Damien Kingsbury – The recent Indonesian ban on academic contact with Deakin University over the West Papua issue is the latest shot in a wider political battle. But that battle is not with Deakin, or even Australia. The real battle is within Jakarta.
Based on alleged support for West Papuan independence by Dr Scott Burchill and me, Deakin University has been informed that Indonesian institutions must cease working with it. The instruction came from Indonesia's Department of Education, although it conforms closely to similar efforts by its State Intelligence Agency.
A list of Australian academics, politicians, activists and institutions claimed to be in favour of West Papuan independence compiled by the agency was leaked in late April. Some of those identified, such as activist groups, are formally in favour of West Papuan independence. Others have simply expressed concern over continuing human rights abuses in West Papua, and the questionable way West Papua was formally incorporated into the Indonesian state in 1969. Some have just called for a negotiated settlement.
This most recent attack on Australian individuals and institutions can be seen as part of the diplomatic fallout over Australia's acceptance of 42 West Papuan asylum seekers.
The Australia-Indonesia row over West Papua and the identification of Australian individuals and academics is not really about Australia, or indeed over the prospect of West Papua achieving independence. As is widely acknowledged, West Papua is highly unlikely to achieve independence in the foreseeable future.
The dispute is more about the place of West Papua in Indonesia's internal politics. This is a subset of a broader contest between proponents of Indonesia's process of gradual reform and those wishing to turn back the political clock.
To illustrate, one respected Australian academic on Indonesia noted that the recent bans were as bad as or worse than bans imposed under Indonesia's authoritarian New Order. Indeed, to find a parallel, one would have to go back to 1986, to the dispute after the publication in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald of an article on President Soeharto's corruption.
There was no doubt that Soeharto was angry with the publication of his corrupt activities. But studies of that issue have since noted that Australia was used as a whipping boy in a dispute between Soeharto and his then military commander in chief, General Benny Murdani.
In the present situation, the dispute in Jakarta is primarily over reform of the Indonesian military (TNI) and the retention of the military's effective independence from government. In particular, for a military that is at best only one-third funded by the Government, West Papua is a key source of TNI legal and illegal income. The intelligence agency is associated with the TNI's intelligence organisation.
This is also a contest of wills, especially after the failure of the TNI's opposition to a negotiated settlement to the conflict in Aceh, in which it also had substantial economic interests. Some observers have noted that the TNI has been depoliticised in recent years. It has lost its representation in the Indonesian legislature. However, it continues to dominate security policy, such as bans, which are formally an immigration matter. Beyond its continued influence on daily politics, the TNI's real power has always lain in its distribution throughout the archipelago. This continues to locate the TNI close to the recently devolved sources of economic power, and it has hence fiercely resisted attempts to reduce its distribution.
Despite President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's criticisms of Australia, which can be primarily seen as playing to an Indonesian audience, he wants to bring the TNI under civilian authority. That is the main game. Attacks against Australia generally and individuals and institutions in particular are thus collateral damage in an internal Indonesian battle.
[Damien Kingsbury was an adviser to the Free Aceh Movement in the 2005 Helsinki peace negotiations. Ostensibly for commenting on the Aceh conflict, he has been banned from entering Indonesia since December 2004.]