Richard Samuelson | ukwatch.net

With Scottish Independence on his Mind...

JamieSW — Mon, 19 May 2008 17:47:10 +0000

...will Gordon Brown be taking Indonesian lessons next month?

Next year or in 2010, the people of Scotland are now almost certain to be given the opportunity to vote in a referendum to choose independence or staying in the United Kingdom. In response, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has promised to “do whatever is necessary to ensure the stability and maintenance of the Union”. (1)

Next month, Gordon Brown will welcome to Downing Street a leader who knows a thing or two about doing “whatever is necessary” to combat independence movements: the President of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Ten years ago, when Yudhoyono was a General in the Indonesian army, he and his military colleagues failed to prevent East Timor from breaking away from Indonesia. They tried to kill off East Timor’s bid for freedom by killing a third of the East Timorese people (2) … but even that wasn’t enough. And now, a decade later, having swapped his General’s uniform for a civilian suit, President Yudhoyono is determined, once again, to do “whatever is necessary” to stop West Papua going the same way.

According to a recent speech by UK Foreign Office Minister, Meg Munn MP, “Indonesia’s experience in East Timor, Aceh and Papua is not simply an internal affair. It can act as a model to others.” (3) With this in mind, it would only be logical for Gordon Brown to ask the Indonesian President’s advice on how to prevent Scottish independence.

Using Indonesia’s “experience” in West Papua as a “model” for what the UK’s “experience in Scotland” could be like, here is how Yudhoyono’s advice to Gordon Brown might sound:

“1) As President of Indonesia, my first advice to you, Prime Minister Brown, is that you must fill Scotland with British military forces. Build British military posts all over Scotland, in the centre of every city and in even the smallest Scottish village. Remember, the main reason for the British military’s existence is to maintain the unity and territorial integrity of the United Kingdom. You can also flood Scotland with British intelligence agents disguised as taxi drivers or shop keepers. Then you will catch as many Scottish separatists as possible. Your British soldiers, police and intelligence agents can then kill them, torture them, rape them, intimidate them and imprison them as a warning to other Scottish separatists.

As your Minister said, Indonesia’s experience in West Papua can act as a model to others: During my four years as President, we have hugely increased the Indonesian military and intelligence presence in West Papua. After one of my military commanders was indicted by the UN for war crimes in East Timor, I promoted him and sent him to West Papua. Since then he has warned the Papuan people “… it is the duty of the TNI [the Indonesian military] to crush any struggle or activity undertaken by any group in the community which tends towards separatism”(4)

Our Indonesian intelligence agents are everywhere in West Papua, disguised as taxi drivers or shop keepers. They catch as many Papuan separatists as possible. Then our Indonesian soldiers, police and intelligence agents can kill them, torture them (5), rape them, intimidate them and imprison them as a warning to other Papuan separatists.

2) I next advise you to BAN the Scottish flag, the Saltire, BAN the National Anthem, “Scotland the Brave” and BAN all other “separatist symbols” such as the thistle and Scottish dancing.

As your Minister said, Indonesia’s experience in West Papua can act as a model to others: We have made it a criminal offence for West Papuans to raise their flag, the Morning Star, or to sing their national anthem, “O My Land, Papua”. Both are counted as “rebellion” under Indonesian law and are punishable by up to 20 years in prison (6). And under a new decree I have just issued (without any consultation with the Papuan people, of course), I’ve also banned displaying the flag or any other “separatist symbols” such as the Mambruk bird on a bag or T shirt. (7) Last July, our Indonesian Police also investigated allegations that some Papuan teenagers had been seen performing a separatist dance.

3) Next you must BAN all “regional/Scottish” political parties, especially the Scottish National Party. This means that, irrespective of what may be the democratic will of the Scottish people, the only choice Scots will have when they go to vote will be parties which totally support British territorial integrity! You may also consider assassinating their leaders. At the very least, imprison them for as long as possible.

As your Minister said, Indonesia’s experience in West Papua can act as a model to others: Under Indonesian law (8), we have made it impossible for the Papuans to form a “Free West Papua Party” by requiring that all political parties are represented in at least 50% of all the Indonesian provinces. So when West Papuans go to vote they can choose between my Party, The Democratic Party (Indonesian nationalist), or the Party of the Functional Groups [Golkar] (Indonesian nationalist), or the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (Indonesian nationalist), or the United Development Party (Indonesian nationalist), or the Prosperous Justice Party (Indonesian nationalist), or the National Awakening Party (Indonesian nationalist), or the National Mandate Party (Indonesian nationalist) or finally the Crescent Star Party (Indonesian nationalist). This is the choice we offer Papuan voters under Indonesian democracy.

