Southwest Pacific forum, beyond Papua issue<\/p>\n
Kornelius Purba, Staff Writer, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta,
\nkorpur@yahoo.com<\/p>\n
The startling vision of former president Abdurrahman Wahid had
\nrarely been taken seriously. But when closing the two-day
\nSouthwest Pacific Dialog in Yogyakarta on Saturday, Foreign
\nMinister Hassan Wirayuda might have recalled that the forum of
\nsix foreign ministers was born out of Abdurrahman's anger against
\nthe sharp-tonged statesman of the region, Singapore's Lee Kuan
\nYew.<\/p>\n
Two years ago Abdurrahman had spontaneously announced his idea
\nto establish a new multilateral West Pacific grouping after being
\nhumiliated by Lee. Lee had rejected his idea to include Papua New
\nGuinea and East Timor into the Association of Southeast Asian
\nNations (ASEAN).<\/p>\n
After attending the ASEAN annual summit in Singapore in 2000,
\nAbdurrahman pointed out that the West Pacific forum would become
\na new cornerstone for Indonesia's diplomacy. Many laughed at what
\nseemed like another of his several grand, spontaneously declared
\nnotions. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs however followed up on
\nthe idea. Hassan knows, at least for the short term, that the
\ninformal forum can be used to encounter the diplomatic campaigns
\nby the Free Papua Movement (OPM) especially among states in the
\nPacific.<\/p>\n
Then, what is the result? Australian Foreign Minister
\nAlexander Downer, New Zealand's Phil Goff, Papua New Guinea's
\nRabbie Namaliu, the Philippine's Blas F. Ople, East Timor's Jose
\nRamos Horta and Hassan met in Yogyakarta to discuss future
\ncooperation of Southwest Pacific countries.<\/p>\n
\"We all want our partners of dialog to reiterate ... their
\nsupport for our struggle of (territorial) integrity and national
\nunity,\" Hassan said in conversation with The Jakarta Post before
\nchairing the meeting on Friday.<\/p>\n
Whatever Abdurrahman's motivation, he had rightly corrected
\nthe four-decade paradigm that ASEAN was the cornerstone for
\nIndonesia's foreign affairs policy making -- neglecting in effect
\nthe needs of people living in Indonesia's eastern part.<\/p>\n
ASEAN has been relatively more relevant for the interests of
\npeople in western Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand,
\nBrunei, the Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar are
\nmembers of ASEAN, but for Sulawesi, especially North Sulawesi,
\nthe Philippines is the closest foreign neighbor.<\/p>\n
ASEAN was established in 1967, shortly after Soeharto came to
\npower. As Indonesia wanted to concentrate on economic
\ndevelopment, Soeharto decided to focus its foreign affairs policy
\non Southeast Asia. From an anti-communist grouping, the
\norganization eventually embraced the 10 countries in the region,
\nincluding communist Vietnam.<\/p>\n
But times have changed. The region has also drastically
\nchanged, as well as the global situation. Indonesia, perceived as
\nmuch weaker now, is no longer the anchor of ASEAN. Many
\nIndonesians feel that they have sacrificed too much for
\nneighbors, who did not assist them enough during these difficult
\ntimes as Indonesia is too big to depend only on ASEAN.<\/p>\n
Somewhat similar to the East and West Coast of the United
\nStates, respectively facing the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific
\nOcean, Indonesia is split between the western part, facing the
\nIndian Ocean, and the eastern regions, facing the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n
The western part includes Java, Bali, Sumatra and Kalimantan,
\nwhile the eastern provinces, among which most inhabitants
\nidentify themselves closer to Melanesians, comprises Sulawesi,
\nMaluku, Papua, West Nusa Tenggara and East Nusa Tenggara.<\/p>\n
People in Papua are not interested much in the progress of
\nSingapore or Malaysia, which are too remote from them. Culturally
\nand geographically, they feel much closer to Papua New Guinea.
\nThe sufferings of Papuans easily provokes expressions of
\nsolidarity from their neighbors. Australia, New Zealand and the
\nsmaller states in the Pacific, are Papua's closer neighbors.<\/p>\n
For East Nusa Tenggara people, East Timor is their nearest
\nneighbor, where the people share a similar culture, religion and
\nalso economic hardship. Although the presence of unwanted
\nrefugees from East Timor is still a big burden for the poor
\nprovince, a prosperous East Timor will also benefit its closest
\nneighbor. Instability and chaos in the new state will also
\nfirstly affect East Nusa Tenggara. Australia is another major
\neconomic power important to Nusa Tenggara. Residents of Maluku
\nand North Maluku are also culturally and physically closer to
\nthose in the Pacific.<\/p>\n
Provinces in eastern Indonesia have long lagged far behind the
\nwestern areas, their natural resources exploited by the Javanese
\nand the money deposited in banks in Java.<\/p>\n
It is time now for the government to give more serious
\nattention to the Pacific, not just to minimize international
\nsupport for the Papuan rebels but also to boost economic
\ncooperation between Indonesia's eastern provinces and the Pacific
\ncountries.<\/p>\n
Minister Hassan knows very well that although many of the
\ncountries in the Pacific are small in terms of size or
\npopulation, they could make problems for Indonesia as in the case
\nof the 1980s. At that time the government had clearly
\nunderestimated the position of outspoken Vanuatu. Its government
\noften attacked Indonesia's position on East Timor and Papua, but
\nit was ignored for a long time until the government gave more
\nattention to the tiny island.<\/p>\n
During the Yogyakarta meeting, the five dialog partners
\nexpressed support for Indonesia's territorial integrity including
\non Papua. But there is no guarantee of everlasting loyalty.<\/p>\n
Neighboring countries in the past had also continued to say
\nthat East Timor was a part of Indonesia. This helped boost the
\ngovernment's confidence of its support among the international
\ncommunity -- while the struggle of the East Timorese were
\nbelittled, ending in the major shock for Jakarta when most of its
\npopulation chose to separate from Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Therefore, regarding any other troublesome regions in the
\ncountry, a senior Indonesian diplomat said, \"Whatever we do in
\ndiplomacy, if our treatment (of other regions) like that of East
\nTimor in the past does not change, we may be repeating the same
\nhistory all over again.\"<\/p>",
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