It’s not far away if you live in Australia. I feel sorry for them because they look more Melanesian than Indonesian and it would seem obvious that the whole island should be one country. But, are they ready for self-government? And, if independent, could they make the region more unstable – for example, China might want to become their new best friend (infrastructure investment etc.) in exchange for use of the port by their navy, which none of their neighbours would be happy about.
There’s another thing – I don’t know what the effect of the ‘transmigration’ program has been on Papua, but there would be a lot of well established Indonesians who were moved there who probably don’t want to become a minority (the Indonesians probably Muslim and many of the natives Christian) in an independent Papua. Independence could be very messy.
Exactly what is happening in PNG. And West Papua already to some extent.
Neil Cheshire
2 years ago
To understand the current situation in West Papua the flawed 1969 referendum, the so called ‘Act of Free Choice’ has to be considered. This travesty was engineered to legitimise the de-facto Indonesian annexation of this former Dutch colony. The vote was restricted to around 1,000 tribal elders (from a population of 800,000) who were selected by the Indonesian military and reportedly subjected to threats of violence to themselves and their families. They voted unanimously to join Indonesia and reject independence.
Lesley van Reenen
2 years ago
And sadly I doubt anyone will pay attention to this far away war.
It’s not far away if you live in Australia. I feel sorry for them because they look more Melanesian than Indonesian and it would seem obvious that the whole island should be one country. But, are they ready for self-government? And, if independent, could they make the region more unstable – for example, China might want to become their new best friend (infrastructure investment etc.) in exchange for use of the port by their navy, which none of their neighbours would be happy about.
Good point – wars of course are all about greed, power and opportunity.
There’s another thing – I don’t know what the effect of the ‘transmigration’ program has been on Papua, but there would be a lot of well established Indonesians who were moved there who probably don’t want to become a minority (the Indonesians probably Muslim and many of the natives Christian) in an independent Papua. Independence could be very messy.
Exactly what is happening in PNG. And West Papua already to some extent.
To understand the current situation in West Papua the flawed 1969 referendum, the so called ‘Act of Free Choice’ has to be considered. This travesty was engineered to legitimise the de-facto Indonesian annexation of this former Dutch colony. The vote was restricted to around 1,000 tribal elders (from a population of 800,000) who were selected by the Indonesian military and reportedly subjected to threats of violence to themselves and their families. They voted unanimously to join Indonesia and reject independence.
And sadly I doubt anyone will pay attention to this far away war.