Our friends in Burma prefer to keep Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest, but in 2001 we in Indonesia decided it was better to assassinate the West Papuan independence leader, Theys Eluay (9). Our Special Forces strangled him to death because he was becoming much too popular amongst his own people and he was making West Papua known in the rest of the world. Then in 2002 we arrested another West Papuan independence leader, Benny Wenda. First we tried to bribe him into working for us but when he refused we tried to kill him too. And of course every time a Papuan raises the Morning Star flag, we put them in prison too.

4) Next you must BAN all Scottish separatists from standing in elections or from working in the Civil Service. Simply BAN everyone in Scotland from holding public office if they refuse to sign an oath to “to maintain the integrity of the United Kingdom”. And you must also make it a legal requirement of the Scottish Parliament “to maintain the integrity of the United Kingdom”. Then if a Member of the Scottish Parliament or a Scottish Civil Servant says anything about wanting independence for Scotland you can dismiss them from their post immediately. You’ll find it’s a very effective way to keep people silent.

As your Minister said, Indonesia’s experience in West Papua can act as a model to others: Under Indonesian Law, all West Papuans who want to stand for election or become a Civil Servant must make an oath “to maintain the unity and integrity” of Indonesia (10). And in our Special Autonomy Law for West Papua we’ve made it law that the Local Papuan Parliament is expressly required “to maintain the integrity of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia”. In 2005, when a Papuan Civil Servant called Filep Karma, raised the Morning Star flag, we naturally dismissed him from his job … and also put him in prison for 15 years. We find this approach works very well for us in West Papua. We can tell the world that the Governor of Papua and the members of the Local Parliament are the “elected representatives of the Papuan people”, but we Indonesians know that these people will almost always stay silent about human rights abuses and Papuan demands for an independence referendum … or else we will fire them.

5) And finally, hold a sham independence referendum. If you are worried that if you give them a free and democratic vote the Scottish people might make the wrong choice, i.e. independence for Scotland, simply make sure that whatever they actually want, you will get a 100% vote in favour of maintaining the United Kingdom! ‘One person – one vote’ is of course out of the question. You must order the British military to hand-pick a thousand or so “Scottish representatives”, then put a gun to their heads and order them to vote for the United Kingdom. You can call it “the Act of Free Choice”.

As your Minister said, Indonesia’s experience in West Papua can act as a model to others: Very inconveniently, we were required under international law to allow the West Papuans to exercise their right to self-determination, but my old mentor General Suharto knew that if we allowed them ‘one person – one vote’ they would undoubtedly make the wrong choice; independence for West Papua. So our Indonesian military simply rounded up 1,026 Papuan elders, locked them inside our military camps, put a gun to their heads and ordered them to vote for Indonesia. (11) This part of our “Indonesian model” was entirely successful. 100% of the “Papuan representatives” voted in favour of Indonesia.

We called it “the Act of Free Choice”.”

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Of course, when Gordon Brown speaks of doing “whatever is necessary” to maintain the United Kingdom he doesn’t have assassinating Scottish independence leaders, banning Scottish flags or holding sham referendums in mind. Despite praising it as “a model for others”, the UK will not be following Indonesia’s West Papua model. This imagined advice from Yudhoyono to Brown would be laughable if it wasn’t also so seriously true about how Indonesia is treating the West Papua people.

So this question must be put clearly and strongly to Gordon Brown: If this Indonesian model is so obviously unacceptable as a way to counter Scots who want independence from the UK, why do UK Ministers keep saying it is acceptable, sometimes even praiseworthy, as the way to counter West Papuans who want independence from Indonesia?

Don’t West Papuans deserve exactly the same democratic rights & freedoms as the Scots, the English, the Irish and the Welsh? At their meeting in London next month, we hope Gordon Brown will tell President Yudhoyono that they do.

NOTES:

(1) The Daily Telegraph: “Gordon Brown won’t let Union split” 10 May 2008 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/1944747/Gordon-Brown-won’t-let-England-and-Scotland-split.html

(2) The Australian: “UN verdict on East Timor” 19 January 2006 http://www.etan.org/et2006/january/14/19truth.htm

(3) Speech by UK Foreign Office Minister, Meg Munn MP, at a Wilton Park Conference “Indonesia: Political and Economic Prospects” 3 March 2008 http://www.wiltonpark.org.uk/documents/Meg%20Munn%20Speech%20901.pdf

(4) Cenderwasih Pos, 7 July 2007: Statement by indicted war criminal and Indonesian military (TNI) commander in the West Papuan capital Jayapura:

“… it is the duty of the TNI [the Indonesian military]to crush any struggle or activity undertaken by any group in the community which tends towards separatism”

“What is absolutely certain is that anyone who tends towards separatism will be crushed by TNI”.

