded an optimistic note in his message: “Our goal is getting closer. Please help us keep up the momentum in 2022 with your prayers, your actions and your solidarity.
You are making history through your support, which will help us achieve independence.”
But Wenda was also frank about the grave situation facing West Papua, which was “getting worse and worse”.
“We continue to demand that the Indonesian government release the eight students arrested on December 1 for peacefully calling for their right to self-determination. We also demand that the military operations, which continue in Intan Jaya, Puncak, Nduga and elsewhere, cease,” he said, adding condemnation of Jakarta for using the covid-19 pandemic as an excuse to prevent the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights visiting West Papua.
New covid-19 wave hits Fiji
Fiji, which had already suffered earlier in 2021 along with Guam and French Polynesia as one of the worst hit Pacific countries hit by the covid-19 pandemic, is now in the grip of a third wave of infection with 780 active cases.
Fiji’s Health Ministry has reported one death and 309 new cases of covid-19 in the community since Christmas Day — 194 of them confirmed in the 24 hours just prior to New Year’s Eve. This is another blow to the tourism industry just at a time when it was seeking to rebuild.
Health Secretary Dr Dr Fong is yet to confirm whether these cases were of the delta variant or the more highly contagious omicron mutant. It may just be a resurgence of the endemic delta variant, says Dr Fong, “however we are also working on the assumption that the omicron variant is already here, and is being transmitted within the community.
“We expect that genomic sequencing results of covid-19 positive samples sent overseas will confirm this in due course.”
A DevPolicy blog article at Australian National University earlier in 2021 warned against applying Western notions of public health to the Pacific country. Communal living is widespread across squatter settlements, urban villages, and other residential areas in the Lami-Suva-Nausori containment zone.
“Household sizes are generally bigger than in Western countries, and households often include three generations. This means elderly people are more at risk as they cannot easily isolate. At the same time, identifying a ‘household’ and determining who should be in a ‘bubble’ is difficult.
“‘Stay home’ is equally difficult to define, because the concept of ‘home’ has a broader meaning in the Fijian context compared to Western societies.”
While covid pandemic crises are continuing to wreak havoc in some Pacific communities into 2022, the urgency of climate change still remains the critical issue facing the region. After the lacklustre COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, in November, Pacific leaders — who were mostly unable to attend due to the covid lockdowns — have stepped up their global advocacy.
End of ’empty promises’ on climate
Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown appealed in a powerful article that it was time for the major nations producing global warming emissions to shelve their “empty promises” and finally deliver on climate financing.
‘As custodians of these islands, we have a moral duty to protect [them] — for today and the unborn generations of our Pacific anau. Sadly, we are unable to do that because of things beyond our control …
“Sea level rise is alarming. Our food security is at risk, and our way of life that we have known for generations is slowly disappearing. What were ‘once in a lifetime’ extreme events like category 5 cyclones, marine heatwaves and the like are becoming more severe.
“Despite our negligible contribution to global emissions, this is the price we pay. We are talking about homes, lands and precious lives; many are being displaced as we speak.”
Marylou Mahé … ““As a young Kanak woman, my voice is often silenced, but I want to remind the world that … we are acting for our future. Image: PCF
“As a young Kanak woman, my voice is often silenced, but I want to remind the world that we are here, we are standing, and we are acting for our future. The state’s spoken word may die tomorrow, but our right to recognition and self-determination never will.”
Aile Tikoure, an activist from the pro-independence Palika Party, says many Kanaks boycotted the referendum because France refused to postpone it until next year, despite the covid pandemic.
“No, no I haven’t voted. Instructions were clear from the party, I didn’t vote,” he says.
“I don’t consider this as an act of war. The government didn’t speak to the Kanaks — that is no respect for our fight.
“They still haven’t understood us after 30 years of dialogue that this country would be nothing without us. They want to do this without us. It’s an insult. We feel left out from any political discussion.”
Boycott was ‘a victory’
Another pro-independence activist, Florenda Nirikani, says the boycott was a victory.
“I would say it’s a victory from the performance of our Kanak community and a good performance — the word has been followed at 56 percent,” she says.
