West Papua: Dog and Cuscus Cannot Share a Bed in PNG

West Papua: dog & cuscus cannot share a bed

BY LEONARD FONG ROKA*

THE WEST PAPUAN CONFLICT needs global attention. The conflict is the end product of colonisation by Dutch in West Papua.  Moreover, looking at the conflict, it is very difficult to come up with solutions because of the stranglehold of the Indonesian on West Papua.

The difficulty in solving this issue is that it needs full support from all countries, but given Indonesia’s bilateral relationships, bordering countries such as Australia and Papua New Guinea find it very difficult to intervene. Tensions will escalate if either Australia or Papua New Guinea try to intervene

There is much political chaos in West Papua, crimes against humanity and many people killed, tortured and raped by Indonesian forces in silent genocide. Also, transmigration from Bali, Sulawesi and Java leads to more people coming to West Papua and leads to natives being prisoners in their own land - one of the factors contributing to the conflict.

Another factor is the Indonesian government manipulating local landowners, people who are, in the words of one observer, “becoming marginalized in their own land, due to exploitation, repression, exploitation and genocide” (Ondawame, 2000:21).

West Papuans face a crisis. It is a crisis of a man seeking to preserve his life on the edge of extreme danger; while striving to restore his identity, his power and his status. In the region, it is a similar crisis that the New Caledonians and Bougainvilleans are going through.

The first stage into solving this conflict to halt the Transmigration Program and return the aliens to their origins. This great human rights abuse is ignored by the world.

Then cut off the Bahasa Indonesia language in Papua, which represents a cultural suppression of a people.

Furthermore, the most important initiative of all is to re-visit the 1962 New York Agreement. In this agreement the rights of the Papuans were set out correctly and initially respected. But the Dutch colonisers and Indonesians neglected and abused them.

Democracy was defamed and the people subjugated and their rights obliterated into the smoke screen of rapacious greed.

In summary, nationhood is the only way out for West Papuans for as, a Kieta peoples’ proverb goes, ‘A dog and a cuscus cannot share a bed’.

* Prepared with fellow PNG Studies Year 2 students at Divine Word University Ronald Kalang, Dulcie Moab, Rachel Rekeken, Erin Malona