West Papuans are a forgotten people.
They were betrayed by the United Nations. In 1962, the UN took control of the territory from the colonial Dutch, and then allowed the Indonesians to take over. This was done through a bogus "Act of Free Choice" where 1022 West Papuans, hand-picked by the Indonesians, voted to give away their nationhood.
However, what struck me on a visit there last month is that the Papuan people are as determined as ever to be independent. They might not be fighting a war anymore, but they are using every possible channel, both inside and outside the system, to promote a process of self-determination. They want New Zealand to help them.
Thom Beanal, head of the Papuan Presidium Council, told me he was appreciative of what New Zealand had done so far, raising the issue of West Papua at meetings of the Pacific Islands Forum. He wants us to make sure their issues are on the agenda of this year's Forum in Port Moresby. But Mr Beanal also wants New Zealand to join the international campaign to get the United Nations to review its handling of the West Papua issue in the 1960s.
On March 17, the 37 members of the US Congressional Black Caucus appealed to Kofi Annan to get the UN to look at the issue again, admit its earlier mistakes and sponsor a plebiscite whereby the West Papuan people could determine their own future. Parliamentarians from other countries have taken a similar stand. However, Mr Beanal believes it now needs a country like New Zealand to raise these matters directly in UN forums, including the General Assembly.
Time is running out, because transmigration is diluting the indigenous presence. Indonesian migrants now make up 35% of West Papua's 2.1 million people. The capital city, Jayapura, looks "Indonesianised", with transmigrants running most businesses. But appearances can be deceptive. The traditional Melanesian culture has not been squashed. Most poignant to me was the music blaring out as I travelled about the city. It was typical Pacific music which would not be out of place in South Auckland.
The new Indonesian president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, knows he is in a trouble in West Papua and has offered the Papuan people a new representative indigenous institution, the Papuan Community Parliament (or MRP), to operate alongside the provincial parliament. It is to be "given authority and power to protect the rights of native Papuans under the mandate of respect for culture and tradition, empowerment of women and the maintenance of a community rich in religion". One third of the MRP will be customary representatives, elected by tribes, one third will be women, and one third religious representatives. The MRP is supposed to "give consideration to and agree upon" any provincial regulations, measures affecting native Papuans, and the candidates for provincial Governor and Deputy Governor.
The latter is quite important as the Governor has a "presidential" function, appointing the provincial administration. I found universal suspicion among the Papuan people that the MRP will be little more than a token consultative body. For a start, they were worried that the election of the next provincial Governor is going to proceed this year, before the MRP has been set up. They were also cynical about Indonesian-sponsored consultation processes, citing the current provision for the provincial Governor to be consulted about any new police chief.
Since "special autonomy" came in four years ago, West Papua has had three heads of police without any consultation. Who runs the police is very important in a territory where the police and military often wield more power than civilian authorities, particularly in the rural areas. As I passed a vehicle, with POLICE emblazoned on the side, that was like one of our LAV3s, I knew I wasn't looking at a New Zealand-style police force. Neither the police nor the military have taken kindly to overt expressions of Papuan nationalism. I passed by a soccer field in a suburb of Jayapura where last December two Papuans, Filep Karma and Yukuk Pakage, had raised the Papuan Morning Star flag. They are still in jail.
Papuans are forced to promote their agenda through other channels. I talked to Papuan members of the provincial parliament who are doing their best to get the $US200 million dollars of "special autonomy" money provided by Jakarta spent on health and education rather than big infrastructural projects. This doesn't mean these MPs, or other Papuans, have accepted "special autonomy" within Indonesia as the answer. In their hearts, almost all Papuans want an independent country. The main thrust of Papuan leaders outside of Parliament is to create alternative pathways to development, using indigenous institutions - with some parallels with what Maori are trying here.
For example, I found the Papuan Institute for Indigenous Studies and Empowerment assisting tribal ventures in community forestry. Their models of sustainable logging are radically different from the destructive commercial forestry conducted by corrupt Indonesians, with the assistance of the military. The Indonesian military is a big problem. To pursue their own agenda, Papuans need to get the military out of their face, and this is where we can help, because the military doesn't like the glare of international attention on its human rights violations.
When I visited the highland capital of Wamena, I could hardly believe how much military there was around. There is a real sense of fear among the people. One family was worried that a military spy had seen them talking to me, and was going to say, if asked, that I was a visiting "pastor". The highlanders are a very church-going people, and the Catholic Church, to its credit, has adapted its liturgy and customs to suit the local people. I struck this mix of ancient and modern religion when I was trying to leave Wamena to return to Jayapura. T
he mist had descended on the airport and I had visions of being there for days - missing some important parliamentary debates back in Wellington. My Catholic hosts prayed to their ancestors, and two hours later, miraculously, the mist lifted. I hadn't appreciated how much "custom" was a flashpoint between the Indonesians and highland Papuans. The Indonesians had been determined to "civilize" the highlanders and make them put clothes on - which only made many Papuans more determined to stay as they were.
For my part, I was surprised how quickly I got used to seeing men dressed only in a penis gourd mixing freely in a largely-clothed highland community. After a little while, it seemed quite natural.
