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Sade Bimantara is already free, rights protected
It is at the point of human rights issues that the claims fall short. Instead of referring to recent human rights reports to be able to say that we are doing great, the author has to fall back on the argument that “we are not as horrible as these separatists are saying.” And Papuans are supposed to be satisfied with this.
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Stand for rights – Dozens of Papuan activists are arrested and gathered in a field at the Brigade Mobile (Brimob) Kotaraja in Jayapura on Monday. They were arrested for staging a rally voicing the Papuan independence. (thejakartapost.com/Nethy Dharma Somba)
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recent article by Sade Bimantara on how Papua is “already free and its rights protected” reeks of what it means to be privileged in Indonesia. I accept that everyone experiences differently what it is to be a citizen of a country, but to use one’s experience of being in Indonesia to scold other people (in such a patronizing tone, mind you) makes it difficult to ignore.
Let me make my points one by one.
Sade began his case by saying that the use of the word “liberation” in the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) was pretentious. Perhaps to be deliberately facetious, he asks, “[liberated] from whom or what?” But let’s pretend that the question is serious.
Papua wants independence from Indonesia. Most Papuans have never wanted to be a part of Indonesia. Were it not for the Netherlands, Indonesia would never have had any basis on which to claim that Papua is part of Indonesia. We all know that Sukarno demanded that Indonesia inherit the entirety of what was the Dutch East Indies. If Papua were not part of the Dutch East Indies, the claim would not have any basis whatsoever.
But Papua was a part of the Dutch East Indies. Hence, Sukarno’s claim was reified. But to say that “the people of Papua together with their brothers from other parts of Indonesia fought together in the war for independence from the Netherlands” and that ‘in 1969 the people of Papua once and for all reaffirmed that Papua was an inevitable part of Indonesia” is taking it too far. I suggest reading a book by historian P.J. Drooglever entitled An Act of Free Choice: Decolonisation and the Right to Self-Determination in West Papua.
The idea that Papuans fought in the war of independence from the Netherland is preposterous, to say the least. Which war of independence are we talking about here? If Sade was referring to the revolutionary war in 1945-1949, I have bad news for him. In 1945-1949, Papuans did not know of other Indonesians; they were not fighting against the Netherlands.
If the author was referring to the 1969 Act of Free Choice (which my friends have called affectionately ‘the Act of No Choice’), a cursory reading of the work above by Prof. Drooglever would debunk the idea that Papuans ever “reaffirmed” their belonging to Indonesia in the act. Prof. Drooglever took 900 pages to make this case; I will not waste ink on simply repeating it.
But let me get to the point of why the article reeked of privilege, and what I mean when I say that the article reveals what it means to be privileged in Indonesia.
To be privileged in Indonesia is knowing that you can go to the police for protection. In light of the detention of at least 1,600 demonstrators last week, you can be assured that most Papuans don’t feel protected when we think of the police, or worse, the military apparatus.
To be privileged in Indonesia is to be able to say that the government is committed to solving all human rights issues, and use that sentiment to end the argument. To a free Indonesian, commitment is enough. Papuans know better. Most of us do not hate Jokowi; we simply wonder how far his commitment to human rights can take us toward a better life. We like commitments; unfortunately, they are not enough.
To be privileged in Indonesia is to be able to read about local daily injustices in national newspapers, instead of on Facebook posts. To refer to commitment when Human Rights Watch still laments the lack of journalist access to Papua is wilful ignorance. Dear author, do you know why it is so difficult to receive “credible” information on Papua? Because any journalist you deem “credible” enough would not be able to go to Papua freely.
To be privileged in Indonesia is to be able to attend a university anywhere in Indonesia, without having to prove that you are not an idiot. It is about being able to leave your home region and use the local dialect, without receiving smirks. Our different dialect does not showcase our stupidity, but somehow that connection is there, and we Papuans have to prove we are not as idiotic as we sound.
To be privileged in Indonesia is to say that Papuans are brothers while at the same time saying that this demand for freedom is ridiculous. It thinks that we are stupid and ungrateful. That it is improper for Papuans to be still demanding liberation from Indonesia. ‘Look at all this development and progress we’ve given you - how dare you ask for more?”
It is at the point of human rights issues that the claims fall short. Instead of referring to recent human rights reports to be able to say that we are doing great, the author has to fall back on the argument that “we are not as horrible as these separatists are saying.” And Papuans are supposed to be satisfied with this.
Guess what? Papuans are not satisfied. We deserve better than your commitment, your insistence that you are not committing genocide. If we were satisfied, the independence movement would not have been as strong as it is. ULMWP would have remained on the fringes of our society, not central to it.
Because the problem of being a Papuan is to know that when you look around you, a lot of things fall short. Because while the author has given us an extensive list of the freedom of Papuans to do things, it has not given a list of things Papuans are unfree from. Unfree from police brutality. Unfree from fear of the military. Unfree from living our lives peacefully.
But perhaps the point the author makes relates more to the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) than the ungrateful wretches of the ULMWP. It is about the annoyance that the ULMWP causes to Indonesia’s membership in the MSG. Of course, while I will not dispute that Indonesia has a significant population that can be called Melanesian, I have to say that Indonesia’s interest in MSG is as old as the success of ULMWP’s lobby in the MSG. It is so recent that one may rightfully wonder whether Indonesian entrance into the MSG intends simply to force MSG members to adhere to the Agreed Principles of Cooperation of the MSG- i.e., forcing them to respect Indonesia’s sovereignty.
I know that I will not change the author’s mind regarding the issue. I simply wish to point out that the Indonesia that Sade lives in is to Papuans as real as the magical land in The Wizard of Oz.
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The author is a student in the history department at Leiden University in the Netherlands.
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