Irian Jaya cannot go the way of East Timor

SINGAPORE: Last Friday, "independence" observances by separatists' supporters in the remote eastern Indonesian province of Irian Jaya passed with little trouble.

It is an indication of how fragile the unitary state is that the relative calm, bar some arrests, is celebrated as some sort of success. Tension there had been, but the Indonesian military was prepared.

For days before the event, security forces put out a clear signal with their presence, which was quite considerable in Jayapura, the provincial capital. They were restrained, the message being that the locals could proceed with their ceremonies if they stayed calm.

On the day itself, the hoisting of the independence movement's flag by tribal chiefs went unimpeded.

It helped that four separatist leaders had been arrested in the preceding week. Among them was Theys Eluay, head of the pro- independence Papua Presidium Council. President Abdurrahman Wahid had warned that no breakaway attempt would be tolerated, on pain of tough military action.

It is possible the crackdown in the nearby Maluku islands and distant Aceh, where disturbances have been far worse, had an impact on the Irianese.

As it turned out, the main rally in Jayapura was so orderly even the provincial police went up on the stage to thank the crowd for cooperating with the authorities.

The curious thing about the proceedings is that they nationally marked a desire for freedom that was expressed 31 years ago - on Dec 1, 1961!

That was when Irian Jaya (or West Papua as it was known), which shares a huge island with Papua New Guinea, broke free of the Dutch colonial administration. Indonesia annexed it in 1963, and it was formalized in a United Nations plebiscite in 1969 which confirmed Irian Jaya as part of Indonesia.

Although an Irianese people's congress had set last Friday as the deadline for achieving substantive sovereignty, this was never taken seriously. The tribal chiefs' declaration of 1961 is in essence the Irianese Melanesians' spiritual link with their pre-Indonesia past. Dec 1 observances had become an historical oddity, more or less.

What relevance the recent past has now is that the "loss" of East Timor through an act of folly by President B.J. Habibie has changed the equation drastically.

Irian Jaya cannot go the way of Timor, or the consequences to Indonesia - and South-east Asia - can be serious.

This is why the apparent change in military stance, at least to the extent evident during the Jayapura observance week, is a helpful sign.

Heavy-handedness is different from firmness in controlling rebellious tendencies. Thus far, the regional command has shown admirable restraint in keeping order in Irian Jaya, even in the face of provocations from rebel elements operating near the border with Papua New Guinea.

The guerrilla movement has been low-grade despite the example of the East Timor secession, and this is fortunate.

Jakarta has promised Irian Jaya more autonomy in May, under which the local administration will have more control over resources and regional affairs.

It is crucial that devolution be handled well, and more benefits accrue to the local population for the considerable revenue the province's gold and copper reserves bring to Jakarta.

It would be a serious miscalculation, possibly even fatal, if Indonesia gets complacent over this outer province on the understanding that there is no international support for Irian Jaya independence.

East Timor is a painful lesson. It was firmly ensconced within the Indonesian family, and there was hardly a clamor by foreign governments and lobbyists for its deliverance. But look what happened.

-- The Straits Times/Asia News Network