Islands Business - WE SAY: Capturing the pan Melanesian spirit

‘…Vanuatu people and their elected representatives must be applauded for this unanimous and forceful stand that they have taken in support of people with whom they share their mythology and culture but have been unlucky enough to be caught in an unending whirlpool in the course of history’

Last month’s motion that was passed in the Vanuatu Parliament detailing Vanuatu’s position on West Papua is perhaps the most significant development in recent times as regards regional support for the long suffering territory’s cause and for openly and officially espousing its independence from Indonesia.
In the course of an extraordinary sitting of Parliament on June 19, Vanuatu Prime Minister Edward Natapei and Opposition leader Maxime Carlot Korman jointly sponsored the motion to declare Vanuatu’s foreign policy on West Papua.
The motion was passed with bipartisan support to become a Bill of Parliament. Forward looking independent Member of Parliament from the country’s capital of Port Vila Ralph Regenvanu made the initial move on the motion earlier in May this year. It is undoubtedly the most decisive move yet in support of colonised indigenous people in the Pacific region. The Vanuatu people and their elected representatives must be applauded for this unanimous and forceful stand that they have taken in support of people with whom they share their mythology and culture but have been unlucky enough to be caught in an unending whirlpool in the course of history.
West Papua has been trapped in a time warp as it were after Indonesia won its freedom from the Dutch. The territory remained under Dutch control for over a decade and a half after Indonesian independence. But when the Dutch administration agreed to support Papua’s sovereignty bid in 1961, Indonesian President Sukarno militarily enforced Jakarta’s control putting paid to Papuan ambitions of sovereignty.
Towards the end of the decade, the US oversaw talks between Indonesian leaders and West Papua’s Dutch administrators, resulting in the United Nations sponsoring a referendum in 1969, known as the “Act of Free Choice”, to offer an avenue for West Papuans to decide whether they would like the West Papua to gain independence from Indonesia. Only about a thousand Papuans are reported to have voted in the event, making most Papuans feel, therefore, that the referendum was not representative of the opinion of the vastly larger numbers that were never consulted.
The Vanuatu Bill, which can be termed historic in terms of open and official regional support in the community of Melanesian brotherhood for the West Papuan cause, will facilitate the Vanuatu government to develop specific policies on how to support the independence struggle of West Papua. The bill is appropriately called the “Wantok blong yumi Bill”, capturing the pan Melanesian spirit across political boundaries.
With this action, Vanuatu has reaffirmed its reputation as a regional champion of decolonisation of the people of the Pacific Islands, particularly in Melanesia—in West Papua and New Caledonia.
It has brought the issue to the fore at several important regional events in the past including the annual summits of the leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum—most notably in Auckland in 2003— and has opened an office for the Free West Papua Movement in its capital.
The bill will surely give a new fillip to the country’s efforts to get the Forum leaders to focus on the issue once more when it hosts this year’s summit in Port Vila next month.
Prime Minister Natapei has already stated that Vanuatu will work towards getting both the Forum and the Melanesian Spearhead Group—of which it is the current chair—to confer observer status to West Papua. If granted, this would be a resounding diplomatic message to Indonesia from the Pacific Islands region as a whole and may well have repercussions on several regional initiatives including security and fisheries in which the region works closely with the South East Asian country.
Among other developments following the new bill, the Vanuatu Parliament unanimously decided to lodge a motion on the status of West Papua to the United Nations Secretary-General for inclusion in the agenda for this year’s 65th session of the UN General Assembly. The motion requests the General Assembly’s support for the International Court of Justice to provide an advisory opinion on the legality of the agreement between the Netherlands and Indonesia that is impacting on civil and human rights of the people of West Papua. It also proposes sponsoring a resolution in the United Nations to put West Papua back on the UN’s list of Non-Self-Governing Territories.
Besides ratifying the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, to provide Vanuatu with an avenue for additional support to the people of West Papua, it will also allocate a budget within the government’s department of foreign affairs to help facilitate international advocacy efforts supporting the troubled territory’s independence.
Meanwhile, Indonesia has kept up its efforts to use whatever diplomatic influence it can muster to queer the pitch of West Papuan support across the world. Most recently it’s embassy in London is reported to have asked the British Foreign Office to prevail upon the Oxford town council not to fly the morning star flag on December 1 last year. Flying the flag in Indonesia is punishable by imprisonment and hundreds of activists are reported to be languishing in Indonesian prisons for supporting the West Papuan cause.
Though the Indonesian government has granted Papua special autonomy status, allowing indigenous Papuans greater control over tax and other local revenues derived from natural resource extraction, there is widespread resentment at the grassroots level because of centrally sponsored projects that have been implemented without consultation and regard to local rights.
Other measures of the central government like replacing the military with the police in handling separatist activity owing to increasing international pressure are seen by local activists as ones to please the international community.
The local discontent has grown to such a level that there are fears people will increasingly take up to violent measures of protest to bring greater international attention to their plight.
This was highlighted in a recent report on the radicalisation of West Papua released by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group. If left unchecked, this could lead to increased armed action and has the potential to greatly vitiate the security environment of the relatively peaceful Asia Pacific region.
But if and when West Papua gets the independence and self rule it deserves, its people will have much to feel grateful to its Melanesian brethren across the Coral Sea.