Southwest Pacific forum, beyond Papua issue

Southwest Pacific forum, beyond Papua issue

Kornelius Purba, Staff Writer, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta,
korpur@yahoo.com

The startling vision of former president Abdurrahman Wahid had
rarely been taken seriously. But when closing the two-day
Southwest Pacific Dialog in Yogyakarta on Saturday, Foreign
Minister Hassan Wirayuda might have recalled that the forum of
six foreign ministers was born out of Abdurrahman's anger against
the sharp-tonged statesman of the region, Singapore's Lee Kuan
Yew.

Two years ago Abdurrahman had spontaneously announced his idea
to establish a new multilateral West Pacific grouping after being
humiliated by Lee. Lee had rejected his idea to include Papua New
Guinea and East Timor into the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN).

After attending the ASEAN annual summit in Singapore in 2000,
Abdurrahman pointed out that the West Pacific forum would become
a new cornerstone for Indonesia's diplomacy. Many laughed at what
seemed like another of his several grand, spontaneously declared
notions. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs however followed up on
the idea. Hassan knows, at least for the short term, that the
informal forum can be used to encounter the diplomatic campaigns
by the Free Papua Movement (OPM) especially among states in the
Pacific.

Then, what is the result? Australian Foreign Minister
Alexander Downer, New Zealand's Phil Goff, Papua New Guinea's
Rabbie Namaliu, the Philippine's Blas F. Ople, East Timor's Jose
Ramos Horta and Hassan met in Yogyakarta to discuss future
cooperation of Southwest Pacific countries.

"We all want our partners of dialog to reiterate ... their
support for our struggle of (territorial) integrity and national
unity," Hassan said in conversation with The Jakarta Post before
chairing the meeting on Friday.

Whatever Abdurrahman's motivation, he had rightly corrected
the four-decade paradigm that ASEAN was the cornerstone for
Indonesia's foreign affairs policy making -- neglecting in effect
the needs of people living in Indonesia's eastern part.

ASEAN has been relatively more relevant for the interests of
people in western Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand,
Brunei, the Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar are
members of ASEAN, but for Sulawesi, especially North Sulawesi,
the Philippines is the closest foreign neighbor.

ASEAN was established in 1967, shortly after Soeharto came to
power. As Indonesia wanted to concentrate on economic
development, Soeharto decided to focus its foreign affairs policy
on Southeast Asia. From an anti-communist grouping, the
organization eventually embraced the 10 countries in the region,
including communist Vietnam.

But times have changed. The region has also drastically
changed, as well as the global situation. Indonesia, perceived as
much weaker now, is no longer the anchor of ASEAN. Many
Indonesians feel that they have sacrificed too much for
neighbors, who did not assist them enough during these difficult
times as Indonesia is too big to depend only on ASEAN.

Somewhat similar to the East and West Coast of the United
States, respectively facing the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific
Ocean, Indonesia is split between the western part, facing the
Indian Ocean, and the eastern regions, facing the Pacific Ocean.

The western part includes Java, Bali, Sumatra and Kalimantan,
while the eastern provinces, among which most inhabitants
identify themselves closer to Melanesians, comprises Sulawesi,
Maluku, Papua, West Nusa Tenggara and East Nusa Tenggara.

People in Papua are not interested much in the progress of
Singapore or Malaysia, which are too remote from them. Culturally
and geographically, they feel much closer to Papua New Guinea.
The sufferings of Papuans easily provokes expressions of
solidarity from their neighbors. Australia, New Zealand and the
smaller states in the Pacific, are Papua's closer neighbors.

For East Nusa Tenggara people, East Timor is their nearest
neighbor, where the people share a similar culture, religion and
also economic hardship. Although the presence of unwanted
refugees from East Timor is still a big burden for the poor
province, a prosperous East Timor will also benefit its closest
neighbor. Instability and chaos in the new state will also
firstly affect East Nusa Tenggara. Australia is another major
economic power important to Nusa Tenggara. Residents of Maluku
and North Maluku are also culturally and physically closer to
those in the Pacific.

Provinces in eastern Indonesia have long lagged far behind the
western areas, their natural resources exploited by the Javanese
and the money deposited in banks in Java.

It is time now for the government to give more serious
attention to the Pacific, not just to minimize international
support for the Papuan rebels but also to boost economic
cooperation between Indonesia's eastern provinces and the Pacific
countries.

Minister Hassan knows very well that although many of the
countries in the Pacific are small in terms of size or
population, they could make problems for Indonesia as in the case
of the 1980s. At that time the government had clearly
underestimated the position of outspoken Vanuatu. Its government
often attacked Indonesia's position on East Timor and Papua, but
it was ignored for a long time until the government gave more
attention to the tiny island.

During the Yogyakarta meeting, the five dialog partners
expressed support for Indonesia's territorial integrity including
on Papua. But there is no guarantee of everlasting loyalty.

Neighboring countries in the past had also continued to say
that East Timor was a part of Indonesia. This helped boost the
government's confidence of its support among the international
community -- while the struggle of the East Timorese were
belittled, ending in the major shock for Jakarta when most of its
population chose to separate from Indonesia.

Therefore, regarding any other troublesome regions in the
country, a senior Indonesian diplomat said, "Whatever we do in
diplomacy, if our treatment (of other regions) like that of East
Timor in the past does not change, we may be repeating the same
history all over again."