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The crisis of Indonesian nationhood and the 43 Papuan asylum-seekers in Australia

People’s Democratic Party Statement – February 16, 2006

Since Suharto assumed power, Indonesia inherited an ever-worsening crisis of nationhood. The causes of this are neoliberal economic injustice and Suharto’s 32 year-dictatorial rule. Because of the dictatorship and national chauvinism of Suharto, democratic nationalism under a democratic people’s government, which should be the solution, is not yet seen as the way out of this situation. The legacy of democratic nationalism under Sukarno post-the Indonesian revolution of 1945 has been eradicated from the historical records and the people’s collective memory by the 32 years of dictatorial rule under Suharto.

In confronting various demands for independence from several regions, we are of the opinion that the demand for independence by Aceh and Papua are two forms of expression, indicating the oppression against the people in those areas by the national government, a government that is the agent of imperialism and who are imperialists themselves. The oppressing of democracy and welfare in Papua through military means and economic exploitation of all the products of the labour of the Papuan people by the national bourgeois government has impacted on the formation of the character of the Papuan people. However, that is only still in the embryonic phase of ‘nation’. The concept of ‘nation’ as a whole has not emerged fully. Politically and economically, the core problem of the Papuan people and the Indonesian people is the same, they are: neo-liberalism, a government that is an agent of neoliberalism, militarism and feudal remnants.

We respect the desire of people for self-determination. However, this desire must be placed upon the basis of opening up the democratic space as widely as possible for the sake of the welfare and the advancement of the productive capacity of the people towards socialism.

The asylum request by the 43 Papuans in Australia recently demonstrates an excess from the crisis in nationhood and the failure of the Indonesian national government at present. We respect the choice of the 43 Papuans, because clearly the objective situation was very oppressive and limited the political freedom of the people, even though the situation is not totally closed off yet. That is to say, mass people’s actions can still take place today in Papua, as was shown by several mobilisations in Papua organised by Front Perpera (Front Persatuan Perjuangan Rakyat Papua Barat-West Papuan People’s Struggle United Front).

The repression undertaken by the Indonesian military in Papua is also the focus of the democratic movement in Indonesia, in the form of solidarity actions and support for the democratic struggle in Papua. The work of the PRD through Solidaritas Aceh-Papua (SAP-Aceh-Papua Solidarity) and other democratic fronts in several areas of Indonesia namely Jakarta, Jogjakarta, Central- and East Java, South- and North Sulawesi and Bali show the consistency of our support for the democratic struggle in Papua.

The best thing that the 43 asylum seekers could do in Australia at the present time is to campaign on the most pressing agenda of the Papuan people that cannot be resolved under the Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono-Jusuf Kalla government, namely:

1. The need for maximum democratic space, by forming a Democratic Autonomy Government as a result of the widest dialogue among the Papuan people, without government intervention in whatever form.
2. A popular, national industrialisation program for the wellbeing of the people and to enable an expansion of the productive forces of the Papuan people.
3. To reject the Papuan People’s Council (Majelis Rakyat Papua - MRP) which is a puppet of the SBY-Kalla government.
4. To reject the division of Papua Province into further provinces, which is merely a tactic to divide the Papuan people.
5. To build the Democratic United Front of the People of Papua and to eradicate sectarianism from the Papuan movement.
6. To withdraw the Indonesian military (TNI) from Papua and to bring to trial those who have committed human rights abuses in Papua.

Therefore we are of the opinion that:

1. The Australian government must be urged to release the 43 Papuans so that they may campaign on the pressing problems of the Papuan people in Papua.
2. To the democratic forces in Australia; once again we stress that the pressing problems of the Papuan people is not for independence, but for democracy and well-being. Independence at this point in time will not resolve the two basic problems of the Papuan people. If Papua becomes independent, the imperialists through Freeport can freely oppress the Papuan people, whose productive forces are of a low quality and whose local bourgeoisies are of a rentier character. Especially also because the nature of the democratic Papuan movement is still fragmented and sectarian. Even though, in actual fact, the Papuan movement should be able to act as an alternative power that can lead the people of Papua to liberate themselves from imperialist and militaristic oppression.
3. The main way for freedom for the Papuan people depends on the level of unity of the movement in Papua, and that movement’s support for the Indonesian democratic movement to liberate all of Indonesia, including Papua from the totality of imperialism - with the aim of building an alternative government that can implement policies of democracy and welfare that are the fundamental problems today in Papua.

Central Leadership Committee of People’s Democratic Party (KPP-PRD)

[Translated by Vannessa H.]