The Ghost of the Past continues to haunt Indonesia & will Destroy Indonesia if it is not exorcised.
Part One : O'Niell & the Force of Moral Persuasion
The earth shattering reversal of a 40 year policy of Denial by PNG on the plight of West Papua announced by Prime Minister Peter on Thursday the 5th of February 2015 will come to be judged by history as the most important step taken by a sovereign state toward propelling West Papua towards Political Independence from Indonesia. It follow on the heels of that lone brave voice made by Moana Cacasses the Prime Minister of Vanuatu to the United nations on sept 29th 2013 to put West Papua back on the United Nations Agenda and responsibility to address civil rights violation inside West Papua. The Statement by the Prime Minister Oneil is a bold move and one that that has not be made lightly. It turns PNGs Foreign Policy on its head and will no doubt rattle Australia and will keep Academics busy in years to come analyzing the significance and consequences of that Decision. Just like his call on O.K. Tedi this recent call on West Papua show the tenacity and the inner strengthen of Peter Paire the boy who grew up alone and have to fend for himself and his mother in the wilds of Las Wiru before he was acknowledged by his Irish Oneil Clan and the Maladinas of this the world. Peter Paire has performed a sacred and moral act in the cause of humanity and human decency by facing up to a bully and to tell the bully to stop killing its own citizen. It is an act that all former Prime Ministers of PNG without doubt did not have the moral courage to face up to. The call by Prime Minister Oneil rides on the force of Moral persuasion and one in which Indonesia as a nation must confront and come to terms with.
Indonesias New Status as a Parliamentary Democracy & a MINT Nation
The retired British Banker and respected BBC radio Commentator [ and no doubt a clans men of our Prime Minister] Jim Oneil who first coined and gave the world the Term BRICS nations and recently MINT nations to identify the groups of nations that are set to leap frog from ‘emerging’ to middle income economies has a message for Indonesia.[ Indonesia by the way is the “ I “ in MINT, the others are Mexico, Nigeria and Turkey]. That while he is convinced that Mexico, Nigeria and Turkey will reach middle income Status by 2030 he not too sure whether Indonesia can make it . In his BBC series on MINT nations aired on BBC Radio 4 this time last year and widely quoted and reported by Indonesian media by opinion shapers such as the America born and educated John Riady , [ The scion of that great Indonesian Banking ,Media , & Technology Empire The lippo Group ] Oneil said Indonesia had all the ingredients to be a successful nation, it had the Population density ,a vibrant young population the majority below 40 and a robust economy with an emerging middle class but there was something missing in Indonesia s DNA that he was not able put a handle on that has created doubts in his mind about Indonesia. The origin of that lingering doubt in Oneils mind can be traced back to a culture of denial of the dark historical events that have remained buried in the Indonesian sub consciousness for over 40 years until only three year ago when a young American Film maker named Joshua Oppenheimer came along and brought it back to life in 2012, in an underground Documentary , 10 years in the making called the ‘Act of Killing’ .
The Act of Killing & the continuing Genocide Inside Indonesia
This powerful multiple award winning documentary captures the genocide that occurred within Indonesia between 1965 and 1966 which saw more then 2 million of its citizen killed in a horrific bloodbath that ushered in the Rule of President Soharto. This genocide saw Indonesia turning on itself in frenzy of killing that saw it wipe out its elites and intelligentsia consisting of school teachers and union officials and village chiefs together sadly with its vast population of its ethnic Chinese Merchant Class. Ariel Heryanto a Historian and Cultural Critic writing in the Tempo magazine [ a premier Indonesian News Paper had this to say ‘` The Act of Killing ‘ is the most powerful political film about Indonesia that I have ever seen, the arrival of this film itself is a historical event almost unparallel. It witnessed the bloody destruction of a foundation of this nation at the hands of Indonesians themselves on top a mountain of corpses of our fellow country men rolled out on a red carpet for the growth of gangster capitalism and political Islam. The act of killing exposes the hypocrisy at the heart of our country’s notion of patriotism and justice ‘. The Human rights commission of Indonesia is quoted as saying ‘ If we are to transform Indonesia into a democracy it claims to be ,citizens must recognise the terror and repression on which our contemporary history has been built and come to terms with it”
Andreas Harsono of Human Rights Watch writing to the New York Times of 28th February 2014 puts it all in perspective ‘ Mr.Oppenheimers film and the Indonesian Governments reaction to it are a powerful reminder of the culture of impunity and the lack of the rule of law that continues to weigh on Indonesia. This culture of impunity expresses itself in a systematic failure to hold accountable members of the security forces and Islamist militants who continue to commit abuse against religious minorities right throughout the country. The Islamic Peoples Forum, The Islamic Defenders Front and other Islamic groups are at the fore front of this intolerance. This groups continue to attack places of worship of the minority Shiite and Ahmadiyah sects as well as Christian churches. Although Government officials have played a passive and even active role in the violence the Government has failed to confront those responsible or to obtain redress for the victims. The legacy of impunity for crimes in 1965-1966 also extends to a lack of accountability for abuse by security forces operating in Indonesia most easterly Provinces of Papua & West Papua. Over the last three years in particular the Human Rights Watch has documented hundreds of cases where the police, soldiers and intelligence officers have used unlawful force in dealing with Papuans exercising their rights to peaceful assembly. The Government needs to provide accountability and to work towards dismantling the toxic culture of Impunity that vitamises Indonesia to this day”
Unfortunately the attitude of the Government of Indonesia of the event of 1965 -66 and currently with regard to the Genocide in West Papua remains stubborn and unrepentant . In October 2012 Djoko Suyanto the Political Legal and Security Minister publicly justified the Killings saying
"This country would not be what it is today if the killings had not accured"
Such Public Statement by Government officials goes to show the distance that Indonesia is yet to travel in meeting the minimum standard required by the world community to dispense Justice, liberty and fundamental freedoms to its own citizens. The scale of human tragedy in Indonesia in 1965-66 and the continuing genocide in West Papua cannot be under estimated. On the scale of Genocides conducted by States against their own People in recent living memory the Genocide in Indonesia compares to the scene at Belsen Concentration camp under Hitler’s holocaust against the Jews when the camp was first liberated and the chilling account of the holocaust was first broadcasted to the world by the voice of Richard Dimbleby of the BBC on the 19th of April 1945 and for the world to come to know the full horrors of the holocaust. Nor could one forget the Skulls that tells us of The Killing Fields of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouges and recently the Rwandan Genocide. The Documentary the Act of Killing is banned from screening inside Indonesia because the memory of the Genocide is still too fresh for most Indonesians. The Ghost of Indonesia past continues to be played out in West Papua and in this digital age the acts of unimaginable violence and human cruelty continues to be upset our sense of justice and decency.
Indoneisa & the Bandung Conference of 1955
In Bandung in 1955 Indonesia shared the stage with China, India and Egypt where Surkarno stood proud among the giants of his Generation represented by Chou Enlai of China, Jawaharlal Nehru of India and Nasser of Egypt to made the call that will echo around the world and will change the world for ever in freeing one billion of mankind from the Clutches of European Colonialism and would speed the processes of decolonization which gave rise to the birth of our own Nation. Indonesia can be a great democracy but right now it does not posses the moral authority and the moral leadership to re enter the world stage unless it reconcile with its past and current history and bring those responsible for acts of violence committed against its own citizen to justice.
Part II A Road map for Engaging Indonesia over West Papua to avoid a Failed state in Papua and PNGs National Interest. [to be continued]
