Why the Papua Presidium Council (PDP)?

by the CEB of Diary of OPM, 20 August 2001

Papua Presidium Council (PDP) after the resignation of the Father of Democracy and Human Rights in Indonesia, K.H. Abdurrahman Wahid faces dilemma on which paths it should choose to follow up the mandate given by all Papuans at the Papua People's Congress II 2000. There are at least four paths (roads) it should choose from: (1) Autonomy; (2) Independence; (3) Cool down, and (4) Forget about it. From these, the first three are preferrable, but I am afraid the first alternative is out of any Papuan's calculations. Therefore, the most possible paths to take are the second and then the third one. But how and why to go on these paths? But before answering this question, we need to know what the PDP is all about.

The PDP real identity?

Papua Presidium Council is theoretically not an organisation with a strong political ideology for an independent West Papua as many people probably think. It was in fact set up by the pro-Golkar (Suharto's corruptive and repressive) party members in order to steer up the political situation in Indonesia. It is a political project of Jakarta and the project managers live at or closely linked the "Jl. Cendana" family. Theys H. Eluway is just the supervisor of the project in the field, to make sure the project achieves its goal: to show that Gus Dur is incapable of calming down the independence movement in West Papua and therefore it is justifiable to take him out from the Presidential Palace. And now they have successfully got Mr. Wahid out of the palace. What is next for the Cendana allies? The answer is not shown here, but it is deliberately implied here.

The Cendana families and other opportunist leaders successfully caused totally unecessary and shameful war between friends and relatives in Maloccas, which was beyond anyone's prediction. They successfully prolonged ethnic hatred and war in Borneo as well as further killings in Acheh. They managed deploying Jihad troops into West Papua but failed to causing Papuans fighting each other. They attacked Gus Dur with an insignificant financial scandal.

In ordinary Papuans perspective, PDP is the re-emerged form of the Nieuw Guinea Raad (New Guinea Council), officially and legally established on 1 December 1961 at the First Papuan People's Congress 1961. This is the only reason why many young Papuans volunteered themselves to be members of the Papuan Task Force (Satgas Papua) and Koteka Task Force (Satgas Koteka). This is also the reason why Papuans all over the country spent so much money, time and energy to celebrate various events in West Papua organised by the PDP, such as the first open Morning Star Flag raising on 1 December 2000 and the climax of all, the Papuan People's Congress II 2000. The actions of the PDP aftermath the Congress verify this well. The main demand was to fight for an independent West Papua and the PDP was given full mandate to make this happen, peacefully and democratically, based on truth and justice.

However, for some Papuans, particularly Papuan elites, PDP is the place for them to show themselves as do-gooders for their people, not fully for West Papua independence, but mostly for their personal gains. For example, Inside Indonesia's latest edition (July - September 2001) pinpoints almost all PDP members have problems in their political careers and they in fact choose PDP as their route to promote their political careers. Some of the PDP members were people who were actively involved in approving Indonesia's invasion into West Papua in 1960s. Some are regarded as using PDP as their expression of frustration after failure to become the firt persons or the Governor of Papua in previous years. How can we Papuans judge these alegations?

Well, we Papuans do not care about foreigners' judgments. We have enough experience as lessons that foreigners are not Papuans and they work and speak more based on their agendas and interests, instead of ours. But at the same time, it is also important to learn what the world thinks of our PDP.

This is one of the reasons why other Papuan elites believe that until some of the PDP members are replaced, there will be no significant progress made towards West Papua independence within or outside Indonesia. Some Indonesians were said pointing their fingers to some PDP members and argued, "Papuans' struggle for independence will go nowhere until you replace some key members of the PDP who are regarded as cronies of the Golkar party or `bought up' by foreign influence or powers. They are most probably correct. We can see from what they do and what they say as follows.

In management, the differing groups with varieties of interests are called pressure groups. Therefore, in applying political models of management, the PDP appears to be waiting to see which pressure group is stronger, then they will go for it. It can do anything possible, but the possibility depends on "which pressure group's agenda is strong enough for the PDP to agree with? Or which one will fulfill their individuals or groups' interests?" Of course the members of PDP have their own interests. And these interests interact with other interests out there.

What are their interests? Most of the PDP members are elite politicians within Indonesian government system. Most of them are those who were kicked out from the system recently due to their incapability or other reasons by Jakarta. Therefore, what they are doing is just to position themselves as leaders of the Papuans by any means, including through the PDP. In other words, Papuans who want independence still have a possibility of influencing them to fight for West Papua independence, but this is not an easy task.

Why should I Defend the PDP?

PDP is the only political organisation that has approval from a democratic Papua People's Congress. Therefore, any other organisations' claim are democratically and legally weak, even though what they have done have been more in support to the real voice of the Papuan peoples. To fight in an open and more democratic world today, Papuans need a political body that has been established through a common democratic procedures and the PDP fulfills all the democratic principles for democratic leadership in today's world's perspectives. Therefore, denying PDP's legitimate power is not the correct path to take for anyone of us in West Papua.

