The Ghost of the Past continues to haunt Indonesia & will Destroy Indonesia if it is not exorcised.
by Gabriel Ramoi
An Essay on West Papua Dedicated to all that have died in the cause of a Free and Independent West Papua.
Part One : O'Neill & the Force of Morale 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 Oneill on Tuesday the 5THrd 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 the Prime Minister of Vanuatu to the United nations in 2013 to put West Papua back on list of UN Trust territories and the Decolonization Committee of the United nations. The Statement by the Prime Minister 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 in 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 in the wilds of Las Wiru before he was acknowledged by his Irish Oneill Clan . Peter Paire has performed a sacred and moral act in the cause of humanity 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 Parliamentry 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 inside 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 some thing missing in Indonesia s DNA that he was not able put a handle on that has created doubts in his mind about Indonesia. That 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 Openheirmer 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 put 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 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 its understanding of liberty ,justice and fundamental freedoms . 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 of justice and decency.
Indoneisa & the Bandung Conference of 1955
In Bandung in 1955 Indonesia shared the stage with China, India and Egypt and stood proud among the giants of that 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 will change the world for over 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 cannot be that great country on the world stage if cannot reconcile with his past and current history.
Part II a Road map for Engaging Indonesia over West Papua
Mitigating History through Demilitarisation of West Papua
What is the Message for President Widodo as he Visits PNG on Monday 11th of May 2015
The least that the Independent States in the Pacific can do for West Papua is to assist Indonesia, the Netherlands and the United States right the wrongs of History that led to the United nations 1969 debacle over West Papua by admitting UNLM [ United Liberation Movement of West Papua] into the MSG when it convenes this year in July . While the Republic of Indonesia currently enjoys observer status in the MSG, the admittance of UNLM into the MSG should not be at the expense of Indonesia, on the contrary both should be encourage to share this forum and this should be the message given to the President of the republic of Indonesia when we visits our Country on Monday the 11th of May 2105. Indonesia continues to have a large population of people of Melanesian decent inside Indonesia from Ambon to West Timor and therefore its presence as an observer in the MSG is essential.
As the President of the republic of Indonesia visits our country it is important for our Prime Minister not only to engage the president on the economic relations between our two countries which he must but importantly he must re affirm his statement made in his own address to our nation on the 5th of February 2015 to highlight the growing concern by the world community on the abuse of Humen rights violation inside West Papua . The PM must be reminded of the fact that the enslavement of a People by another is unnatural and Indonesia’s enslavement of the Melanesian People of West Papua is abhorrent to Humanity and more so to Melanesians in particular as Melanesian societies do not keep slaves and as a people we find the institution of slavery repugnant . The continued enslavement of West Papua by Indonesia offends our sense of Justice and Human Decency and just like it took a worldwide movement that ended Apartheid and Slavery so too will Indonesia’s occupation of West Papua come to pass through world condemnation. As Indonesia celebrates the 60th Anniversary of the Bandung Conference this year it should take the high moral ground in working towards giving West Papua its Independence just as Austraila has given us our. It would take the moral courage of Nelson Mandela to be prepared to willingly lay down his life for the cause of a unified South Africa free from racial intolerance that would relegate apartheid into the dust bin of History just as it took the Moral courage of Abraham Lincoln to fight a civil war to outlaw slavery in the United States , both President Widodo and Prime Minister Oneill as leaders can reach out to inspire a whole generation of their own people and the world to act together to correct the injustices they see in front of them in West Papua.
West Papua as a Zone of PeaceThe application of brute force and repression by States and State Actors to coheres ethnic and religiously different people to remain within a polity and to subdue their culture and religion through state sponsored act of terrorism and to deny them their basic rights and to force them to accept the predominant culture and religion have all come to naught since antiquity. The 1914 attempt by Muslim Turkey to vanquish Christian Armenia in recent memory attest to this fact . The brutality in which States and State actors have tried to impose their view on the rest of society through groups such as the Islamic State and Boko Haram and the level of violent atrocities committed by these groups to achieve their objective continues to upset our sense of decency and humanity just as the images of un imaginable brutality committed againt the People of West Papua by Indonesian state Actors to keep West Papua within the Indonesian Republic captured and transmitted electronically in real time continues to upset our sense of Humanity and decency.
No matter the justification put forward by Indonesia in its continuing rule over West Papua one thing is certain , over the last 50 years the world has witnessed the sad truth that Indonesian Rule in West Papua can only be sustained through Brutal Force and repression with the use of the military and Police for without the Police and the Military West Papua Rejects Indonesian Rule. It is now apparently clear that PNG can longer watch from the side, it must constructively engage Indonesia to deal with the Issue.
The road map for dealing with Indonesia over West Papua has been mapped out already from inside Indonesia and has been succinctly captured in the book by the leading West Papuan Priest and Journalist Fr. Neles Tebay in his Book puplished in 2025[ see copy of this book as attached] The road map proposed by Fr.Neles Tebay can be seen in the conclusion of his book. It simply calls on Indonesia to declare West Papua as a zone of Peace and to allow for the demilitarization of West Papua. The nexus between Human rights violation and military involvement in Gangster Capitalism inside Indonesia and in West Papua in particular is rampant where stealing by the Military of resources particularly in illegal logging has its roots dating back to the Soharto era where businesses by Army units are encouraged to supplement the wages and conditions of Indonesian servicemen. Since the fall of Soharto and the democratization of Indonesia this practice has been reduced in the rest of Indonesia but remains entrenched in West Papua despite the Grant of Special Autonomy in 2001 to West Papua.
