BusinessWhat is the Free Papua Movement?

August 24, 2020by lynellpicton3590

To understand the Free Papua movement, there’s a number of things to get out of the way first. First, what’s Papua? Second, why does it need freedom? Third, who from? For quite a lot of individuals, once they hear ‘Papua’ they think of Papua New Guinea. It’s not too far off, seeing as West Papua is just the western half of the New Guinea island, with ‘Papua’ being a name referring to the island earlier than contact with the west. West Papua is directly to the west of Papua New Guinea, with the island split neatly in two. So how the hell did it get that way?

Lengthy before the Free Papua Movement, like so many trendy nations, West Papua is a product of colonialism. Western New Guinea was colonized by the Dutch at first, while the East was finally colonized by the Germans in the late 1800s. (With the south-east also being annexed by Britain, because of course the Brits had to be involved somewhere.) As with many different things, this difficult mix of colonialism was shook up by WW1 and the Treaty of Versailles, granting the German territory to Australia, who by this level have been administering the British territory as well. This split the country quite evenly down the middle between the Dutch and the Australians.

In 1975, the Japanese portion of the island was granted independence and have become Papua New Guinea. Meanwhile, the Dutch administered western portion had the unfortunate situation of pushing to turn out to be unbiased right next to unbiased Indonesia. The Dutch had been gradually loosening their grip for a while and in 1961, a national parliament had been elected with intentions to declare independence in 1970. Indonesia meanwhile had formed largely out of the Dutch East Indies, an amalgamation of most of the Dutch island colonies in that region, of which Papua was one. This, in Indonesia’s eyes, gave them declare to Papua despite the enormously different political history.

Indonesian president Sukarno pushed heavily for intervention to assert West Papua, though unwillingness to go to war outright prevented an invasion. Ultimately, Sukarno sought the US to function a mediator, leveraging their position as a ‘non-aligned’ country to achieve favour, implicitly suggesting that they could ally with the U.S. if not appeased. The Dutch relented, allowing Indonesia to imagine administration of West Papua till such a time as a referendum may very well be carried out, stirring the start of what would develop into the Free Papua Movement. This referendum, the ‘Act of Free Selection’, was to determine the future of the country and contain a vote on behalf of the whole country. This is, in spite of everything, how referendums function.

Under the new, decidedly a lot more genocidal leader Suharto took over in Indonesia, it was out of the blue determined that the New Guineans were ‘too primitive’ for democracy and instead a traditional Indonesian ‘election of elders’ was performed. This election, held August 2nd 1969, involved only a hand-picked grouping of just over a thousand West Papuans had been allowed to vote. The vote was suspiciously unanimous, supporting integration with Indonesia and thus leading to West Papua becoming the 26th official province of Indonesia. This has understandably led to the Act of Free Selection being labelled the ‘Act of No Selection’, inevitably spurring the Free Papua Movement. With that out of the way, let’s move on.

The Free Papua Movement (Organisasi Papua Merdeka – OPM) was formally based in December of 1963, not lengthy after Indonesia assumed administration of the region but before formal annexation. December first was declared ‘Papuan Independence Day’ and common flag raising ceremonies began by separatist teams on this date, making up a large portion of the country. When their efforts were ignored and West Papua was formally annexed by Indonesia, things swiftly started to heat up. On July 1st 1971, three Free Papua Movement commanders declared the Republic of West Papua and drafted a constitution, a functionally symbolic move for which the Papuan people would work towards, equally to the Irish proclamation of 1916 which provided a foundation for the independence movement of the early 1920s.

From 1976, the Free Papua Movement went on the offensive, threatening an Indonesian mining company for funding and in the end conducting mass sabotage campaigns against the corporate all through the summer season of 1977. In 1982, the Free Papua Movement Revolutionary Council was further established, in search of to achieve recognition from worldwide bodies and grant their battle further legitimacy. This in the end led to a 1984 offensive against the Indonesian military, eventually ending with the Free Papua Movement being pushed out of the country into Papua New Guinea.

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