TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Commentary: Papuan women, youth remind us of second class citizens
Many Papuans feel they are second class citizens because of the entrenched stigma against them, whether it is ethnic, racial, cultural, social or economic.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Imitation crown: Two Papuan girls hold a hat decorated with fake Cendrawasih bird feathers in Jayapura, Papua. (JP/Nethy Dharma Somba)
W
hat a contrast from East Timor. Catalonians and Kurds may envy citizens of today’s Timor Leste. Although residents of the Spanish territory are much wealthier than the Timorese and after the result of their referendum they are not getting anywhere close to the global congratulations the then-Indonesian citizens received after their 1999 vote.
Although Iraq’s Kurds have more world sympathy than the Catalonians, particularly as a militia who helped push back Islamic State (IS) movement terrorists, the non-binding result of their referendum also raised eyebrows. More tension in the Middle East may affect the war against IS movement terrorists, including sympathizers in our parts.
No matter how we fought independence fighters and tried to win over the East Timorese since the 1970s, the referendum results showed that almost 80 percent voted for separation. Many were shocked because for decades we had kept dismissing their grievances as foreign meddling.
After winning global praise for curbing independence aspirations in Aceh province after the terrible 2004 earthquake and tsunami, we’ve largely seen the end of separatist aspirations — except for Papua.