“In the interests of the NKRI (Republic of Indonesia), we are not afraid of human rights. We are quite prepared to imprison anyone, or dismiss them from their posts, whenever such [an action] is in the interests of the NKRI”.

(5) See, for example, report on TORTURE by Dr Manfred Nowak, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, 7 March 2008 : “…in Papua .. [Indonesian] mobile paramilitary police units have routinely been engaging in largely indiscriminate village ‘sweeping’ operations in search of alleged independence activists and their supporters, or raids on university boarding houses, using excessive force”.

http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/7session/A.HRC.7.3.A…

(6) Two prominent examples of West Papuans jailed for peacefully raising the Morning Star flag are Filep Karma & Yusak Pakage, who are currently serving 15 & 10 year prison sentences, respectively. Amnesty International has recognised Filep & Yusak as Prisoners of Conscience and is calling for their immediate and unconditional release. See: http://www.amnesty.org.uk/actions_details.asp?ActionID=42

(6) Indonesian Government Regulation Number 77 of 2007 (PP 77/2007) on “Local Symbols” was issued by President Yudhoyono in December 2007. Article 6.4 states: “The design of a local symbol and flag must not have main similarities to the design, logo and flag of any illegal organization or separatist organization/ group/ institution/ movement in the Unitary Republic of Indonesia.”

(8) Indonesian Law No. 31 of 2002 requires that political parties must have regional party boards in at least 50% of the total Indonesian provinces, and in 50 % of the total districts/municipalities in each province concerned, and in 25 % of the total sub-districts in each district/municipalities concerned. http://www.kbri-bangkok.com/about_indonesia/province_papua/province_papu…

(9) The Age: “Kopassus guilty of Eluay murder” 22 April 2003 http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/04/21/1050777211770.html

(10) Article 2 of the Official Pledge for Indonesian Civil Servants and military personnel http://jdihukum.banten.go.id/dokumen/UU%2048%20NO%209.pdf

(11) “[In the Act of Free Choice a] 1,000 handpicked representatives … were largely coerced into declaring for inclusion in Indonesia”. (Foreign Office Minister Baroness Symons, House of Lords, 13 December 2004.)

"Indonesia's territorial integrity"...it's just a bloody map

JamieSW — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 19:22:41 +0000

“The English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous.”

- Nazi Propaganda Minister, Josef Goebbels, 1941

For nearly 40 years, a succession of Generals in Jakarta, from Suharto to Yudhoyono, together with their fellow conspirators in London, Washington, Canberra and the Hague, have told a very big lie; that the people of West Papua chose feely to join Indonesia in the 1969 “Act of Free Choice”. And by repeating the lie over and over again they’ve hoped that people would eventually come to believe it.

The truth is Indonesia’s greatest enemy. The Indonesian, British, American, Australian and Dutch governments all know the truth; In 1969 Suharto’s henchmen put their rifles to the heads of 1,026 West Papuan elders and threatened to blow their brains out if they voted for independence. They all know the truth that if the West Papuan people had been given a genuine one person – one vote referendum they would have voted overwhelmingly for independence. And they also all know the truth that the only way Indonesia can hold on to West Papua now is by repressing peaceful Papuan dissenters like Filep Karma & Yusak Pakage, jailed for 15 & 10 years for peacefully raising the West Papuan flag.

Indonesian embassies all over the world are spending millions of rupiahs in a desperate attempt to prevent the truth from coming out. But it’s money down the drain. Indonesia is loosing the battle. However many independence campaigners Indonesia imprisons, tortures, intimidates or kills inside West Papua, all the money in the world can’t stop West Papuans in Britain, the USA, Australia or the Netherlands from simply telling the truth.

Indonesia’s big West Papua lie is now so obviously a lie that it has become too embarrassing for Indonesia’s Western allies to repeat the lie itself. You won’t now hear a British government Minister trying to defend the “Act of Free Choice”. In fact the UK government now calls it “extremely flawed” [1] and has even officially admitted that in 1969 “a thousand hand-picked Papuans were largely coerced into declaring for Indonesia”.[2]

But while the UK and Indonesia’s other Western co-conspirators don’t now tell the big lie themselves, they are nevertheless still trying to protect the lie from the truth’s corrosive power. Now, when anyone (whether an ordinary citizen, Member of Parliament or even David Cameron, Leader of the Opposition in the UK Parliament [3]) asks the British Foreign Secretary any question about West Papua’s right to self-determination, the Foreign Office sends up a smoke screen to try to protect Indonesia’s big lie. They say the UK “respects Indonesia’s territorial integrity”.

