Gus Dur ends his honeymoon with Papua

Gus Dur ends his honeymoon with Papua

By Aboeprijadi Santoso

JAYAPURA, Irian Jaya (JP): It was a milestone when President
Abdurrahman Wahid chose to welcome the year 2000 in Irian Jaya,
greeted the sunset by restoring the name to "Papua" and allowed
the Morning Star flag to be flown, said the Irianese.

For the first time, they felt Indonesia appreciated them
rather than being merely interested in natural resources and
security. Yet one year on, the New Order's security approach has
been revived, abruptly terminating the honeymoon.

The Irian Jaya issue, like Aceh's, may turn out to be a
crucial test for democratic reform in Indonesia, rather than
becoming part of it.

A momentum of rising hope among the Irianese, heightened
tension and stern action from the security administration marked
the 39th anniversary of Irian Jaya's declaration of independence
this year, which possibly ended up in a purge of proindependent
leaders.

"I witnessed the events of Dec. 1, 1961 in this very place,"
an old man on the corner of Jl. Martin Indey proudly said. "Now
many people want independence, much more than in the past." He
then cried and wished me good luck.

A few hours later, in the early morning of Dec. 1, 2000, the
Morning Star flag was hoisted for the last time at Imbi Square in
the same spot as almost four decades ago: the front of the former
Nieuw Guinea Raad, now the Irian Jaya Art and Cultural Council,
DKIJ building.

In Jayapura, or Port Numbay as locals call it, both young and
old are aware that their homeland was declared independent on
Dec. 1, 1961, although, they said, "the truth had subsequently
been diverted".

Almost four decades later, public expectation was so high that
many believed the independence and sovereignty of Irian Jaya
would be restored on the anniversary. Yet none of the leaders
promised to do so.

So who was responsible for this public mood?

Curiously, the local authorities made systematic attempts to
reduce the meaning of Dec. 1, harass the populace and halt the
proindependence movement.

Irianese key leaders Theys Hiyo Eluay and Thaha al Hamid were
arrested shortly before the rally. No politics was allowed at the
rally, the commemoration was reduced to a Ibadah Syukuran
(thanksgiving prayer) and its program was curtailed to "folk
entertainment" as a result of heavy pressure through the Nov. 9
agreement between the authorities and the proindependent Papua
Presidium Council.

For the first time since reformation began in 1998, Jakarta
imposed a ban on political statements at a public meeting. This
has not occurred even in restive Aceh.

A show of force on the eve of Dec. 1 later changed Jayapura's
city center into a military occupation zone.

"The New Order's security approach has been revived," one
observer said.

As the media were gone, two days later, the security
administrations went into action -- a pattern that reminds one of
East Timor shortly before last year's mayhem began.

The Irian Jaya Art and Cultural Center building, which served
as the headquarters of the proindependence militia, was seized
and several Papuan task force members and activists, including
some civil servants, were detained and warned.

Later, a dozen key leaders and a Swiss journalist were
harassed or arrested. Elsewhere in the more restive towns
of Fakfak, Manokwari and Merauke, a dozen people were killed as
flag incidents erupted.

Yet the people remained generally restrained, expressing their
aspirations in politico-religious terms. They said they had a
natural right to be independent, that their leaders had achieved
it on Dec. 1, 1961 and that "other people have taken over our
homeland since then." They were referring to Indonesia, which has
ruled Irian Jaya since May 1, 1963.

The present nationalism is viewed by Irianese as sacred,
divinely inspired and natural -- quite the opposite as to how
Indonesian nationalism is perceived.

"My dear brothers and sisters," said Irianese leader
Tom Beanal at the Dec. 1 rally, "congratulations on the
anniversary of the independence of the Papuan nation, and let us
at the same time commemorate the humiliation of our nation.

"We are being totally constrained and curtailed (but) let us
remind ourselves that our leader in this struggle is God
Almighty. If God is our leader, what are we afraid of? (If) God
is great in your heart, He will bring us to the truth so
that everybody will ultimately realize his rights."

God's leadership is now part of the people's discourse to
express their aspirations and talk about their struggle for
independence. At one point, a priest at the rally yelled: "Dec. 1
was the day Jesus Christ was born, not Dec. 25!"

With God taking the lead for the Irianese as Tom Beanal had
suggested, the other side of the game -- the Indonesian security
administration -- was by implication perceived as "the great
devil".

