The
commemoration of 1st of July, the day when the Independence Movement,
the OPM proclaimed West Papuan independence in 1971.
On 1st of July, 42 years ago under the
leadership of the late Brig.Gen. Seth Rumkorem and Excellency Jacob Prai
(exiled in Sweden) a proclamation of independence was declared complete
with a Constitution, a Senate and Provisional government. The
leadership of the Movement had come to that decision after careful
consideration of the following historical facts:
(1). By 1960 West Papua was well and
truly in the process of decolonization. A decolonization plan introduced
by Dr. Joseph Luns, the Foreign Minister of the Netherlands won 51%
votes in the United Nations.
(2). West Papuans had already
established Political Parties and had general elections where an
embryonic Parliament called the Nieuw Guinea Raad or the New Guinea
Council was established. Members of the South Pacific Commission (This
body had been expanded to become the Pacific Islands Forum), Australia,
New Zealand, France, Great Britain and of course the host, the
Netherlands attended the inauguration of this embryonic Parliament on 5
April 1961. USA declined the invitation but had voted earlier for the
decolonization plan at the United Nations.
(3). The New Guinea Council produced a
10 years development and localization program that will end with full
independence by 1970 (This plan was adopted from the political manifesto
of the Papua National Party, the PARNA). The Netherlands fully agreed
to implement the plan.
(4). Spurred by the euphoria of
independence, the Council proceeded to create the national symbols for
the future Republic of West Papua, they are, the Morning Star flag, the
National Anthem, ‘my land Papua,’ Court of Arms and proposed that from
that day on the Territory should be called Papua (West Papua). These
symbols were accepted by the Colonial government and on the 1st of
December 1961 the Morning Star flag was officially raised alongside the
three colors flag of the Netherlands including the singing of the
national anthems of both countries accompanied by Marine Corps band and
parade by the military including Papuans’ own Volunteer Corps, the PVK
and police forces with fly pass by the Royal Dutch Air Force. This
decolonization process came to an abrupt stop because of the United
States sponsored New York Agreement to end the escalation of conflict
and possible open war between the Netherlands and Indonesia over West
Papua. The elected West Papuan leaders were not involved or even
consulted.
The Agreement granted Indonesia a
TEMPORARY MANDATE to administer the Territory pending a REFERENDUM in
1969 where the Papuan people would be allowed to freely and
democratically vote on their political status. Indonesia never respected
the agreement. It annexed West Papua to become the 26the Province of
the Republic the same way it had annexed East Timor. In 1969 Indonesia
organized a fraudulent exercise where 1022 tribal leaders representing
800,000 Papuans were forced to accept integration. Regardless of the
travesty conduct in the implementation and serious concern by some
Africa countries the UN endorsed a resolution cosponsored by Indonesia
and the Netherlands for the results to be accepted. The UN accepted the
results with qualified note that the method used was according to
Indonesian practice. Another way of saying, it was not according to the
UN standard procedure in a referendum.
In view of this GROSS INJUSTICE the
West Papuan independence movement, the OPM took the only option
available to it at the time, a UNILATERAL PROCLAMATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
For obvious reasons the Provisional government did not operate as it
should have but the integrity it represents remain today in the hearts
of every West Papuan. We will continue to strive for our independence.
Since
Indonesian occupying forces arrived on our soil everything went from bad
to worse. Democratic institutions including the elected Council and
Political parties were dissolved; freedom and the right of assembly
including the right of free opinion were prohibited. Any breach of this
order will carry a serious sentence of up to 20 years in jail. The whole
population is terrorized to submit to the will of the government. The
localization and self government schemes during the Dutch administration
were scrapped. In the past 10 years Indonesia attempted to corrupt the
International opinion, with a similar scheme called Special Autonomy.
This bogus special autonomy had died a natural death. It is open book
that Indonesia gave more importance to Colonist settlement called
Transmigration than basic social services to the people. Year by year
human right reports are filling the files of responsible human right
agencies including the UN Human Rights Council but nothing is done about
them. Serious human right abuses at the level of crimes against
humanity are still in the hands of UNHC and Indonesia’s own Human Rights
Commission, KOMNAS HAM for the past 8 years. It is now almost half a
century and there is no better way to describe Indonesia’s legacy of
subjugation in West Papua than INDONESIAN COLONIAL TERRORISM. (M/Lewis Prai)
Blogger Comment
Facebook Comment