Australia's illogic over Timor and West Papua

In my opinion, Australia is in many ways a bad neighbour to its Pacific neighbours. Accepting Indonesian sovereignty over West Papua resulting from an election rigged by Indonesia 50 years ago is unconscionable. Australia's pathetic response to the climate crisis when Pacific Islands are going under due to rising sea levels is also unconscionable. I suggest to readers to go to ABC I-view and watch 'climate change - the facts'. There are prophetic voices like Sir David Attenborough speaking out, but I don't find many prophetic voices in Australia's major political parties, which doesn't bode well for the future of our region or the world!

An excellent article and So good to see that the plight of West Papua people hasn't been completely forgotten by other Pacific neighbours.

I totally agree with Pat, I am old enough to remember the so called referendum on Papua's independence in the 1960's and Australia's support of Indonesia taking over the province from the Dutch, despite Papuan resistance. In every respect the Papuans are a distinctly separate civilization from the Javanese centred Indonesians. Our record on East Timor was also looking suspect until events there overtook the Government . The seabed dispute made us look very greedy over the Sunrise gas fields dispute. I watched the 4 Corners programme on Climate Change. David Attenborough painted a worrying scenario, not just for us, but more importantly for the Pacific Islands. Sadly Morrison. like Abbott and Turnbull before him, supports the fossil fuel industry above the interests of the Pacific Islanders. I wonder what the pollies will do when we have the peoples of these islands knocking on our door when their nations disappear beneath the waves. Narau and Manus will not be there to send them to!

A very fine article indeed by a man who knows more than most about the intricacies of regional politics, and holds the Timorese, Papuan and Indonesian peoples in high regard. Whether the Australian PM is attuned to any of the nuances of the Australian relationships with these neighbours is important. I am reminded of the comments of both John Howard and Alexander Downer that they felt their greatest achievements were connected to the freeing of East Timor. Undoubtedly, in 1999 their time was committed to the situation, but that is in contrast to the history of their reluctance to work towards justice in previous years. Howard’s Christmas letter of 1998 suggested “autonomy” within Indonesia for the Timorese, not freedom. Had that been installed, the Timorese might even now be as satisfied as the currently “autonomous” Papuans. In fact Howard only changed course when President Habibie announced dropping East Timor. How could Australia then possibly maintain its traditional position that Timor should remain part of Indonesia when Indonesia itself wanted it gone? The Australian people cannot be underestimated here, as utter shame finally moved thousands onto the streets. Will Indonesia ever want to slough off Papua? Will Australians learn the story of Papua? Pat’s itemising of the current movements regarding Papua is enlightening, and exciting. The hopes of the Papuan people must be fulfilled, but that can only come through international processes. Canberra, unfortunately, seems to be still fearful of Jakarta, reluctant to assert any independence from its shadow.

Thank you Pat Walsh for reminding us of the genocide of the West Papuans occurring just off our northern coast. Yes, the UN supervised Act of Free Choice in 1969 was a great disgrace for the UN and a disaster for our West Papuan brothers and sisters who refer to it as the Act of No Choice. And it shows a contradiction in the UN performance that it later supported the East Timorese demand for independence and conducted a much more efficient independence referendum. It was still difficult because, thanks to Howard and Downer (the very reluctant saviours), it occurred with the presence of the Indonesian military (TNI) and its Timorese militias running amok and terrorising the population. The UN peace force should have been there before the exercise which may have prevented the loss of 2000 more lives and 80% of Timor's infrastructure. Prior to 1969, there was another disaster for the West Papuans in 1962 when US president John Kennedy intervened to give in to Sukarno's demand that Indonesia take over West Papua when the Dutch government was preparing the people for independence. The US was eager to get its hands on West Papua's copper and gold resources which it did I have also suspected for a long time that the CIA was plotting with Suharto and other extreme right wing TNI generals from the late 1950s to intervene in Indonesia to turn it into a client state of the US. This occurred in 1965 with the loss of up to 3 million Indonesians I think it is interesting that our PM who prays for more love in Australia is so utterly devoid of love and compassion for all the victims of TNI repression and those doing it tough at home. Still, I suppose that if he prays hard enough the billions he gives to the super wealthy and the big corporations will trickle its way down into the hands of the people who need it! Could it be that the recent conferral of the freedom of the City of Oxford on Benny Wenda, a leader of the West Papua freedom movement, will help to increase awareness about West Papua and lead to its final independence from the TNI barbaric brutality? I certainly hope this comes very soon as the West Papuans have been denied their freedom, human rights and access to their resources for far too long.

One could argue that as Papuans are racially different from Indonesians, the fact that they were vassals of Indonesian monarchs in pre-Dutch times doesn’t make it legitimate for Indonesia to claim them now, ‘decolonisation’ having been the in-thing since WW2. One might even think culture also buttresses the independence argument, West Papua being a majority Christian (61%) society, with Islam at a relatively distant 38%. But the US owns jurisdictions such as Hawaii, Guam and American Samoa that have majority populations of different races to ‘Americans’ and, frankly, if I were a native resident of the island of New Guinea faced with a referendum choice of becoming independent or incorporating in some way into the Commonwealth of Australia, I’d give political correctness the flick and ‘self-determine’ with the proven worth of a western European state with the usual western European virtues of good administration and economy, in company with the overwhelming majority of Hawaiians, Guamians and American Samoans. While a racial difference per se doesn’t mean anything, two contrasting strategic questions for us outsiders arise: is the Papuan Christian ethos best protected by independence; does it moderate Muslim-majority Indonesia to own a Christian-majority province run under special conditions of autonomy?

Thank you Pat for a timely reminder of Australia's responsibilities to justice in our region. The reason why Indonesia violently represses West Papua, forbids protest and refuses democratic rights to its citizens is largely economic. West Papua is rich in natural resources: gold, silver, natural gas, copper, timber, etc. "The Indonesian government is exploiting these resources, ever since it took over West Papua, while few of the profits are returned to West Papuans." Wikipedia. "In 1936, Dutch geologist Jean Jacques Dozy climbed the world’s highest island peak: the forbidding Mount Carstensz, a snow-covered silver crag on what was then known as Dutch New Guinea. During the 4,800-metre ascent, Dozy noticed an unusual rock outcrop veined with green streaks. Samples he brought back confirmed exceptionally rich gold and copper deposits. Today, these remote, sharp-edged mountains are part of West Papua, Indonesia, and home to the Grasberg mine, one of the biggest gold mines – and third largest copper mine – in the world. Majority-owned by the American mining firm Freeport McMoRan, Grasberg is now Indonesia’s biggest taxpayer, with reserves worth an estimated $100bn." Guardian 2/11/2016. Surely West Papuans cant complain about the rape and pillage of their resources to benefit Jakarta?

Decency and (supposed) 'enlightened' self-interest collide in regard to Australia's support for the West Papuan people (not necessarily their independence) and dealing equitably with the Timorese. During Dutch colonial rule Irian Jaya was 'off limits' to Javanese and other nonindigenous settlers. I have been to Indonesia several times and like the people, however, you would have to be blind to the fact that the Javanese, the most numerous ethnicity, are seen as 'the new Dutch' by other Indonesians. Any attempt at West Papuan independence will be met with the same repression that happened in Timor Leste. It is a real problem and it may get worse before things improve. We need to bear in mind that the power dynamic between us and Indonesia is changing greatly in their favour so we need to tread carefully, as well as firmly, with them on what they see as 'internal matters'. Re Timor Leste, we need to grow up and treat them with equity. We owe them a debt from WW 2. Maybe now is the time to pay up.