A similar discourse in the past could be depicted in the
imagery of East Timor facing Indonesia as David and Goliath or
Indonesia fighting the Dutch in the 1940s as the good guys versus
the bad guys.

At a seminar near Jayapura, a young student proposed an
outright denial of imagery.

"Ladies and gentlemen, a nation and state are two different
things," he said. "The state is a creation of men, but a nation,
the Papuan nation, is God's precious gift. So how can the Papuan
nation become the Indonesian nation?"

Interestingly, the question did not shock the public, but
created deep silence. A few were confused, but most seemed to
agree.

The fact that the new Irianese nationalism is seen as sacred,
divinely inspired and natural means that it is being projected as
the very anathema to how Indonesian nationalism is perceived.
Although Irian Jaya -- a colorful tribal civilization of almost
two million, with 240 tribes and dozens of languages -- may be as
diverse as the Indonesian archipelago, Irianese self-
consciousness seems clear cut and geographically well-defined.

Indonesia, by contrast, is a great political concept born in
the 1920s, covering various ethnic and language groups, yet it is
seen as an expansionist. The latter refers to the takeover of
Irian Jaya (1963) and artificial expansion of Indonesian
nationalism to the brutally annexed East Timor (1976).

The three decades of the New Order regime, more than anything
else, left fundamental imprints on both the conditions in Irian
Jaya and the perceptions of its people. It created a new Irianese
nationalism, which only came fully into the open when Soeharto's
Pandora's box was opened in 1998.

The Irianese were conscious of their differences with
Indonesians. "So first, an ethnic-nationalism arose, then came
the attempt to unite and fight the injustice, lies and
inequality. Ultimately, it's been an attempt to achieve
independence," Frits Agapa, a non-governmental organization (NGO)
volunteer, said.

Anthropologist Benny Giay essentially agreed. Irianese
nationalism, he said, consists of three elements that run against
Indonesia's mainstream assumptions.

First, a strong awareness of being (West) Melanesian; second,
a protest against the New Order's economic exploitation and
military violence; and, third, a general awareness that Irianese
rights have been manipulated by the outside world, that is
Indonesia, the Netherlands, the United States and the United
Nations, through the New York Agreement of 1962 and the Act of
Free Choice of 1969.

The third element is now popularly referred to as restoring
the truth and reflected by the council's program of rectifying
history.

Irian Jaya has seen a long series of isolated local uprisings
since 1965. There have also been many examples of Irianese
nationalism in the past, but as Indonesian scholar George
Aditjondro pointed out, it was not until Thomas Wanggai
proclaimed Irian Jaya as a Melanesian state in 1988, that a broad
ethnic consciousness was clearly expressed.

Under the leadership of the democratically elected
Papua Presidium Council, for the first time a
national movement has come into being that encompasses
the whole province and social strata.

"The Presidium has been very successful in promoting the
concept of independence down to the villagers," said Australian
scholar Richard Chauvel in Jayapura.

Serui, once a strong base of pro-Indonesian Irianese, has
turned proindependent as has the Evangelical Church Council and
the Amber (non-Irianese migrant) communities in the northern
urban centers, as several examples.

To understand Irian Jaya, it should be noted that, first, the
province has been colonized 18 years longer than other parts of
Indonesia since it was incorporated into the Republic in 1963.

Crucially, that period was the most decisive in terms of
creating a national solidarity as the young nation-state was
fighting for its survival and then consolidated when the center
was threatened by the rebellions of the 1950s.

The Irianese did not take part in Indonesia's nation-building
processes. Neither were they represented in earlier historic
events, such as the Youth Oath of 1928.

As a result, with the New Order's brutal adventures in Irian
Jaya, Indonesia is being perceived as the "great devil" rather
than as one big family.

Second, late president Sukarno's nation-building politics was
based on the experiences of Indonesia's western regions (from
Bali and Sulawesi to the west) with Dutch colonialism, rather
than being balanced by the experiences of eastern regions,
especially in Irian Jaya.

Colonialism meant for the Irianese that their rich homeland
was being plundered for the sake of others, be they Dutch or
Indonesian. Yet they had not seen the Dutch war crimes as people
in Java or South Sulawesi had witnessed.

With the New Order and military operations, for the first time
the Irianese experienced the kind of colonialism that, in
addition to economic exploitation, adat (traditional) land
confiscation, social and racial discrimination, also involved
brutal repression and massacre.