“Now that victory is over we are at a stage where people are asking what do we do now?
“We are at a stage of questioning. Two days after the referendum there a lot of people that ask me well what do we do now. We were prepared for the 97 percent that said no.
“We are here to say we Kanaks are proud that the level of absence in the referendum was a good victory.”
Florenda Nirikani does not expect to see violence as a result of the referendum result.
However, pro-independence activists have made it clear that there will be no negotiating with the current Macron government. The French presidential elections are due in April.
Pro-independence activist Florenda Nirikani … “No, things have stayed calm and I don’t think we will see violence.” Image: RNZ
No talking to French officials
“No, things have stayed calm and I don’t think we will see violence. However, in the days or the weeks to come there will be some questioning from the activists.
“There has been a word out not to talk to a single French government official so negotiations will not happen between Kanaks and the current French government.
“[French Overseas Minister Sebastien] Lecornu [has been] here in New Caledonia last week. The customary Senate has refused to meet with him and some customary officials have boycotted meetings.
“The position expressed is that no Kanak represententatives will meet with the current government,” Nirikani says.
Negotiations between the Kanaks and French state are not expected to resume before next year’s French presidential election.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Armed conflict in West Papua continues to claim lives, displace tens of thousands of people and cause resentment at Indonesian rule.
But despite ongoing calls for help, neighbouring countries in the Pacific Islands region remain largely silent and ineffectual in their response.
This year, Indonesia’s military has increased operations to hunt down and respond to attacks by pro-independence fighters with West Papua National Liberation Army (WPNLA) which considers Indonesia an occupying force in its homeland.
Since late 2018, several regencies in the Indonesian-ruled Papuan provinces have become mired in conflict, notably Nduga, Yahukimo, Intan Jaya, Puncak Jaya, Maybrat as well as Pegunungan Bintang regency on the international border with Papua New Guinea.
The ongoing cycle of violence has created a steady trickle of deaths on both sides, and also among the many villages caught in the middle.
Identifying the death toll is difficult, especially because Indonesian authorities restrict outside access to Papua.
However, research by the West Papua Council of Churches points to at least 400 deaths due to the conflict in the aforementioned regencies since December 2018, including people who have fled their villages to escape military operations and then died due to the unavailability of food and medicine.
‘Some cross into PNG’
“We have received reports that at least 60,000 Papuan people from our congregations have currently evacuated to the surrounding districts, including some who have crossed into Papua New Guinea,” says Reverend Socratez Sofyan Yoman, president of the Fellowship of Baptist Churches of West Papua.
West Papuan villagers flee their homes due to the armed conflict in Maybrat regency, September 2021. Image: RNZ Pacific
The humanitarian crisis which Yoman described has spilled over into Papua New Guinea, bringing its own security and pandemic threats to PNG border communities like Tumolbil village in remote Telefomin district.
Reverend Yoman and others within the West Papua Council of Churches have made repeated calls for the government to pull back its forces.
They seek a circuit-breaker to end to the conflict in Papua which remains based on unresolved grievances over the way Indonesia took control in the 1960s, and the denial of a legitimate self-determination for West Papuans.
But it is not simply the war between Indonesia’s military and the Liberation Army or OPM fighters that has created ongoing upheavals for Papuans.
This year has seen:
more arbitrary arrests and detention of Papuans for peaceful political expression;
treason charges for the same;
harassment of prominent human rights defenders;
more oil palm, mining and environmental degradation that threatens Papuans’ access to their land and forest;
a move by Indonesian lawmakers to extend an unpopular Special Autonomy Law roundly rejected by Papuans; and
a terror plot by alleged Muslim extremists in Merauke Regency in Papua’s south-east corner.
Reverend Socratez Sofyan Yoman … the Indonesian president and vice-president have “turned a blind eye and heart to the Papua confict”. Image: RNZ Pacific
Not only the churches, but also Papuan customary representatives, civil society and the pro-independence movement have been calling for international help for many years, particularly for an intermediary to facilitate dialogue with Indonesia towards some sort of peaceful settlement.
