Papua New Guinea's ambassador in Jakarta says there's a change of attitude taking place in Indonesia's Papua region, or West Papua, whereby the indigenous people are participating more in the running of their own region.
Peter Ilau this month visited the Papuan cities of Jayapura and Merauke on the invitation of Indonesia's Co-ordinating Minister for Political, Law and Security affairs, Luhut Panjaitan. Also on the visit were ambassadors from New Zealand, Fiji and Solomon Islands.
Mr Ilau told Johnny Blades the visit was about witnessing the government's "holistic" approach in Papua.
Peter Ilau: Issues of human rights, right across to issues of development, issues of education, issues of law and order, issues of funding development aspirations and having a strategic sort of view of linking Papua with the rest of Indonesia and the world, I guess.
Johnny Blades: Are you encouraged by what you've seen?
PI: Well we are absolutely encouraged. There are certainly new trends and the directions from the President here are certainly very forthright, and his overall strategic plan which the minister is now taking across to the people and taking the leadership himself. He is connected and the people understand it, and people take ownership of the development initiatives that are being put in place.
JB: With your background, of course, you were the head of Papua New Guinea's military forces and you know all about the sensitive issues, would you say things are improving on that front?
PI: It's the perception that has been portrayed outside which really misguides all of us, including Papua New Guinea. The Papua New Guinea Defence Force, in my time, and I'm sure it's still the same now, is that we had a very good understanding with the TNI (Indonesian military). We knew what was happening. From time-to-time I tried to explain to people that the so-called buildups are actually their way of managing their border; they have the numbers, they have the resources, so when they move a large number of troops it becomes obvious to people that there's a large mass of troops and equipment being moved, whereas on the other side, we just have 100 men or 150 at the most, and when they move, it's just a group of people moving. So it's not as significant as the movements that are taking place on the other side which is often misread. when you have three or four thousand people moving at the same time, of course it raises tension. You know, when satellites pick up movements of people, they pick up movements of much larger signature, as opposed to a small signature. But they've always managed it, and we've always understood from the PNGDF point of view that they were just doing their normal rotation of troops, normal deployment, extraction of troops.
JB: We see that there's a lot of support for the United Liberation Movement of West Papua over there. What are you hearing?
PI: Our observation here – and I'm sure my other three colleagues Fiji, New Zealand and Solomon Islands will say similar things in their own way – look, we are observing a trend, a show of attitude towards doing things for themselves. You know the governors, the bupatis, the regents, they're all indigenous Papuans. There's no Javanese or any other persons in the driving seat in terms of leadership in those provinces, districts and village levels. Even the police and military forces, there's more and more Melanesians now in there. The financial institutions, the businesses that are run... of course, it's all of Indonesia that is driving development in economics, banking, finance in Papua. But you see more and more indigenous Papuans are creeping up into management. The universities are a class example: all of the professors, lecturers, many of them are Papuans.
So, back to your question, I think this renewed sense of wanting to do things for themselves... a couple of things became obvious in the meetings, and you probably noticed – if you haven't done so yet, there's an interesting article in the Jakarta Post last week. It was done by the Indonesian ambassador in Canberra but it's also a view that was said to us in no uncertain terms to the four of us (ambassadors) that were visiting, in one of the meetings, and that's in the presence of activists, Papuan activists against human rights (abuses), they were telling us that, you know, we've had enough of outside interference with what we're doing. When they say outside interference, they are referring to outside governments and even outside Papuans, the diaspora Papuans who are constantly putting out messages that are not exactly what is being inspired on the ground here at home, what people want to do.
JB: Was that the article that characterised the United Liberation Movement for West Papua as almost a terrorist group?
PI: Yeah, that's the article, and in fact during the meetings a large number of files were brought forward, individual citizens, Papuans bringing out evidence on a lot of the incidents that have occurred in the past, so-called human rights incidents. People were bringing in files, photos and giving it to the minister and his staff for presentation to courts for follow-up investigations and consequently maybe arrests of people who are implicated.
JB: The Melanesian Spearhead Group has recognised the United Liberation Movement as a group and it's obviously in the MSG as an observer, so it can't be likened to a terrorist group, surely?
PI: Yeah, I think one has to see the outcomes of these investigations that are being brought up and the evidences that have been brought out so what is now being shared in the media and consequently when the parliament clear, clears their.. what they mentioned to us, that the president wants all these things, all the incidents that happened before 2000 to be cleared. Once they clear a lot of these and the information becomes public, I think we'll be surprised to see who the real aggressors are in a lot of these incidents.