After Wamena: Habibie’s death should inspire Papua solution

Aboeprijadi Santoso
Journalist formerly with Radio Netherlands

PREMIUM

Amsterdam / Fri, October 4, 2019 / 11:06 am

After Wamena: Habibie’s death should inspire Papua solution

The Special Autonomy Law has failed to satisfy the people, as demographic changes meant that non-Papuans numbered a little fewer than Papuans, with 20 percent of Papuans living in poverty, resulting in what researchers have termed “the marginalization of Papuans”. (JP/Aman Rochman)

With at least 33 people reportedly killed in the Wamena riots in late September, the unrest in Papua has grown even more serious since the mid-August protests provoked by racial abuse and discrimination against Papuans elsewhere in Indonesia. There can be no greater contrast than the former Indonesian territory of East Timor, now the sovereign country of Timor Leste, the fledgling nation that commemorated the 20th anniversary of its independence referendum in August. Ironically, that jubilation was soon followed by the death of the very man who made it possible by requesting the United Nations for a referendum: Indonesia’s third president, Bacharudin Jusuf Habibie. Connecting the Papua unrest, Timor Leste and BJ Habibie is not to suggest some inevitable consequence. It is their differences in terms of the issues and possible solutions that justify a review. ...