Groups frustrated with Jakarta
The groups have expressed frustration about the way that Jakarta’s defensiveness over West Papua’s sovereignty leaves little room for solutions to end conflict in the New Guinea territory.
On the other hand, Indonesian government officials point towards various major infrastructure projects in Papua as a sign that President Joko Widodo’s economic development campaign is creating improvements for local communities.
Despite the risks of exacerbating the spread of covid-19 in Papua, Indonesia recently held the National Games in Jayapura, with President Widodo presiding over the opening and closing of the event, presenting it as a showcase of unity and development in the eastern region.
“The president and vice-president of Indonesia while in Papua did not discuss the resolution of the protracted Papua conflict. They turned a blind eye and heart to the Papua confict,” says Reverend Yoman.
Beyond the gloss of the Games, Papuans were still being taken in by authorities as treason suspects if they bore the colours of the banned Papuan Morning Star flag.
Regional response At their last in-person summit before the pandemic, in 2019, Pacific Islands Forum leaders agreed to press Indonesia to allow the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights into Papua region in order for it to present them with an independent assessment of the rights situation in West Papua.
Advocating for the UN visit, as a group in the Forum, appears to be as far out on a limb that regional countries — including Australia and New Zealand — are prepared to go on West Papua.
However even before 2019, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights office had already been trying for years to send a team to Papua, and found it difficult securing Indonesia’s approval.
That the visit has still not happened since the Forum push indicates that West Papua remains off limits to the international community as far as Jakarta is concerned, no matter how much it points to the pandemic as being an obstacle.
Indonesian military forces conduct operations in Intan Jaya, Papua province. Image: RNZ Pacific
The question of how the Pacific can address the problem of West Papua is also re-emerging at the sub-regional level within the Melanesian Spearhead Group whose full members are PNG, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia’s Kanaks.
The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) is looking to unlock the voice of its people at the regional level by applying again for full membership in the MSG, after its previous application had “disappeared”.
The ULMWP’s representative in Vanuatu, Freddy Waromi, this month submitted the application at the MSG headquarters in Port Vila.
No voice at the table
The organisation already has observer status in the MSG, but as Waromi said, as observers they do not have a voice at the table.
“When we are with observer status, we always just observe in the MSG meeting, we cannot voice our voice out.
“But with the hope that we become a full member we can have a voice in MSG and even in Pacific Islands Forum and even other important international organisations.”
ULMWP representative in Vanuatu Freddie Waromi … “with the hope that we become a full member we can have a voice in MSG.” Image: RNZ Pacific
Indonesia, which is an associate member of the MSG, opposes the ULMWP’s claim to represent West Papuans.
“They’re still encouraging them (the MSG) not to accept us,” Waromi said of Jakarta.
He said the conflict had not abated since he fled from his homeland into PNG in 1979, but only worsened.
“Fighting is escalating now in the highlands region of West Papua – in Nduga, in Intan Jaya, in Wamena, in Paniai – all those places, fighting between Indonesian military and the National Liberation Army of West Papua has been escalating, it’s very bad now.”
Vanuatu consistently strong
Vanuatu is the only country in the Pacific Islands region whose government has consistently voiced strong support for the basic rights of West Papuans over the years. Other Melanesian countries have at times raised their voice, but the key neighbouring country of PNG has been largely silent.
The governor of PNG’s National Capital District, Powes Parkop, this month in Parliament lambasted successive PNG governments for failing to develop a strong policy on West Papua.
Governor Powes Parkop of Papua New Guinea’s National Capital District … “We have adopted a policy that is shameful and unethical.” Image: Johnny Blades/RNZ Pacific
He claimed that PNG’s long silence on the conflict had been based on fear, and a “total capitulation to Indonesian aggression and illegal occupation”.
“We have adopted a policy that is shameful and unethical,” he said of PNG’s “friends to all, enemies to none” stance.
“How do we sleep at night when the people on the other side are subject to so much violence, racism, deaths and destruction?
“When are we going to summon the courage to talk and speak? Why are we afraid of Indonesia?”
Parkop’s questions also apply to the Pacific region, where Indonesia’s diplomatic influence has grown in recent years, effectively quelling some of the support that the West Papua independence movement had enjoyed.
