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Divided and divisive: Tracing the issue of Papuan self-determination
The issue of Papuan self-determination is even split among experts, with one side debunking it as "myth" through the 1969 Act of Free Choice (Pepera), while the other points to the same election as fomenting the controversy.
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Some 7,000 people from four regencies in Papua province chant “Papua Merdeka” (Free Papua) during a peaceful march on Aug. 26, while demanding that the government pursue legal measures against those who committed racial abuse against Papuans. (JP/Courtesy of Bonny Lanny)
T
he recent unrest and rioting in Indonesia’s easternmost provinces of Papua and West Papua have sparked renewed debate on whether Papuans deserve the right to self-determination, just like the people of former East Timor (present-day Timor Leste) did 20 years ago during the independence referendum on Aug. 30, 1999.
However, international law experts have warned about conflating independence and separatism in comparing Papua and Timor Leste today.
Legal status
Papua and West Papua do not have the same rights as the Indonesian province of East Timor did in 1999, when the independence referendum was held.
“This is an uninformed view that fails to understand international law [and does] not distinguish [between] the statuses of Papua and East Timor under the legal system,” said Eddy Pratomo, a professor of international law at Diponegoro University and a former diplomat whose portfolio included Timor Leste.
A referendum for self-determination could only be carried out in the context of colonialism, he stressed. Formerly called West Irian (or West New Guinea by the Dutch), present-day Papua was included with all other territories when Indonesia declared independence on Aug. 17, 1945.
In contrast, East Timor was registered as a Non-Self-Governing Territory with the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization, and was thus entitled to self-determination.
