Papuans Need Democracy, Not Separatism

Yesterday I read this article in Papua Story, I can only make a short comment to Mr. Andri Hadi…what a brilliant choice of title! as for the content, I couldn’t agree with you more…

So please for all Papuans, Papua experts and Papua Observers, read this article carefully and try to understand Papua in a more objective perspective.

Papuans Need Democracy, Not Separatism

by Andri Hadi

The Jakarta Post
July 30, 2004

Efforts by certain quarters, within and outside Indonesia, to question the decolonization process in Papua gain a momentum by the declassification of restricted documents in the U.S. recently.

The documents portray the 1969 “Act of Free Choice” (AFC) as a sham, among others because it excluded most Papuans (Jakarta Post, July 16, 2004). Arguably, this development may provide ammunition to the hands of people pursuing the separatist aspiration in Papua, thus endangering Indonesia’s territorial integrity and its democracy.

Six Arrested For Raising Rebellious Flag In Indonesian Province

news from Bernama
July 21, 2008 16:24 PM

JAKARTA, July 21 (Bernama) — Indonesian police have detained six people for raising up separatist flag in easternmost province of West Papua in Indonesia at the weekend, National police spokesman Sulistyo said Monday.

The spokesman said that the six out of 46 people questioned by the police on Saturday, had been detained and allegedly involved in the hoisting of the flag known as “Bintang Kejora or Morning Star” in the province.

“The six persons were accused of involving a subversive act, by raising the flag,” Sulistyo told China’s Xinhua news agency on Monday.

Nia Sjarifudin: Defending local cultures and beliefs

A. Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

“Sampur asun. Being Sundanese, I will use a Sundanese greeting,” Nia Sjarifudin said, in greeting participants at a recent workshop on tribal communities.

Nia, coordinator of the National Alliance of Unity in Diversity (ANBTI), said many Sundanese — the largest ethnic group in West Java — have begun replacing the Islamic greeting of Assalaimualaikum with their own local greeting, to fight against the rising tides of fundamentalism and puritanism. So have members of other ethnic groups, she added.

In the workshop, organized by the ANBTI, Nia urged participants to express their cultures through such greetings and traditional attire.

UK Lesson: Independence vs Union

If you read a provocative, whopper and full of conflictual intrigue on Scottish Independence, you will realise how bad is the intention of the writer. By illustrating President Yudhoyono’s advice to PM Gordon Brown in such a low manner and full of aspersion, the writer tried to disclose himself as a slanderer to the world. Please be honest and careful in understanding Papua issue, we don’t need more conflict. We need sincere attention to develop our motherland democratically.

Green Indonesia Green Papua

Most of Indonesian are not familiar with green politics, ecology, social justice, grassroots democracy and peace. The same situation is also applied to most Papuan, so I think it is very important for Free West Papua to introduce the Green Manifesto for a Sustainable Papuan Society, which is very relevant with our belief to protect our mother rain forest.

Green politics can be translated as the survival of our life, stressing that “unless we build a green economy based on meeting need rather than greed our children face a bleak future. A world dominated by the need for constant growth puts people and the rest nature behind a blind economic system of accumulation”.

“How to be green? Many people have asked us this important question. It’s really very simple and requires no expert knowledge or complex skills. Here’s the answer. Consume less. Share more. Enjoy life.”

(quoted from Derek Wall)

Support Green Indonesia and Green Papua without violence and conflict ! The real democracy in Indonesia is an opportunity to stop the fight between pro-independence and pro-union…lets go green to safe our land.

Good news : online learning will improve education in Papua

Andra Wisnu, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Online learning and information sharing will reach more students across the country after the Ministry of Education on Wednesday relaunched an Internet education program.

The World Bank-funded Indonesia Global Development Learning Network (GDLN), an Internet backbone network connecting major universities all over the world, will allow researchers and professors in countries such as China, Australia and Japan to share research and other information with Indonesian lecturers, while local university students will be able to join overseas classes through video conferences.

Peaceful Life of Papuan

Indonesia’s foreign minister has defended the government of Indonesia’s policy of restricting access by foreign journalists and human rights monitors to the troubled province of Papua by saying ‘We simply want the people to have a peaceful life.’

Hassan Wirajuda told Australian journalists, ‘You should not think that if not much access is given that we are hiding something.’

The people of West Papua have been the victims of conflict between the brutal OPM and Indonesian Military . They experienced human rights atrocities at the hands of the OPM, political opportunist, and military for 45 years.

Now, Indonesia keep moving forward the democracy path including its military and police. The people of Papua are also walking towards a bright future of peaceful life. However, political opporturnist who advocate for independence now responsible for the maintaining of conflict in Papua and West Papua. Sometimes those opportunist groups are behind the visit of foreign journalist and human rights monitor. But there are also a sincere visit of foreign journalist and human rights monitor, so Indonesian government should be very careful with this issues.

reported by Free West Papua

Indonesian House of Reps to pass West Papua autonomy bill

Source : RNZI

All factions in Indonesia’s House of Representatives have agreed to pass legislation giving a legal basis for the implementation of special autonomy in the new province of West Papua.

West Papua was created from the western part of Indonesia’s Papua province in 2003.

However the split is widely opposed in Papua itself, and in late 2004, an Indonesian court agreed that the split violated Papua’s autonomy laws established in 2001.

Since West Papua elected a governor in 2006, the provincial administration has not received any special autonomy budget allocations because of the court’s decision.

The Jakarta Post reports that the government and the House have now agreed on a bill, due to be passed this week, that gives a legal basis for West Papua’s special autonomy

Members of the House say the government needs to reinforce the legality of West Papua’s existence as a province.

The House also urged the government to evaluate and monitor the resources and allocations of special autonomy budgets bothin West Papua and in Papua.