I think there is a potential danger in making hot air opinion without having a full understanding of the situation besides lack of research and visit to actually see the difficulties and complexities that surrounds what may seems like a straight-forward problem to solve.

Bob

The rest of your ‘reasoning’ is confabulation. Educate yourself.

As someone with very strong ties to Vanuatu, I “Liked” the Free West Papua FB page late last year. I became increasingly suspicious of some of their posts and started looking into them.

I then co-incidently accepted a three months assignment with Australian Business Volunteers in Jakarta – just returned to Sydney. While in Jakarta, I continued my research and spoke with a number of people who have either been there, or have a close understanding of the place. Some of the people include:

o Founder of an NGO who did her thesis on Papuan health issues “terrible state of affairs with various contributing factors”
o 40 year old lady born in West Papua, 1/4 Papuan, sympathetic however knows their claims are grossly exaggerated – 500,000 dead from atrocities more like 100,000 which Wiki details and the mass atrocities ceased 30 years ago. She travels back regularly to visit her parents.
o Aussie manager living in Jakarta who subcontracts to Freeport and visits regularly
o Australian scholarship educated, switched-on young Indonesian lady who worked for a number of years in the Australian embassy in Jakarta
o Another AusAid volunteer who grew up in PNG but has friends who visit West Papua and keeps abreast.

Everyone agrees Indonesia acted shamefully in the 60’s through to mid 80’s and that social progress has only been improving this century. Fact is there are more Melanesians living in Indonesia outside of West Papua, and there are now as many Indonesians living in West Papua as there are Melanesians. And there are other complexities – Melanesia is not a distinct ethnicity, more an geographical and to some degree cultural (all Christian missionised as well). I trust you are aware the Papuans arrived in the region tens of thousands of years ago, while the Austronesians arrived in the region less than four thousand years ago.

Indonesia itself is a country with many ethnicities – including the Bataks in Sumatra, Dyaks in Kalimantan, the creole Betawis of Jakarta, Ambonese, Javanese, Balinese, with Europeans, and Chinese spread throughout. You would appreciate they are not all Muslim and those that are tend to be moderate by Middle East standards, e.g. women in Indonesia have it better than their counterparts in Melanesian countries http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/table-4-gender-inequality-index.

I agree with you that MSG is unlikely to admit ULMWP, however am not convinced this is a sell out or an unfair decision. I reiterate your opening proposition:

“Do the indigenous peoples of a distinct and discrete land mass have the democratic right to self-determination or not?

The answer, according to international law and standards, is an unequivocal yes.”

If West Papua comprised of Melanesians (we’ll define as Papuan and Austronesians) by a large majority, I might agree with you, assuming they are ready for independence. But they no longer are a clear majority. One can bang their fists and say Indonesia had no right, but it is done. Like Europeans did in so many places you choose to name, Asians to Fiji and so many other historical movements – the reason why the vast majority of countries are multi-cultural.

Secondly, I’m yet to be convinced the ULMWP are as unified as portrayed, granted they have a slick PR presence – you would be aware the various factions are lately killing more of their “brothers” than what the authorities are, in trying to keep the peace. This quote recently from Allan Nairn “Within Papua, some unity among the Papuans would help, because there are many splits and it just weakens the movement. But, if there could be enough of a coming together and they can compel Jokowi to sit down with them and start some kind of political process, who knows where it could lead.” http://etan.org/news/2015/01nairn.htm and this from author Elizabeth Pisani “When a senior Papuan politician said recently that Papua was not ready for democracy I was mildly shocked. ‘The people are not mature yet, neither are the political elite. They are not ready to accept defeat, which results in them resorting to violence. Organizers of elections in the regencies are terrorized and intimidated. People are prone anarchic acts,’ Yop Kagoya, the deputy speaker of Papua legislative council.” And further on “In Tolikara district, elections that have already been postponed for two years were put off again this month as running battles broke out between supporters of different candidates. Today’s paper reported 46 people killed in the last couple of weeks; the death toll in Puncak in recent months has been even higher.” http://indonesiaetc.com/note-to-papuan-politicians-democracy-is-for-grown-ups/.

Thirdly, West Papua has achieved semi autonomy which not only gives them more control over their region – the Papuan governors and other officers are elected, though recognise their electoral process is not perfect (at least an international monitoring body was appointed to observe, see http://anfrel.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Papua-Gubernatorial-Election-Report-2013.pdf ) – they also receive more federal government funding.

So I believe when West Papua achieves independence it will have been planned with the government of Indonesia, similar to the process underway for New Caledonia. Another quote from the same source as above by Allan Nairn, “Hardly anybody remembers it, but when the Timor referendum was held, the Indonesians settlers were not allowed to vote. Nobody really paid any attention then because there were so few of them, they actually hadn’t been there very long. In Papua though, they’re now the majority, so if you tried to use that condition you’d actually, in a sense, disenfranchise the majority of people that are presently there. But, that’s the kind of thing that political talks can go through. You might be able to find some formula that is seen as tolerable by the Indonesian community that’s in Papua, as well as the Papuans themselves, leading up to some kind of vote regarding status with a question proposed in a way that could at least be a first political step.”

In the meantime, I find the NiVanuatu preoccupation with West Papua somewhat naive as well as potentially dangerous. There seems to be well orchestrated campaign on YTS to continually stir up Melanesian nationalism towards the Free West Papua cause, and religion is often invoked. Leaders in PNG and Fiji are branded as either corrupt or traitors to their Melanesian brothers in West Papua. I don’t think many NiVanuatu understand the complexities of the situation, the history (so many believe Indonesia marched in illegally) while believing every graphic and utterance from FWP movement (500,000, ongoing genocide and misleading pics).

I don’t see ULMDP admission into MSG being positive at all. Independence under Melanesian stirrings is not going to happen – it is nothing like East Timor; and the UN, US, Australia, PNG etc are just not interested. There are too many people from different parts of Indonesia living there now – mostly Javanese, but also from Madura.

I write this as someone who was an initial sympathiser with FWP, has looked into the situation quite deeply and would like to see more objectivity into Vanuatu discussions. I am pleased MSG have signalled they will send a delegation. I’m delighted Jokowi ceased transmigration, which the Dutch actually commenced, and has recently announced foreign media will be allowed into West Papua – just hope he doesn’t renege. I know there are many NGOs in the region trying to improve conditions and the federal government genuinely seems to be trying to improve progress in the Papuan provinces. I believe the Indonesian proposal of having five (elected Papuan) governors into MSG will greatly assist the cause of independence through dialogue, and hope militia activity subsides in the meantime.

I’d like to see West Papua gain their independence but not through pent up emotions over the past – it’s done. And I would prefer if NiVanuatu prioritised the matter further down the list of issues that should be driving debate and progress through the archipelago.

I hope you accept this reasoning thoughtfully. I’d be delighted to maintain communications… and apologies for the long winded comment.

With kind regards

Nick

It’s really not my place to prescribe to the ULMWP, but they must be aware of the significant strides they’ve made over the last few years in terms of international awareness. In my opinion, Indonesia’s use of no-fly lists to limit the mobility of independence advocates will work against them, especially in light of the fact that American and Australian youth are increasingly leaning toward taking this on as a cause célèbre.