What’s going on in West Papua? This question has been used frequently to
attract readers to read. If you are not satisfied with my version of answering
such question, it is your rights to agree or disagree.
Almost every year in August, a small number of groups within Papua and in
several countries like Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States
conduct a peaceful protest against West Papua’s official and legal
incorporation of West
Papua to Indonesia via the UN-facilitated ‘Act of Free Choice’ referendum.
For Democratic Indonesia, such protest by supporters of West-Papuan
independence movement is part of freedom of expression. However, we should also
know that there is the limit of freedom of expression.
What’s going on in West Papua and Papua
provinces?
First of all, protest by West Papua independence movement is not an innocent
and peaceful protest. It was and still is part of a strategy to instigate
communal conflict, which has occurred many times for the purpose of being
reported in the news and attracted uneducated observers to inflame the conflict
further. Why maintaining conflict is important for Free West Papua movement?
It is a matter of being exist in the world, because without conflict, Free
West Papua has no reason whatsoever to exist.
Second, for West Papuan freedom movement is also about money to survive
either in foreign country or in Papua and West Papua. It is quite common for
those opportunist leaders to ask for money from whoever. For example Oridek Ap,
an unemployed lazy person who is amazingly become the head EU mission of the United Liberation Movement for West
Papua (ULMWP), now very diligent begging for money. As we all know, most of
the money are used for personal needs and not for campaign.
Finally, for supporters of Free West Papua is about being seen as noble
people helping the opportunist Free West Papua leaders. They don’t have better
purpose in life so when they found the so called Freedom movement, they join it
and act as if they can help solving the problem. What they didn’t know is that
their action makes the situation in region worse.
How about human rights violations? Is it real or hoax?
To be honest, I don’t know the detail. However, from reports by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International (AI)
we can find that human rights problem exist in the region. For example, World human rights report 2020 mentioned:
“In August, a racist
attack against West Papuan students in Surabaya triggered an uprising
in Papua and West Papua provinces. It prompted the Jokowi administration to
send more
than 6,000 troops to the two provinces. At least 53 people, both
Papuans and migrants from other parts of Indonesia, were killed in the ensuing
clashes. Indonesian authorities also shut down the internet there.”
AI report stated:
“Violence in the Papua region (Papua and Papua Barat provinces) was
triggered by two incidents: a violent attack in early December 2018
against 16 construction company workers in Nduga, responsibility for which was
claimed by an armed pro-Papua independence group; and racist verbal abuse in
Surabaya, East Java, on 16 August. In the latter case, military personnel and
members of anti-Papua independence organizations surrounded Papuan students in
their dormitory and used racist slurs, including calling them “monkeys.” This
abuse was recorded on video and shared widely on social media, prompting
Papuans to stage protests, some of which turned violent, in Jayapura, Deiyai,
Fakfak, and Wamena, major cities in Papua.”
I tried to capture general views from both respected international human
rights organisations to show that Indonesia should never feel dictated or even
interfered by those international NGOs. Why? It is simple, both NGOs
highlighted cases where people get killed, abused, or their rights being
violated. What Indonesia should do is to fix the problem by protecting people’s
rights.
What went wrong is when human rights report is used by Free West Papua and
their supporters to instigate deeper conflict by pushing the agenda of
separation. Indonesian police and army job is very simple: to protect the
people and defend the country, so separatism and armed criminal groups is
unacceptable. HRW and AI reports mentioning the killing of Papuan and
non-Papuan, and as we can see, all incidents are triggered by violent act by
armed criminal group.
For deeper erroneous effort by Free West Papua supporters, we can see the
depicting all human rights incidents in region in one deceiving campaign:
GENOCIDE which never exist in the first place. Without shame and consciousness,
all those campaigners never use their heart and mind to see the impact of such
evil campaign against the interest of the whole population in Papua and West
Papua. They should think twice and double check their intention when provoking
conflict by arguing about genocide.
May God protect Papuan from evil campaign and hopefully God will help us to
understand fully about what’s going on in West Papua.
