Home > APSC 1998

Democracy and colonialism in the Pacific - West Papua or Indonesian New Guinea
 
By Rex Rumakiek

[This talk was presented to the Asia Pacific Solidarity Conference, Sydney, April 10-13 by Rex Rumakiek from the Australian-based Free West Papua Movement.]

A number of United Nations members are actively promoting the idea that colonialism no longer exists and that therefore Committee 24 or the UN Committee on Decolonisation should be abolished by the year 2000.

But is colonialism really dead? It is not. For us in the Pacific, colonialism is well and truly alive. Although it is fair to say that many countries and dependent territories in the region have attained self-government and free association or full independence, there are others who are still shackled under colonial rule.

Two types of colonialism exist in the Pacific today: European colonialism and Asian colonialism. The Maohi people of Polynesia/Tahiti in the east and the Kanak people in the south are colonised by France, while in the south west, the Papuan people of West Papua and the Maubere people of East Timor are subjugated and exploited to the bone by an Asian colonial government which is Suharto's Indonesia. This is a complete contradiction for Indonesia which fought and defeated Dutch colonialism, and then turned around and colonised my people and the Maubere people.

Whether European or Asian, it is still the same colonialism with all its manifestations. Subjugation, oppression, discrimination, injustice and dispossession on a grand scale are the standard practices today in West Papua and I believe also in East Timor.

The difference from the old colonialism is that neo-colonialism is perpetrated more efficiently using the best available technology of this century. Hundreds of thousands of colonists have transmigrated to West Papua to occupy tribal lands and marginalised our people to become an ethnic minority on our own land.

The colonists are transported to West Papua by giant Hercules military transport planes or by modern passenger ships, all with international financial aid. Colonial ``justice'', which is of course injustice, is rampant. Like the old colonial practice, the court of law is used to justify the government's actions against colonial subjects, a point well illustrated by the French writer La Fontaine (1668) who said: ``Those who enjoy power always arrange matters so as to give their tyranny an appearance of justice''.

Extrajudicial killings, arrests and detention without trial, massive land alienation and dispossession, disappearances, mysterious deaths, torture and rape are common experiences in our society. At this very moment, there are more than 130 political prisoners in jail, one of them serving a life sentence. Their only crime was to want to be free on their own land.

Under Dutch colonial rule, Indonesian leaders were exiled in remote parts of West Papua. Now it is the reverse: West Papuan leaders are exiled in Javanese jails. Since the occupation of West Papua in 1963, more than 300,000 people died at the hands of the colonial government.

Comrades, if I were to give you case by case of horrendous atrocities committed by Indonesia against our people the list would go on and on and on. Unfortunately, my speaking time is limited, but before I finish I would like to touch briefly on one more aspect of colonial exploitation and domination perpetrated by the neo-colonial regime of Suharto's Indonesia.

It is the co-operation or collusion between the Indonesian colonial government and multinational corporations for the control and exploitation of resources, a phenomenon which I am sure many of you are familiar with.

Under this collaborative arrangement, the Indonesian government grants very generous leases to foreign investors to exploit our natural resources. With this undertaking, the colonial government not only signs away hundreds of thousands of hectares of land and rainforest, but also provides military protection against any opposition from landowners.

One example of this is the Freeport copper, gold and silver mine in the southern part of West Papua which is a US company, part owned by the giant Rio Tinto. There have been massacres and numerous cases of human rights abuses committed by the company and the military against the Amungme and Komoro land owners.

Our struggle has come to a situation where we are not only fighting Indonesian colonialism, but also global capitalist expansion. As such, we have no choice but to link up with similar struggles around the world, which you all represent at this conference. It will not be easy, but with a united effort and better coordination, with the will to win in order to survive, we will triumph.

To conclude, I would like to pledge our solidarity with all your struggles. Long live the peoples' struggles against colonialism and capitalist domination.