Culture of Impunity- Continues in Indonesia unabated until today.
I grew up in the shadows of the great events that unfolded in the new Indonesian republic and in Dutch New Guinea in the 1960s as the son of a colonial Policemen at the PNG Border outpost of Wutung between 1968 and 1971 where my father Sgt Ramoi was in charge of the small Contingent of policemen under the leadership of District Officer Tony Try and stand witnessed to the acts of violence and cruelty committed then by the Indonesian Security forces against Papuans prior to the Act of Free choice in 1969 and which has continued unabated since. On the 26th of May 1969, I witnessed for the first time the Incursions into PNG by the Indonesian Military into a West Papuan Refugee Camp on PNG Soil at Wutung where it indiscriminately opened fired on men, women and children. It was also be at Wutung on that date that PNG exchanged gun fire with Indonesia for the first time. The Charge was led by a young PNG Cadet Patrol officer named Jerry Moka and Sgt Ramoi. These events are covered by reports filed by the New York Times Correspondences in Port Moresby Robert Trumbull covering the period leading up to the Act of Free Choice. The continued violation of PNG sovereignty with impunity and the indiscriminate shooting and killing by the Indonesian military of its own citizens in West Papua sets a pattern that continues to this day. As president of the SRC at UPNG in 1981 the SRC convened a Public Tribunal under the guidance of Henk Di Sivero of the UPNG Law School, to put on Trial Indonesian Rule over West Papua where evidence was educed from leading West Papuan Citizens ,which included two members of the then West Papuan 1961 Parliament Mr.Willaim Zonganau and Mr. Mr.Itar , it also heard evidence from Eliezer Jan Bonay Governor of Papua under Indonesian rule who fled his home land to avoid Indonesian persecution. We also heard evidence from leading members of the West Papuan Diaspora led by Dutch trained civil servents Henk and James Joku and Medical Doctor Dr.Adolf Soweri and Papuan Diplomat Moses Werror. The evidence given then demonstrated the culture of Impunity and lack of accountability by Indonesia over the Actions of it State actors in the violation of the civil rights of the people of West Papua which has continue to this day unabated. The latest of such case is that of the Ex-Police chief of Marauke Labora Sitorus who was convicted by the Indonesian Supreme court in 2014 for failure to account for his vast wealth gain as a result of illegal logging in Papua was convicted and sentenced yet today continues to live in his Mansion in Marouke a free man. In 1984 as a young member of parliament I had the privilege to be part of our country’s delegation that engaged Indonesia in a Dialogue on West Papua organized by the powerful Indonesian Independent think tank The Centre for Strategic and International Studies and I am all too familiar with the Indonesian views over West Papua based on a faulty version of History which asserts that early Indonesian seafarers conquered the oceans by travelling into Madagascar and also to New Guinea where they captured slaves. We now know that the reverse is true in that Melanesians from Raja Ampat and Serum have been conducting raids into Indonesian Waters since time immemorial as head hunters and that as recently as 1773 in Support of Prince Nuku of Tidore, fought his war against the European powers to help establish him as the Sultan of Tidore. The most convincing of the Argument put by Indonesia however to justify its rule over West Papua is though the legal principle which allows former territories of colonial powers to continue to be treated as a whole in the struggle for Independence although we know now through written evidence that West Papua was never transfer to Indonesia as can be seen in the 1947 Agreement between Indonesia and the Netherlands and that it remains a trust territory of the United nations to this date not withstanding the scam of the 1969 Act of free Choice.The world we inherited today is very different to the one inherited by Sukarno and Hatta at the end of 2nd world war and indeed at the 1963 annexation of West Papua and the 1969 act of Free Choice which gave rise to the enslavement of one people by another should not be allowed by the world community to continue and as President Widodo makes his historical trip to PNG since the last official Trip by an Indonesian President Since the visit of President Soharto and Madam Soharto in 1981 , the New President of Indonesia must be encouraged to continue with the ongoing process of democratization within Indonesian Society and to encourage Indonesia to take its place on the World Stage as it stands posed into entering it as a member of the MINT nation with Mexico, Nigeria and Turkey but first it must deal with the ghost of its recent past. It must deal with the 1965 Genocide inside side Indonesia by bringing those responsible to stand trial and it must move to give West Papua its Freedom and Independence.
I have continued to travel inside Indonesia to meet and have discourse with Indonesia Political and Business leaders since 1995. In April last year I had dinner in Jakarta with the head of Panin –ANZ Bank Mr.Goerge lee and also met Mr. Franz Joku in Jayapura prior to the last election where he was a candidate for one of the ten seats representing West Papua in the 500 strong Indonesian national parliament and as I continue met and talk to decision makes inside Indonesia one thing that continues to strike me is the poverty in Indonesia. The poverty is endemic and covers all of rural Indonesia including Bali. Indonesia is a great country and can be a great democracy and can rise up and achieve middle income status as a MINT nation but it must dismantle the last remaining vestiges of its toxic Military culture which allows the military to participate in the economy as a State Actor resulting in the Army using its might to gain advantage over tribal people and their resources. The army is responsible for so much act of Human rights violation against its own People Particularly in West Papua. It is also becoming more and more apparent that West Papua does not want to be part of the Indonesian republic. In the recent work on West Papua Professor Peter King in his work on the OPM has given us a insight into the wide spread nature of the Opposition to Indonesian rule and on how organized this resistance force fore is .Professor King has also demonstrated convincingly the nexus between Human rights Violation and Business carried out by the Military inside West Papua.[ see Peter King on Indonesia Since Soharto, 2004 ]
Gabriel Ramoi
Port Moresby