Question: In the 1969 “Act of Free Choice”, were the West Papuan people allowed to exercise their internationally-recognised right to self-determination in accordance with international law?

Answer: The United Kingdom government respects the territorial integrity of the Republic of Indonesia.

Question: The UK has already admitted that the West Papuan people were “coerced” into joining Indonesia in 1969, so isn’t it the logical conclusion that the West Papuans should now be given the chance to vote in a free and fair self-determination referendum?

Answer: The United Kingdom government respects the territorial integrity of the Republic of Indonesia.

Question: Now that Indonesia has signed up to the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights, should the West Papuan people be allowed to campaign peacefully for independence, or is it still OK for Indonesia to jail them for 15 years for peacefully raising the West Papuan “Morning Star” flag?

Answer: The United Kingdom government respects the territorial integrity of the Republic of Indonesia.

“Respecting Indonesia’s territorial integrity” is blatantly not an answer to these questions which would stand up in any court of law. The Foreign Office’s answers would be laughable if their consequence wasn’t so serious for the West Papuan people suffering under Indonesian oppression. Very sadly, it’s all too clear that by repeating the “territorial integrity” mantra over and over again the UK and Indonesia’s other Western friends are simply avoiding giving answers in order to protect Indonesia’s big lie … and at the same time, of course, protect British economic interests (BP is collaborating with the Indonesian government on a huge natural gas project in West Papua. Rio Tinto has a share in one of the world’s biggest gold & copper mines in the West Papuan highlands.)

So it’s high time to prick the “territorial integrity” bubble once and for all by exposing what “Indonesia’s territorial integrity” actually means. It’s just a bloody map.

Indonesia claims West Papua because it says that every square mile of the Far East which the Dutch grabbed, Indonesia should now be allowed to grab too. From Sumatra to New Guinea, every island or part of an island which used to be coloured Dutch orange on the old maps, should now, they claim, be coloured Indonesian red. Indonesia’s argument means that one old Dutch Empire should simply be replaced by a new Javanese Empire.

“Indonesia‘s territorial integrity” is just a bloody map. How can a bloody map justify the oppression of a million and a half Melanesians? How can a bloody map justify the Indonesian military imprisoning, torturing, raping, terrorising and murdering West Papuan men, women and children? How can a bloody map justify the use of State violence and terror to keep a people inside a country they simply don’t want to be part of?

A generation ago, the British in India, the French in Algeria and the Dutch in Java were prepared to shed innocent Indian, African and Indonesian blood in a vain attempt to keep the map of the world coloured as they wanted. Just like Indonesia is now doing in West Papua, the British, French and Dutch Empires
were prepared to use violence to keep people within their imperial territory against their will … to “protect their territorial integrity”.

“Indonesia‘s territorial integrity” is just a bloody map … and it’s a map drenched in the blood of at least 100,000 innocent West Papuans, murdered during 5 years of brutal Indonesian occupation.

The big lie that the West Papuans chose freely to join Indonesia in 1969 has now been exposed. It’s so obviously a lie that democracies like the UK are
now too ashamed to repeat it. And “Indonesia‘s territorial integrity” is just a bloody map. It’s now time for the Western democracies to admit that people are more important than maps; that the era of using violence to keep people inside an Empire against their will is over.

It’s time to put the people of West Papua first. At long last, it’s time to allow the West Papuans the chance to determine their own future.

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[1] Baroness Royall (UK government spokesperson), House of Lords debate on West Papua, 8th January 2007.

[2] Baroness Symons (UK Foreign Office Minister) House of Lords, 13th December 2004. Confirmed in a letter from Jack Straw, UK Foreign Secretary, 4th February 2005.

[3] On 24th August 2007, David Cameron, Leader of the Opposition in the UK Parliament & Leader of the Conservative Party, met Benny Wenda, Leader of the West Papuan independence movement in the UK. Mr Cameron promised that he would “probe the [UK] government on West Papua’s right to self-determination”.

In reply to his “probing” so far, the UK Foreign Office has simply repeated to Mr Cameron that “the UK government respects Indonesia’s territorial integrity”.