Time is running out for West Papuans who may soon be a minority in their own land if Indonesian transmigration is left unchecked.
Yet that doesn’t mean the conflict will fade. Until core grievances are adequately addressed, conflict can be expected to deepen in West Papua.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
The United Nations says Indonesia must immediately drop charges and look into threats, intimidation and reprisals against human rights defender Veronica Koman and her family.
Veronica Koman, a human and minority rights lawyer, is in self-imposed exile in Australia.
However, she still faces several charges in Indonesia for alleged incitement, spreading fake news, displaying race-based hatred and disseminating information aimed at inflicting ethnic hatred.
The charges were believed to have been brought against her in retaliation to her work advocating for human rights in West Papua.
Veronica Koman was among five other human rights defenders mentioned in the UN Secretary-General’s 2021 annual report on cooperation with the United Nations, its representatives and mechanisms in the field of human rights, according to the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor, said.
She has faced threats, harassment and intimidation for her reporting on West Papua and Papua provinces, for providing reports to UN human rights mechanisms, and for attending UN meetings, for which she was questioned by security forces.
“This case highlights how human rights defenders are often targeted for their cooperation with the United Nations, which is fundamental to their peaceful and legitimate work in the protection and promotion of human rights,” Lawlor said.
Explosive boxes thrown
Acts of intimidation and threats against Koman’s family have also been reported this year, most recently on November 7, when unidentified individuals threw two small explosive boxes inside the garage of her parents’ home in West Jakarta.
The boxes reportedly contained threatening messages, including one stating “we will scorch the earth of wherever you hide and of your protectors.”
Another box addressed to Koman, delivered to the home of a family member, contained a dead chicken and a message saying that anyone hiding her “will end up like this”.
“I am extremely concerned at the use of threats, intimidation and acts of reprisal against Veronica Koman and her family, which seek to undermine the right to freedom of opinion and expression and the legitimate work of human rights lawyers,” Lawlor said.
“I urge the Indonesian government to drop the charges against her and investigate the threats and acts of intimidation in a prompt an impartial manner and bring the perpetrators to justice,” Lawlor said.
“Impunity for violations against human rights defenders has a chilling effect on civil society as a whole.”
The Special Rapporteur will continue to monitor the case and is in contact with the Indonesian authorities on the matter.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
France’s Overseas Minister Sebastien Lecornu has called on New Caledonia’s political parties to draw up proposals on a new statute for the territory within the French republic, following last Sunday’s referendum.
More than 96 percent of New Caledonians voted against independence in a referendum boycotted by Kanaks with barely 43 percent of voters taking part, less than the number who voted for independence last year.
It was the last of three referendums, which concluded the 1998 Noumea Accord on the territory’s decolonisation.
The accord’s provisions on the territory’s institutional make-up remain in place until a new statute has been adopted.
While the anti-independence camp and Paris welcomed the referendum result, the pro-independence parties said the vote was bogus and that they would not recognise its outcome.
They plan to challenge its legitimacy both nationally and internationally.
After previously saying they would not enter any talks with France until after next year’s presidential election, the Palika Party has now excluded any talks on what it called an “umpteenth accord” for a statute for New Caledonia within France.
Lecornu accepts pro-independence parties’ delay
Lecornu accepted the pro-independence parties’ position to refuse formal talks until after the French election.
French Overseas Minister Sebastien Lecornu … accepted the pro-independence parties’ position to refuse formal talks until after the French presidential election in April. Image: RNZ Pacific File
However, Philippe Gomes of the anti-independence Caledonia Together Party said the New Caledonia question should not be put on stand-by until the French election.
He said it was all very well to accommodate the pro-independence camp, but a balance must be struck to include the anti-independence side.
The pro-independence side said it did not feel bound by the plan to draw up a new statute by June 2023, which was to be put out for a vote.
Pacific Awakening, a mainly Wallisian party that holds the balance of power in New Caledonia’s Congress, said a final statute should be proposed that would offer shared sovereignty.