This, as Benny Giay said, was made ironically clear when the
Irianese greeted the Dutch parliamentary delegation early this
year. One person yelled out in Dutch: "Dutchmen, you are truly
formidable teachers because you have taught Indonesia to be a
better colonizer."

That may not be truly fair, but it does pointedly, if
implicitly, express the Irianese concept of Indonesian
colonialism as one which was marked not just by economic
exploitation, but by mass violence as well.

Irian Jaya's death toll under the New Order is much less clear
than the numbers for East Timor or Aceh, but even the most
conservative figures released by reliable human rights sources
vary between 300 to 500,000.

The New Order adventure had strengthened a new Irianese
nationalism, with Irianese now starting to develop a process of
self-determination.

Therefore, the President was instinctively correct when he
started Jakarta's reconciliation by restoring the name Papua and
allowing the Morning Star flag to fly.

The Irianese watch carefully what others do with their
symbols. As was the case with Indonesia's flag in the 1940s (the
Oranje Hotel incident, Surabaya, 1945), once the Morning Star
flag marked historical events and was seen as a common identity,
it inevitably became a key political symbol, no matter how others
define it.

"It's definitely the symbol of our inalienable rights," Willy
Mandowen, the council mediator, said.

Yet given the nature of New Order rule in Irian Jaya, the
President's gesture might have been too late even before it was
proposed.

Now with even that being blocked by his ultranationalist and
military opponents in Jakarta, the prospect could take a
dangerous turn.

For Jakarta cannot pretend to promote democratization and at
the same time revive the New Order's heavy-handed approach in the
regions. The path for an honest dialog with the regions should
remain open since the alternative of a growing secessionist trend
could invite antidemocratic forces to reestablish a strong rule,
a new New Order, in the center.

The events of December in Irian Jaya, therefore, raise the
question whether the integrity of the Republic can be maintained
with an iron fist, while at the same time claiming democratic
reform.

Or will the state choose the first at the expense of the
latter? Unless the issues of Irian Jaya and Aceh are integrated
into a reform program and are resolved democratically, sooner or
later Jakarta has to face that painful dilemma.

The Irianese also face enormous and complex challenges. The
Papua Presidium Council, born out of the democratic process of
the Second Papua People's Congress last May, has proposed to
pursue an open and peaceful policy of "dialog, love and
courtesy".

Efforts have been made to make peaceful zones in Serui and
Timika, and win credit throughout the province. Even the
guerrilla movement -- one which has a longer history, but is
small and suffering from endemic factionalism -- the National
Liberation Army of the Free Papua Movement (OPM-TPN), agreed in
Vanuatu in July to recognize the authority of the council.

The council is the biggest, most peaceful and moderate
proindependent movement in Irian Jaya. Tom Beanal, its soft-
speaking, amicable vice chairman, who is a highland tribe leader,
is loved by the Irianese and is respected elsewhere. In 1996 he
was a nominee for the prestigious Yap Thiam Hien Human Rights
Award in Jakarta.

Yet the council lacks worldwide support and faces pressure
from radical groups, such as the Papua National Forum (FNP) of
former political prisoners, also known as the Kalisosok group,
and the Penis Gourd Council of Elders (DMK), who want to
accelerate unilateral secessionism.

The end of the Abdurrahman-Irian Jaya dialog, therefore, may
unnecessarily isolate the council and lead to a more dangerous
political situation.

Above all, the main challenges basically come from the urgent
need to build stronger human resources and institutions to lay
down a solid base for the future in order to prevent conflict
among tribes, between urban groups and highlanders and between
them and non-Irianese migrants.

The Wamena and Merauke incidents, on Oct. 10 and Nov. 3
respectively, illustrate the fragile nature of these
interrelationships and the strong potential for Irian Jaya to
become a conflict area that could be even more dangerous than
Maluku or East Timor.

John Rumbiak, a human rights activist in Jayapura, therefore,
argues for a long-term program of development and reconciliation.

"A country that is liberated by violence, will only sow seeds
of cruelty which will be difficult to abolish, but a people who
liberate their nation by peace will invest in a new future that
will guarantee their rights."

The Irianese will probably have a long and possibly painful
journey. Just as Jakarta's pendulum has swung from honeymoon to
repression, many Irianese have moved to take what Nelson Mandela,
reflecting on his struggle, calls "a long walk to freedom".

The writer is a journalist. This article was written
early this month in Irian Jaya.