{"id":1209,"date":"2015-06-22T15:55:07","date_gmt":"2015-06-22T15:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/?p=1209"},"modified":"2015-06-22T15:56:05","modified_gmt":"2015-06-22T15:56:05","slug":"west-papuans-hope-unity-will-guarantee-msg-membership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/?p=1209","title":{"rendered":"West Papuans hope unity will guarantee MSG membership"},"content":{"rendered":"

Indo\"\"<\/a>ian officials are lobbying for an upgrade to associate membership of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), while a renewed membership application by a united West Papuan coalition will be discussed at this week\u2019s MSG leaders\u2019 summit in Solomon Islands.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Indonesian officials are lobbying for an upgrade to associate membership of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), while a renewed membership application by a united West Papuan coalition will be discussed at this week\u2019s MSG leaders\u2019 summit in Solomon Islands.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Papua New Guinea and Fiji have expressed their opposition to the bid for full MSG membership by the United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP), a coalition of groups opposed to Indonesian rule in the western half of the island of New Guinea. In contrast, MSG members Vanuatu and New Caledonia\u2019s FLNKS independence movement have expressed solidarity with the West Papuan nationalist movement and their membership application.
\nSummit host Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, who takes over as MSG chair for the next two years, must forge a consensus between these divergent positions. Despite these differences, the MSG\u2019s new engagement on the West Papua issue contrasts with the silence of the regional Pacific Islands Forum \u2013 there has been no mention of West Papua in Forum communiques since 2006.
\nMembership bid
\nIn March 2013, the Port Vila-based West Papua National Council for Liberation (WPNCL) lodged a formal membership application to join the MSG. The application was deferred at the last MSG summit, held in Noumea in 2013, to allow a Foreign Ministers mission to visit Indonesia. A special MSG leaders\u2019 summit in Port Moresby in June 2014 again deferred the WPNCL application and agreed \u201cto invite all groups to form an inclusive and united umbrella group in consultation with Indonesia to work on submitting a fresh application.\u201d
\nWest Papuan representatives are in Honiara this week, lobbying MSG officials and leaders and stressing that they have responded to the call for unity expressed in 2014.
\nThe Vanuatu government hosted a December 2014 meeting to bring together Jayapura-based activists and exiled campaigners, forming a united front between competing groups. The newly created United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) unites different strands of the West Papuan nationalist movement: the West Papua National Council for Liberation (WPNCL), Federal Republic of West Papua (FRWP) and the National Parliament of West Papua (NPWP), which incorporates the National Committee for West Papua (KPNB).
\nToday, the ULM secretariat includes Secretary General Octo Mote, spokesperson Benny Wenda and executive officers Rex Rumakiek, Jacob Rumbiak and Leonie Tanggahma. These exiled ULM executive members have been joined in Honiara by a range of leaders from inside West Papua, including Edison Maromi of the Federal Republic of West Papua and Dominikus Surabut, the chair of Lapago region of the Papuan Customary Council (Dewan Adat Papua).
\nULM Executive officer Jacob Rumbiak stressed that while some leaders were living in exile, the movement\u2019s decision making was taking place amongst political parties and civic movements inside West Papua.
\nSpeaking through a translator, Dominikus Surabut agreed that there was unprecedented co-ordination amongst different strands of the West Papua nationalist movement.
\n\u201cOur experience over the last 53 years is that there\u2019s been a history of disunity in the struggle, with competing claims for leadership,\u201d said Surabut. \u201cSo this opportunity that has been created through the creation of the United Liberation Movement, is really an excellent solution for the people of West Papua.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>
\nEdison Waromi told Islands Business that MSG governments had forced groups in the independence movement to better co-ordinate their efforts.
\n\u201cThe birth of the ULMWP is actually a direct result of the challenge put forward by the MSG leaders,\u201d said Waromi. \u201cAfter the previous application in 2013 and 2014, the MSG leaders said it wasn\u2019t fully representative. They challenged us to resubmit another application from a more unified group. So the ULMWP was formed in response to this challenge and through great effort, we feel that we have successfully responded to this challenge. Indonesia is scared of us, now that we\u2019re united.\u201d
\nWaromi is quick to deny that there are competing applications for membership from different parts of the movement: \u201cI want to state clearly that the Federal Republic of West Papua gives their full and unequivocal support to the United Liberation Movement and its application for MSG membership.\u201d
\nMaintaining Vanuatu\u2019s support
\nVanuatu has long supported the West Papuan nationalist movement with practical and diplomatic aid. Port Vila hosts an office for the WPNCL, which has lobbied for MSG membership in line with the precedent set by the Kanak independence movement (the FLNKS, rather than the Government of New Caledonia, represents New Caledonia in the MSG).
