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Foreign diplomacy not enough to solve the Papua issue
One of the main motives behind the Pacific approach is to “appease” the people in the region who have strong emotional and cultural bonds with the people of Papua.
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Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi (front center) and ministers, senior officials and representatives from Pacific countries and intergovernmental organizations pose for a group photo during the Indonesia-Pacific Forum for Development High-Level Dialogue on Wednesday in Nusa Dua, Bali. (JP/A. Muh. Ibnu Aqil)
M
y mind has flashbacks of former foreign minister Ali Alatas telling me about the real power of the Foreign Ministry many years ago when I read the speech of Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi during the first Indonesia-Pacific Forum for Development (IPFD) in Bali early this month.
Alatas’ experience in dealing with East Timor at the time can be a good reminder for Retno in negotiating the Papuan issue. Of course, she fully understands it as she was part of the Foreign Ministry under Alatas.
Retno chaired the first IPFD, which resulted in the Bali message statement. She said Indonesia had intensively cooperated in development projects with Pacific nations since 2019, during which the government granted 211 technical and development aid packages to Pacific nations.
To be honest, one of the main motives behind the Pacific approach is to “appease” the people in the region who have strong emotional and cultural bonds with the people in Papua. Vanuatu is one the most outspoken critics of Indonesia’s Papua policy, as well as Jakarta’s treatment of East Timor before it voted for independence in 1999.
The Bali meeting was attended by ministers, senior officials and representatives of Australia, New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea (PNG), the Solomon Islands, Timor Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. Delegations from the United States, China, France, Japan and South Korea also turned up for the event.
“We must maintain the Pacific as a peaceful, stable and prosperous region,” Retno said during the opening of the meeting on Dec. 7.
In dealing with Papua, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo seems to emulate the “divide and rule” tactic of the Dutch to maintain its colonialism in the Dutch East Indies for more than three centuries. Just recently, his administration formed four new provinces in Papua, in addition to the existing provinces of Papua and West Papua. The government believes it will be much easier to quell separatist aspirations in Papua if the people are not united.