Lecornu wrapped up his New Caledonia visit yesterday, and said there will be a broad consultation of civil society and the public for a stocktake and to hear about their aspirations.
Professor Mathias Chauchat … outlined instability emanating from Sunday’s controversial referendum, and pointed to France’s decolonisation record. Image: Walter Zweifel/RNZ Pacific
Call to deport academic condemned New Caledonia’s pro-independence FLNKS party has come to the defence of a Noumea law professor targeted by an online petition.
The petition seeks the deportation of Professor Mathias Chauchat to France, and was launched by pro-French supporters in New Caledonia and immediately signed by hundreds of people after Monday’s televised post-referendum debate.
Dr Chauchat had outlined instability emanating from Sunday’s controversial referendum, and pointed to France’s decolonisation record, which is marked by violence.
In a statement, the FLNKS said it rejected threats and attacks on intellectuals, adding that France prides itself as the home of human rights.
It said calls to live together should not only be in a political programme, but be part of everyday gestures and deeds.
And that New Caledonia needed its intellectuals to free itself from the country’s dependence on France.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
The French government’s decision to press ahead with the third and final referendum vote for self-determination in Kanaky New Caledonia was “unjust and unfair” for the Indigenous Kanak people, says a coalition of nine pan-Pacific civil society groups.
The groups have also accused the French state of “colonial manoeuvring in the middle of a health crisis” to gain a “premeditated outcome”.
“This process has been unjust, culturally insensitive, disingenuous and falls completely short of the spirit of the Noumea Accord. This referendum is clearly null and void,” said a statement by the Pacific Civil Society Organisations (CSO).
“Despite numerous calls from state and non-state actors to postpone the referendum to 2022, the French government used its colonial manoeuvring in the middle of a health crisis — where almost half the population has tested positive for covid-19 — to arrive at a premeditated outcome.”
The statement said the referendum was not consultative and it did not serve the “common good of the Kanaky population, who exercised their right to not participate in the pseudo-referendum”.
“This non-participation of pro-independence indigenous people should have been a clear signal to France of the public mood, recognising that the poll results cannot be received as the genuine resolve of the Kanak people.
“Unfortunately, it appears that there is a blindspot in Paris, where the results of the referendum are being celebrated as the legitimate will of the Kanaky New Caledonia population – although over 103,480 or more than 56 percent of the registered did not participate in the vote.
Call for UN to ‘void’ referendum
“We join the Indigenous people of Kanaky and other pro-independence activists and organisations in the region, such as the Melanesian Spearhead Group, in calling for the United Nations to declare the outcome of the referendum null and void.
“We also call on the Pacific Islands Forum Ministerial Committee as observers to New Caledonia to ensure an independent, candid and just observation report of the referendum vote is made public.”
The civil society coalition statement is enorsed by the Diverse Voices and Action (DIVA) for Equality, Fiji; Fiji Council of Social Services; Fiji Women’s Rights Movement; Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict–Pacific; Melanesian Indigenous Land Defence Alliance; Pacific Conference of Churches; Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG); Peace Movement Aotearoa; and Youngsolwara Pacific.
A leftwing candidate in the French presidential race, Jean-Luc Melenchon, says the outcome of New Caledonia’s independence referendum is a catastrophe.
He held a news conference after several leading French politicians welcomed Sunday’s overwhelming rejection of independence, with just 3.5 percent voting for it.
Melenchon, leader of the France Unbowed (La France Insoumise) party, said the government had destroyed the consensus process of the 1998 Noumea Accord by imposing a referendum date and triggering a huge abstention by the pro-independence side.
The third and last vote was marked by a turnout of 43 percent, which was about half of last year’s figure and meant an illegitimate outcome of a meticulous, decades-long decolonisation process.
He said he now hoped the government would not go from what he described as one “brutality” to the next and warned against imposing change.
Melenchon said President Emmanuel Macron was wrong to claim right after the plebiscite that the accord was no longer legally valid.
“The current statute of New Caledonia is in the French constitution. it cannot be changed without changing the constitution. Therefore the territory’s government and assembly remain the legitimate institutions,” he said.