\nHowever the recent no-confidence motion that saw the defeat of Prime Minister Joe Natuman\u2019s government raised concern that Vanuatu\u2019s long-standing commitment on West Papua might be affected.
\nOver the weekend, ULM Secretary General Octo Mote travelled from Honiara to Port Vila, to lock in support from the new government led by Prime Minister Sato Kilman and Deputy Prime Minister Moana Carcasses Kalosil (who arrived in Honiara on Sunday).
\n\u201cFrom my trip, I must say that Vanuatu\u2019s support is still there,\u201d Mote told Islands Business from Port Vila. \u201cNothing has changed on West Papua. There are differences in approach between the old government and new, but it\u2019s not political parties that support us, it\u2019s the nation, the Vanuatu people.\u201d
\nMote re-iterated that his delegation was still seeking full MSG membership, but acknowledged recent statements by the Solomon Islands government, calling on MSG leaders to consider observer status rather that full membership.
\n\u201cOf course we are still pressing for full membership, but if the MSG leaders offer observer status, I\u2019ll take it,\u201d said Mote. \u201cWest Papua is now a Melanesian issue. Some people at home who are hoping for full MSG membership will be upset, but it\u2019s important we sit down equally with the Indonesians. If Indonesia are MSG observers, and we are observers, why not?\u201d\u00a0<\/span>
\nMote added: \u201cFor myself, it\u2019s important for us to sit down equally with the Indonesians, to talk together. If the Kanaks can sit down to create the Noumea Accord with the French, why can\u2019t we create a similar agreement?\u201d
\nIndonesian concessions
\nDespite this call for dialogue, West Papuan leaders in Honiara are critical of recent initiatives by Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who visited West Papua in May 2015. Since his election, Jokowi has promised new dialogue on West Papua, and granted concessions such as the release of five political prisoners and an announcement that international media would have free access to West Papua.\u00a0<\/span>
\nAt a press conference in Merauke last month, Jokowi stated: \u201cStarting from today, foreign journalists are allowed and free to come to Papua, just as they can [visit] other regions.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>
\nThis pledge was immediately undercut by his Minister for Political, Legal and Security affairs Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno, who confirmed that foreign journalists would still be screened and must obtain permission from the security forces s to travel to the highlands: \u201cWe\u2019ll allow it, on condition that they report on what they see, not go around looking for facts that aren\u2019t true from armed groups\u2026There\u2019s a lot of news out there that makes it look like [human rights] violations are taking place here all the time, but I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the case.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>
\nFor ULM representatives lobbying in Honiara, these concessions do not address the core issues, and are simply designed to blunt this momentum of the West Papuan nationalist movement.
\nAccording to ULM Executive officer Rex Rumakiek, \u201cwhile we would welcome greater media access to report what is really going on, the real question is to allow freedom of expression for the people of West Papua. The prisoners who have been released are not criminals, but acted politically to support human rights.\u201d
\nDespite Jokowi\u2019s call for dialogue, Indonesian security forces have continued to crack down on dissent. Rumakiek noted: \u201cIn the last month, nearly 500 people have been arrested demonstrating in support of the MSG membership application.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>
\nCustomary chief Dominikus Surabut told Islands Business that now was the time for action by Pacific leaders: \u201cIf the leaders of the Melanesian countries really want to save us as fellow Melanesians of the same race, as fellow kin, then we ask them to receive us as members of the same family. Those of us who are leaders of the struggle, feel that in order to r<\/p>\n

Source: West Papuans hope unity will guarantee MSG membership – Melanesian Spearhead Group – News – Islands Business magazine<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Indoian officials are lobbying for an upgrade to associate membership of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), while a renewed membership application by a united West Papuan coalition will be discussed at this week\u2019s MSG leaders\u2019 summit in Solomon Islands. Indonesian officials are lobbying for an upgrade to associate membership of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":547,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-solomon-islands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1209"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1211,"href":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1209\/revisions\/1211"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}