PAPUA’S BATTLE FOR FREEDOM
PROF WADAN NARSEY:
PRIME Minister Voreqe Bainimarama has rightly gained international prominence battling for Pacific countries at risks of climate change, likely to hit many countries such as Tuvalu and Kiribati, decades into the future.
Yet he is deaf to the West Papuan pleas for help against the genocide and massacres of Melanesian people.
In the history of the South Pacific, the Bainimarama Government will sadly go down as having betrayed Fiji’s once strong solidarity with West Papuan struggles for independence from occupation by Indonesia.
Indonesia, which once proudly fought for and gained its own independence from Holland and which was once a strong supporter for other anti-imperial struggles throughout the world, will ironically now also go down in history as yet another brutal colonising power which not only attempted to colonise East Timor, but is committing genocide in West Papua.
It is an utter historical tragedy that just 20 years ago, Indonesia redeemed itself after its brutal occupation of East Timor, by granting East Timorese a referendum which saw popular approval for independence.
That redemption of Indonesia’s reputation in 1999 was this year celebrated globally when a video was released of the former President of East Timor (Guzmao) embracing the former President of Indonesia (Habibie) on his deathbed, having forgiven him for his own sufferings.
Surely, influential countries in the Pacific like Fiji can do the right thing by West Papuan people, by giving them solid support internationally, instead of siding with the colonising power and its facetious claims of sovereignty over West Papua.
It is even worse that a relatively rich Fiji gladly receives “aid” from a poorer country such as Indonesia.
Once Indonesia also fought for independence
Fiji governments and other Pacific countries supporting West Papuan independence should remind Indonesia that once upon a time, Indonesia itself was also a colony exploited for centuries by the Dutch, and even earlier by Portugal.
Only after World War II ended with Europe in disarray that Indonesia liberation forces under the leadership of Sukarno were able to declare independence, which attempt was also initially resisted by the Netherlands, which still claimed “sovereignty” over Indonesia, a facetious argument used today by Indonesia against West Papua.
But it was only after international diplomatic pressure and especially with the support of newly independent India, that the Netherlands reluctantly accepted Indonesia’s Independence in 1949.
So despite knowing so well the indignity and oppression of European colonisation, why would Indonesia practice the same with other Third World people, like that of East Timor and now West Papua?
Indonesian colonisation of East Timor
East Timor had for centuries also been a colony of Portugal until its rule disintegrated in 1974 with a coup in Portugal.
In East Timor, the pro-independence party Fretilin, under the leadership of Guzmao, Carlos Belo and Jose Ramos-Horta, declared independence just as Sukarno had declared independence in Indonesia in 1945 after Dutch rule disintegrated.
Instead of recognising the moral legitimacy of East Timorese independence, the Indonesian military forces opportunistically invaded East Timor in 1975 and brutally annexed it as part of Indonesia, suppressing pro-independence forces.
Despite the UN General Assembly condemning the takeover of East Timor, a few other countries such as US and Malaysia, recognised the “sovereignty” of Indonesia over the disputed territory, and this group sadly also included Australia which not only feared Indonesia as a neighbouring Asian giant, but began negotiations with it over the division of rights to resources in the Timor Sea.
For more than two decades after that annexation, Indonesian military forces brutally oppressed the East Timorese with torture, executions, massacres and deliberate starvation, called genocide by reputable international law authorities.
Nevertheless, international support for the pro-independence movement continued right around the world, with its two leaders, Carlos Belo and Jose Ramos-Horta, receiving the Noble Peace Prize in 1996.
Support for East Timorese independence was also incredibly strong around the Pacific, including from the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific movement (NFIP) which once hosted Jose Ramos-Harta in Fiji (who once also honoured my humble abode at 73 Nailuva Rd courtesy of NFIP activist Clare Slatter).
I have little doubt that the international diplomatic pressure, including that from Pacific Island countries such as Fiji, that encouraged the Indonesian President then, to miraculously consider granting East Timor its own referendum.
Indonesian mistakes repeated in West Papua
When Indonesia achieved its independence in 1949, its military leaders also eyed the Dutch colony of West Papua, whose Melanesian people were ethnically different from Indonesia.
In a horrible twist of superpower rivalry, Indonesia looked to Russia for help thereby leading US to ultimately support Indonesian annexation of West Papua, as an indirect strategy of discouraging communism in the region, via a sham UN intermediary.
