Seeking Merdeka.(Reluctant Indonesians: Australia, Indonesia and the Future of West Papua)(Book review)

Reluctant Indonesians: Australia, Indonesia and the Future of West Papua, by Clinton Fernandes; Scribe, 2006, $22.

AN INDISPENSABLE QUALITY for the future of West Papua seems to be wisdom, preferably equal to that of Job, if not better. Failing this difficult goal, at least moderation, careful attention and insulation from domestic politics should apply, not only on the part of Australia, but Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, other neighbours and most certainly the West Papuans themselves.

Put another way, a light touch with attention to the subtleties and sensitivities--not always a strong point in either Canberra or Jakarta--is the best way to avoid a much bigger and far more serious East Timor, possibly with a touch of Afghanistan as well, on our doorstep.

This seems to be the message of this timely little book, which summarises the recent and less recent historical background and suggests that a partly autonomous state within Indonesia is the best route forward, with the overbearing and self-interested Indonesian army the force most likely to stop that happening. To perceive the problem as essentially one of the integrity of Indonesian territory is a "dubious cause", if tempting in Canberra.

Merdeka, the freedom cry, means spiritual freedom and removal of financial and cultural domination rather than necessarily an officially independent state, says the author, Clinton Fernandes, a lecturer in strategic studies at University College, University of New South Wales:

 
   Indonesians today would understand Papua 
   Merdeka to mean independence from Indonesia. 
   But for ethnic Papuans, merdeka probably has a 
   number of meanings, including a more complex 
   concept than political independence. One meaning 
   almost certainly connects it to what anthropologist 
   Brigham Golden describes as a West Papuan 
   liberation theology--a "moral crusade for peace 
   and justice on earth" ... 
 
      According to anthropologist S. Ebren Kirksey 
   these alternative meanings of merdeka appear to 
   correspond more closely to ecology than to 
   economy. He cites Viktor Kaiseipo, an exiled West 
   Papuan leader, who defines merdeka as 
   interdependence rather than independence; merdeka 
   in this sense means self-sufficiency in terms of 
   food production and access to clean water. 

What such judgments show, says Fernandes, is that West Papuans desire new systems of governance based on indigenous modes of authority that ought to be achievable without separating from Indonesia. Understood in this sense, merdeka and independence/ special autonomy are not mutually exclusive.