Beware of Provocation in Papua

Indonesia, who does not know this multicultural Asian country?. It is the diversity that makes Indonesia stand as a prosperous country until today. Sometimes many countries are envy and proud at the same time with Indonesia because of its richness especially in culture and human resource diversity.

There are many maneuvers played by other countries to destroy Indonesia for their own individual or group interests, the maneuver can be in politics, economy, social, culture, or mass media aiming to silently colonize and disunite Indonesia.

As an example of political maneuver, the Chairman of Melanesia Spearhead Group (MSG) is slowly trying to disunite Indonesia by giving an irrational statement. He used his political position to provoke the disunion of NKRI. The MSG's Chairman who is also the Prime Minister of Solomon Islands, Manasseh Sogavare said that Indonesia's participation in the MSG is only to protect its own interests. The full statement is, "the full membership status for the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) in MSG can be justified because Indonesia has also tried to get the status of membership in the regional group only to protect its own interests, rather than engage in a dialogue on serious issues regarding human rights in West Papua".

The statement was clearly a form of provocation that may disunite Indonesia as it violated the basic principles of sovereignty and non-interference, as written in the Establishing Agreement of MSG in 2007. In principle, the members of the MSG must respect the international law, including regarding the sovereignty and thus may not interfere domestic affairs of member countries. The statement of the MSG's Chairman also reflected that he did not know the purpose of the establishment of MSG, he just blabbed, thus not trustworthy.

Notwithstanding, the interest of Indonesia is clear. As the third biggest democratic country, human rights is an important principle for Indonesia. Also, as a member of the United Nations, Indonesia has ratified eight of nine key instruments of human rights and has cooperated in various human rights mechanisms. Indonesia also has long been committed to addressing human rights issues, such as by setting up a representative office of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) in Papua. Komnas HAM, both at national and regional level, now continues to work to resolve cases of alleged human rights violations in Papua.

Indonesia welcomes and is ready to share experiences on the promotion and protection of human rights to many countries, including the Solomon Islands. Indonesia has always welcomed the participation of the Solomon Islands in the Bali Democracy Forum, and Indonesia also develops partnerships with some of the key countries in the Pacific region to ensure strong and productive bilateral relations.

In addition, Indonesia has also been actively participating in various regional groups, such as the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) since 1980 and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) since 1989. Also, Indonesia has also been active in the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) since 2001 and the Pacific Islands Development Forum (PIDF) since 2014. It shows that Indonesia upholds human rights especially in Papua and cooperates with MSG for some mutual interests.

I believe, if ULMWP is granted the full membership status in the MSG, then the movement will carry out maneuvers abroad in order to separate West Papua from Indonesia by using its membership in the MSG. However, it is unlikely that ULMWP will be granted the membership status in the MSG because ULMWP is a movement that supports the separation of West Papua from Indonesia.

The role of media in publishing the information is very influential. We must see anything from various perspectives and from different sources and references so that we can distinguish the news that aims to provoke or not. Provocation is not a new thing to disunite Indonesia, we must be aware of such provocation. We must not be easily disunited by the provocation. Remember, Indonesia was once a great nation, a nation that once was dubbed as the Asian tiger because of its solidarity and firm stance to resolve any problems. Why are we now become frail and disunited?.

We have felt the bitterness of getting colonized by other countries, but we were able to handle it together. Do not be easily provoked by issues that try to destroy Indonesia. Soekarno once said in a speech:
"The Republic of Indonesia is not owned by only a group, nor a religion, nor a tribe, nor certain culture, but belongs to all of us from Sabang to Merauke!".
"We are a great nation, we are not a weak nation. We do not beg, we do not ask for help, especially if the assistance was followed by certain conditions and requirements! Better eat cassava but being independent, rather than eat steak but being slaves."

This speech has a deep meaning that NKRI can reach its independence not just because of one tribe or one cultural community, but the struggle of various tribes in Indonesia from Sabang to Merauke. If we want to become a great Nations, we should not be easily provoked by those who are able to disunite the Republic of Indonesia, always remember what Soekarno said, NKRI is a fixed price!.

*) Social Affairs Observer.