The insurgent Papua. And, advent of United United Liberation Movement for West Papua. I can see the Morning Star. Can you? The Dutch left in a hurry. They left the Papuan nationalists to figure out a formula.
Dr Budi Hernawan is a Jesuit clergyman. And, he endorsed the rise of United Liberation Movement for West Papua as a credible option. Ultimately, he defended the diplomatic option driving the roadmap to freedom for West Papua.
He has a PhD following his scholarship into the thesis which examined half a century of the politics of torture and peacebuilding frameworks in West Papua.
By 2013, he was already an expert on West Papua.
The thesis assembled a data base of 431 reported torture cases. While the current resurgence of scholarly interest in torture largely focuses on the utilitarian nature of torture as part of the war on terror, the findings of this study take a non-utilitarian turn.
Dr Hernawan came up with a thesis that underpins the building blocks of the standard script that will likely compel the inevitable conclusion.
West Papua has a case for self – rule because the state failed to secure safety for its citizens. It is the reason Indonesia now has reorganised its argument to claim sovereignty over West Papua.
It is using the ‘ Terrorism’ card. Wrong again. This is because the West Papua case arises from a colonial context. And, terrorists as such were on the winning side, nationalists, fighting for freedom.
For example, in South Africa Nelson Mandela was called a terrorist but later became South Africa’s first post – apartheid black president.
Another example, closer to home, is Ismael Toroamo. During the height of the Bougainville Conflict or Crisis, he was targeted as lawless, a terrorist, rebel.
He then became President of Autonomous Region of Bougainville under the pillars of the Bougainville Peace Agreement. According to the UN that closely monitored the peace talks on the future of Bougainville, the three pillars required to be brought into the dynamics playing out were: (1) weapons disposal, (2) autonomous government, and (3) referendum.
In this case, ‘terrorists’ were to be co – opted into the peace and healing process going on. The autonomous government could be run with their consent, instead of blowing down power pylons and targeting state infrastructure, and symbols, to unleash the agenda.
The Bougainville rebels were separatists. ‘ Terrorists. Under the peace agreement, all actors from both sides of the conflict had the opportunity to build peace from the civil war. And, therefore return the troubled region of the country to normalcy, including options for a lasting solution.
President Ismael Toroama’s rise from the label ‘ terrorist’ to Statesman gives another perspective to the conversation on West Papua.
Indonesia itself gained freedom the Dutch after its leading nationalists before independence in 1945/49 were labelled as terrorists.
So, ULMWP has consolidated the roadmap for freedom for West Papua with the correct script. Here is why.
First, torture has been deployed strategically by the Indonesian state in Papua as a mode of governance.
Second, torture constitutes a spectacle of the sovereign by which the sovereign communicates to a broader audience through the public display of the tortured body.
Third, torture has constituted a crime against humanity punishable by both Indonesian and International Human Rights Law.
Fourth, the five-decade practice of torture with almost complete impunity has constructed a theatre of torture in which the interactions of survivors, perpetrators, and spectators have produced and reproduced contesting narratives of suffering, domination and witnessing.
Dr Hernawan successfully showed from the data available that based on these four conclusions, peacebuilding in Papua can be reconceptualised as developing a theatre of peacebuilding to transform the theatre of torture.
This translates into the diplomatic option. And, it is winning the battle for West Papua. ULMWP has been on course as it pursues the case for self – rule.
The memory of suffering by indigenous Papuans is conceived in the thesis as a beginning to moving Papua toward a tipping point.
Freedom is therefore inevitable.
https://liveencounters.net/…/1-dr-budi-hernawan-ulmwp…/.
Up till this point, the strategy was getting no where, freedom’s call drained and drowned out by Indonesia’s claim to sovereignty over the former Dutch colony.
The Dutch began, and set in motion the thesis of decolonisation in its colonial possession called Dutch New Guinea, or Netherlands New Guinea in 1961.
It is called state formation. The National West Papua Army was was also established apart from other jurisdictions and organs of state. And, independence was set for 1971. 10 years lapse, preceding the date for the rise of the Morning Star.
Indonesia invaded in 1962. And, the obliteration of a people, a race, set in motion, inspired by the US and the UN itself.
It is long past time for self rule. The military option for West Papua ended when the Dutch departed with its lethal hardware and software dumped into the sea.
55 years on. The Independence movement in West Papua is still alive, with Papuan nationalism triggered to new heights by the internationalisation of the West Papua issue.
The diplomatic option seems viable. West Papua with international opinion on its side, and the tide of history changing beyond expectations thank you to the age of internet and cyberspace.
MSG is dealing with a timebomb on Australia’s doorstep.
United Liberation Movement for West Papua or ULMWP has applied for full membership of MSG to give credence to the UN proposition decades ago for West Papua.
Freedom.
Is the Morning Star fading? https://www.ucanews.com/…/are-morning-stars…/93172
In recent years the ULMWP stepped up its options to put the case for independence for West Papua to the international community.
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