There is something about the Papuan
In the past one month, West Papua or Irian Jaya becomes the headlines in the national media. Incidents of PT Freeport and the bloody demonstration at University of Cenderawasih at Abepura and Tembagapura have claimed the lives of many. With the Diaspora of 42 Papuans to Cape York (Australia), it makes me ponder what actually happen there. Is this another genocide episode akin to the East Timor saga? Does the central government view the relationship with the Papuan as brothers and sisters of the same family or master and slave of a colony? Is this a naked colonialism?
Clamor for justice is everywhere. While the central government received USD 2.7Million daily from PT Freeport in the form of tax, little had been done to enhance the living condition of the Papuan. The students of the Cenderawasih University, the only tertiary educational institution in those areas, organized demonstrations against such condition. The very presence of the gigantic gold mine is not seen as an ordinary mine, but rather a symbol of tyranny, oppression, and exploitation by the central government. Much of the taxes generated go to Jakarta instead of the Papuans.
The senseless brutality, radicalism and profound emotions displayed by both student demonstrators and national police had caused the life of four police officers and tens of the students and people. The Papuan students are not to blame entirely. Their reactions were an expression, an outcry on behalf of the voiceless Papuans. The police officers are not entirely in the fault since they had to maintain the peace and order. I believe that the liability rests much on the central government, for their attitudes and treatment of the Papuans throughout the four decades.
I see the case of 42 Papuans seeking asylum in Australia as an indication of a huge human rights abuses that is being cover up. It is very unlikely that minor repression and the gold mine problem caused them t risk their lives, traveled in small boats to Australia. If not because of the life threatening pressure, I believe that they would not risk their life to travel for days and night to Cape York. I feared that another stories of genocide akin to the East Timor saga are repeated. After all, the presence of excessive special and elite forces, with their atrocious reputations, may suggest any degree of abuses is taking place.
There is no silver bullet to solve this delicate issue. The process of rebuilding the national fabric after so much pain, tears and blood spilt is not an easy task. I wish the government is able to do whatever it takes to prevent the Papuan from breaking away from Indonesia. I don’t want to see independent West Papua. I want the army to be stationed there with the Panzers and aircrafts to prevent any separatist’s movements. But on the other hand, I don’t want to see the Papuans suffer any more. I don’t want to see the brothers and sisters being tortured unnecessarily. I wish the brothers in Papua can live a peaceful life.
I cannot do anything, but hope for a speedy resolution of the conflicts. Although this may sound ideal and just a dream, but I think it is a dream that all of us should aspire for. The process of nation building, after all, is never an easy task. It is a huge venture that had started, is endless and must never stop. And all of us, the son of the soil, has a stake in it.
posted by Yono Lee at 1:17 AM
3 Comments:
wiryono, please remember. Papuan are totally different from the rest of Indonesian. They are Melanesian. so I don't think they are our part. And I can't believe that only 14 years after our independence, we started to act like our 350 years invader. what a shame.
Being a Melanesian, being different from the Javanese doens't mean that they are not and should not be part of Indonesia.
It is a weak argument in this issue if we based on being a Polynesia or Melanesia or whatever origin. In fact, half of Indonesia (by region) is made up of Melanesian people. The Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara, Maluku and Papua are part of Melanesia.
The issue of "our part" need to be reconsidered. What is " us"? Is it a mere Polynesian Micronesian Melanesian or Mongoloid definition? Or is it a mere Javanese non-Javanese distinction? If that the case, I feel that it is a too simplistic a perspective.
The problem here is not whether they are not " not our part" because of Melanesian, but rather the way Indonesian treat them.
It is indeed we treated Papua as a colony, only to take the gold and copper and left shit to them. This is something we need to change. We need to acknowledge the atrocities committed.
u said that being melanesian is an unjustifiable reason to consider papuan as being apart from us. yes, you may be right. however, the same applies to what indonesian uses to justify its annexation of papua. am i right to say that indonesian had "sympathy" to papuan since both indonesia and papua were invaded by dutch, and therefore indonesian think 'let's adopt papua as our part' ? yes, we might be one when we fought together against dutch. but we might not be one as a country if papuan themselves chose to govern themselves.
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