Melenchon said by pushing through the referendum, the government made a serious error and had returned the territory to the rifts of the late 1980s.
“We are now in what is being considered a conflict zone by the Anglosaxon alliance of New Zealanders, Americans and Australians. If the French government thought it could get rid of a problem by being more present and quicker in the Cold War it wants to have with China, it has made a big mistake,” he said.
Lecornu acknowledges divisions French Overseas Minister Sebastien Lecornu said the binary dimension of New Caledonia’s politics, as seen after Sunday’s independence referendum, satisfied no-one.
Speaking in Noumea, he said the legal validity of the vote could not be questioned because under the Noumea Accord, there was no obligation to vote and no quorom.
However, he said politically speaking, the abstention by the pro-independence camp showed a division.
The minister, who had set the referendum date despite objections by pro-independence leaders, said the vote was a historic moment.
Lecornu planned to meet the New Caledonian government and Congress this week to discuss the government’s financial situation.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
New Caledonia’s pro-independence umbrella organisation says it does not recognise the legitimacy and validity of the third and final referendum on independence from France.
The statement by the organisation grouping seven parties and unions — the Strategic Independence Committee of Non-Particioation (CSIMP) — is the first since 96.5 percent of voters rejected independence from France on Sunday.
Sunday’s vote was boycotted because of France’s refusal to postpone it until next year to consider the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the Kanak population.
The statement said the referendum was not in the spirit of the 1998 Noumea Accord and the United Nations resolutions on the territory’s decolonisation.
It said the path of dialogue had been broken by the stubbornness of the French government, which was unable to reconcile its geostrategic interests in the Pacific with its obligation to decolonise New Caledonia.
The statement said President Emmanuel Macron’s speech to validate the result bestowed no honour on France.
It said the calendar drawn up by Overseas Minister Sebastien Lecornu for post-referendum talks had been turned upside down.
The pro-independence side said the 18-month transition period for a new New Caledonia statute could not begin with a French government at the end of its mandate.
The CSIMP represents the Front de Libération National Kanak et Socialiste (FLNKS), Parti Travailliste (PT), Nationalistes du MNSK, Dynamique Unitaire Sud (DUS), Union Syndicale des Travailleurs Kanak et Exploités (USTKE), Confédération Nationale des Travailleurs du Pacifique (CNTP) and the Front de Luttes Sociales (FLS).
MSG doubts referendum’s legitimacy Melanesian countries said the outcome of New Caledonia’s independence referendum could not be taken as the legitimate wish of the “silent majority”.
Following a call for abstention, only 43 percent of voters went to the polls, with turnout as low as 0.6 percent in some mainly Kanak areas.
The Secretariat of the Melanesian Spearhead Group said it firmly supported a call by New Caledonia’s FLNKS for the United Nations to declare Sunday’s result null and void.
Last week, the secretariat called on MSG member states not to recognise the impending referendum after France refused to postpone it.
Forum calls for consideration of Kanak stance The Pacific Islands Forum said the non-participation stance of New Caledonia’s pro-independence camp in Sunday’s referendum should be taken into the “contextual consideration” and analysis of the result.
The forum’s Ministerial Committee observed the plebiscite, which was the third and last under the Noumea Accord.
It said it was pleased with the overall arrangements made for polling day, which it said was peaceful, orderly and well organised.
Its statement said the spirit in which the referendum was conducted weighs heavily on the Noumea Accord and New Caledonia’s self-determination process.
It added that civic participation was an integral component of any democracy and critical to the interpretation and implications of Sunday’s poll.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
The referendum is likely to be seen as a failure, a capture of the vote by settlers without the meaningful participation of the Indigenous Kanak people. Pacific nations are unlikely to accept this disenfranchising of Indigenous self-determination.
In the final results on Sunday night, 96.49 percent said “non” to independence and just 3.51 percent “oui”. This was a dramatic reversal of the narrow defeats in the two previous plebiscites in 2018 and 2020.
However, the negative vote in this final round was based on 43.9 percent turnout, in contrast to record 80 percent-plus turnouts in the two earlier votes. This casts the legitimacy of the vote in doubt, and is likely to inflame tensions.