The entire sell-out was given legitimacy via a UN administered sham plebiscite via which the Indonesian military were able to select just 1026 West Papuans out of a population of one million, and brutally intimidated into voting to remain with Indonesia.
The UN has continued its shameful charade to this day, by not only allowing Indonesia full membership of its Decolonisation Committee, but also allowing this same colonising power to block all attempts by West Papuans to be even heard, such as through a recent petition signed by massive numbers of West Papuans led by pro-independence leader Benny Wenda.
The Decolonisation Committee ironically and farcically recognises the alleged “sovereignty” of Indonesia over its “territories” even those recognised internationally as having been seized illegally by Indonesia after the Dutch left.
Brutal military oppression of pro-independence West Papuan people continues with burning of villages, torture, murder and assassinations by para-military forces.
Sadly again, tacit support for Indonesian occupation continues from western powers like United States and Britain, whose corporations own Freeport, the largest gold mine in the world. At stake are also other resources like forests and agricultural land for Indonesian colonists, seized by displacing West Papuans.
Sadly, today there are some Indonesian colonists in West Papua who may be expected to fight to remain part of Indonesia, to the extent of supporting “jihadist” movements against the indigenous West Papuan people.
The Habibie-Guzmao miracle
Indonesia might like to ponder on the great credit which has been given internationally to its former and late President BJ Habibie, because of his great enlightened leadership as President after the fall of Suharto in 1998, agreed to grant East Timor a plebiscite on independence.
The vast majority of East Timorese people voted in 1999 for independence. Sadly, paramilitary forces supported by the Indonesian military still engaged in waves of violence against East Timorese people and infrastructure.
Eventually, an Australian led international force restored order with the UN Transitional Administration for two years, eventually resulting in formal independence in 2002.
Today’s Indonesian leaders might wish to ponder that despite being incarcerated for seven years, pro-independence fighter and later President of East Timor, Xanana Gusmao,
forgave Indonesia, very much like Mandela forgiving those who had imprisoned him in South Africa.
Just a few months ago, a poignant video circulated internationally of Guzmao embracing and bidding farewell the late Indonesian President Habibie on his death bed.
Readers may wish to watch this video which was also aired on ABC News.
https://www.abc.net.au/ news/2019-09-13/xananagusmao-embraces-bj-habibie/11508706
This is not just to arouse maudlin feelings in the reader. It does try to highlight that despite nations doing wrong by oppressing other weaker peoples, redemption and reconciliation is still possible.
The same ABC news story informed that East Timor’s government opened a new bridge in Habibie’s name, on the anniversary of the independence referendum.
Where is Fiji’s moral compass?
Once upon a time, Fiji joined forces with its Melanesian neighbours Vanuatu and Solomon Islands, to support not just East Timor’s call for independence, but also that of West Papuans and New Caledonian Kanaks.
Sadly today, Fiji has completely compromised its moral principles in supporting Indonesia’s farcical claim of “sovereignty” over West Papua.
Indonesia has been allowed to have Observer Status in the Melanesian Spearhead Group, despite its oppression and arguable genocide of Melanesian people in East Timor and now West Papua.
Fiji accepts aid from Indonesia, even for elite indigenous Fijian schools like Queen Victoria School, once a rich source of ethno-nationalist leaders like 1987 coup leader, former Prime Minister and current Leader of Opposition, Sitiveni Rabuka.
Let us remember that Indonesia’s GDP per capita is a mere $US3894 (2018) while that of Fiji is much higher $US6202 (2018).
Clearly, Indonesia is not giving aid to Fiji as a “rich country giving aid to a poorer country”, but for shrewd geostrategic reasons, to buy influence.
A few days ago, Fiji supposedly celebrated the 49th anniversary of its independence from colonising power Britain. Everyone knows that there is a moral imperative throughout the world that one people cannot “celebrate” their “independence” if neighbours are denied the same basic human right to independence and freedom from oppression.
For Fijians to celebrate their independence while ignoring the current brutal ongoing oppression of West Papuans by Indonesia, is surely great cause for concern. There are a few church groups and other organisations which are publicly expressing support for West Papuans.
But that support needs to translate into active international support by the Fiji Government, whose current support of Indonesia’s alleged “sovereignty” over West Papua is shameful and a blot on Fiji’s own independent history.
It makes a mockery of Fiji’s own joyful celebration of its independence a few days ago.
Professor Wadan Narsey is a former Professor of Economics, USP, and Adjunct Prof at James Cook University. The views expressed are his and not necessarily of this newspaper.