A Jean-Marie Tjibaou portrait in the background at Tiendanite village polling station. Image: Caledonia TV screenshot APR
One of the telling results in the referendum was in Tiendanite, the traditional home village of celebrated Kanak independence leader Jean-Marie Tjibaou. He negotiated the original Matignon Accord in 1988, which put an end to the bloodshed that erupted during the 1980s after a similar failed referendum on independence. In his village, it was apparently a total boycott, with not a single vote registered.
In the remote northern Belep islands, only 0.6 percent of residents cast a vote. On the island of Lifou in the mainly Kanak Loyalty Islands, some of the polling stations had no votes. In the Kanak strongholds of Canala and Hiènghene on the main island of Grande Terre, less than 2 percent of the population cast a vote.
Macron criticised for pressing ahead with vote
The result will no doubt be a huge headache for French President Emmanuel Macron, just months away from the French presidential elections next April. Critics are suggesting his insistence on pressing ahead with the referendum in defiance of the wide-ranging opposition could damage him politically.
Electoral posters advocating a “no” vote in the referendum in the capital Noumea. Image: Clotilde Richalet/AP
However, Macron hailed the result in Paris, saying,
Tonight, France is more beautiful because New Caledonia has decided to stay part of it.
He said a “period of transition” would begin to build a common project “respecting the dignity of everyone”.
Pro-independence Kanak parties had urged postponement of the referendum due to the COVID crisis in New Caledonia, and the fact the vote was not due until October 2022. The customary Kanak Senate, comprising traditional chiefs, had declared a mourning period of one year for the mainly Indigenous victims of the COVID surge in September that had infected more than 12,000 people and caused 280 deaths.
While neighbouring Vanuatu also called for the referendum to be postponed, the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) provided a ministerial monitoring team. The influential Melanesian Spearhead Group (comprised of Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Fiji, Solomon Islands and New Caledonia’s independence coalition), refused to recognise the “unilateral” referendum, saying this was
a crucial time for Melanesian people in New Caledonia to decide their own future.
A coalition of Pacific civil society organisations and movement leaders joined the opposition and condemned Paris for “ignoring” the impact the health crisis had
on the ability of Kanaks to participate in the referendum and exercise their basic human right to self-determination.
“Racist vote – don’t vote” banners in a Kanak boycott protest. Image: Caledonia TV screenshot APR
A trio of pro-independence advocates had also travelled to New York last week with New Caledonia Congress president Roch Wamytan and declared at the United Nations that a plebiscite without Kanak participation had no legitimacy and the independence parties would not recognise the result.
‘This referendum, for us, is not the third referendum,’ New Caledonia Congress’s president Roch Wamytan says on French radio, after results show ‘no’ result but significantly lower turnout after boycott. https://t.co/G4r4XOKRBl
Pro-independence leaders insist they will not negotiate with Paris until after the French presidential elections. They have also refused to see French Overseas Minister Sebastien Lecornu, who arrived in Noumea at the weekend. They regard the minister as pandering to the anti-independence leaders in the territory.
Why is New Caledonia so important to France? Another referendum is now likely in mid-2023 to determine the territory’s future status within France, but with independence off the table.
Some of France’s overseas territories, such as French Polynesia, have considerably devolved local powers. It is believed New Caledonia may now be offered more local autonomy than it has.
New Caledonia is critically important to France’s projection of its Indo-Pacific economic and military power in the region, especially as a counterbalance to growing Chinese influence among independent Pacific countries. Its nickel mining industry and reserves, important for manufacturing stainless steel, batteries and mobile phones, and its maritime economic zone are important to Paris.
The governments in Australia and New Zealand have been cautious about the referendum, not commenting publicly on the vote. But a young Kanak feminist artist, Marylou Mahé, wrote an article widely published in New Zealand last weekend explaining why she and many others refused to take part in a vote considered “undemocratic and disrespectful” of Kanak culture.
As a young Kanak woman, my voice is often silenced, but I want to remind the world that we are here, we are standing, and we are acting for our future. The state’s spoken word may die tomorrow, but our right to recognition and self-determination never will.