Another powerful weapon is the PDP's non-violent or peaceful approach in the struggle. There is no other weapon in the whole world capable of defeating this approach. Many world leaders expressed their support and satisfaction on the peaceful route chosen by the PDP. It has become one of the best examples of struggle for independence in our world history. With this very weapon, anyone with the PDP flag can gain access to almost all countries and international bodies around the world. It is almost impossible for the world leaders to refuse or deny PDP's way of struggle as it is the way they expect us to choose.

The last one is that the PDP is not a human rights organisation, but a Papuan political rights. In principle,the major problem in West Papua is not about how many people Indonesia has killed, tortured or kidnapped and made them disappear. The core issue is that our political right has been violated by the USA, the UN, the Netherlands and Indonesia. The PDP is the best organisation Papuans ever had to fight against our political rights violation occured in 1960s and still continue even up til today. Foreign support to the occupation of West Papua by Indonesia is a clear example of our political rights violation, and the PDP exists to fight against such a case. Therefore, PDP is the organisation that fulfills the need in West Papua at the moment.

Reasons to be Careful about the PDP

The reason why Papuans should trust the PDP is not due to the leadership and or our trust to any individuals in the PDP. It is rather due to the PDP as a single legitimate and democratic political organisation that Papuans ever had in our history so far. Similarly, the reasons to distrust the PDP is not related to the PDP as a political body for Papuans in West Papua but more to do with individual members of the PDP itself. These individuals, based on their different personal agendas may direct and use PDP to their own ends; -and this is something that all Papuans are watching seriously.

Assessements made here are only from what individual members of the PDP have said or done so far in their capacity as the PDP members.

The PDP leaders once demanded Jakarta to implement the Autonomy Package as soon as possible. Well, this is not the mandate the PDP received at the Papua People's Congress II 2000, is it? So, what is the reason behind this demand? Is it because the autonomy package proposed by Papua Autonomy Team allow Papuan political prisoners to become political leaders in West Papua? Do they really want to become leaders under the Indonesian autonomy package? Or is it because there is a door towards indepenence within the package?

The PDP leaders do not openly and strongly condemn various human rights violations in West Papua. They do not even try to visit the regions in crises to protect the people. They are the people who lid the fire of independence and allowed all Papuans to come to the streets and shout for independence. And when the response comes from Indonesian authorities, they just ignore as if nothing had happened. From this behaviour, one can ask, "What are they up for? Why they put themselves in there and doing nothing on the impacts of their leadership?" We must watch them carefully, to see whether or not they are dedicated fully for their people or for themselves.

They do not tell Papuans or report back to their people the agenda or outcome of various face-to-face meetings and discussions with Indonesian authorities in Jakarta. The only outcome Papuans know about was the permit to hoist the Morning Star Flag in West Papua. Other than this, almost all were conduceted secretly. If this has been the case, what can us Papuans expect to obtain? Should we just trust them and wait and see? Or should we demand them for a kind of reporting procedures to all tribal leaders in West Papua? We should choose which one is best for our independence.

Furthermore, no where in the resolution gives mandate to the PDP to invite or to give permission to foreign investments into West Papua. This was not the agenda of the people, but it was merely the of the so-called Papuan-elites. The outcome has been allegation that the PDP has signed some contracts with foreign investors and invited them to start exploiting West Papua before nothing at all happened to the demand for National or International Dialogue on the status of West Papua within Indonesia. Or if they didn't, they gave `green lights' to invest in West Papua through Indonesian authorities in consultation with the PDP. Dialogue on the political status of West Papua was the major demand, not invitation to foreign investments. Therefore, it should not be surprising if Papuan fighters attack multinationals in West Papua and most probably they will do so until Dialogue Table with Jakarta is opened.

One argument from the PDP can be that the PDP has gone to the UN Summit in New York and that it has got support from Vanuatu and Nauru. But this argument is weak due to the fact that the support came for West Papua even before the PDP started its campaign. In other words, support from Melanesian countries are more to do with solidarity support as Melanesians. Also, the campaigns by other organisations since 1960s should be given the credit for such a support, but perhaps so far not for the PDP.

The most important thing of all is that the PDP has no clear and open agenda of actions. Everything to do with the PDP has been kept secret. Why? To avoid Indonesia's intervention? To allow any possibilities, including autonomy for West Papua as one of the possible alternatives? To disguise the Papuans or to manipulate Indonesians? All can be correct. However, as a formal political organisation, the PDP must have guidelines of plans of actions, on which all PDP members and supporters can based their work. Without such a document, no one can easily claim of whatever they say or do as the plans of the PDP.

PDP as a political organisation of the Papuans in this century has fulfilled the criteria as a democratic body, but it has not yet revealed itself as a modern organisation in terms of its organisational performance. This has caused various misinterpretation and misleading information on the PDP. One of the reasons why we must be careful about the PDP is just because we do not yet know what the PDP is all about in terms of its future plans of actions. Any Papuan independent fighters will find it difficult to claim the PDP as the only organisation to rely on for the independence of West Papua.

Two Roads for the PDP

The first one is that PDP should be consistent in its demand, i.e., independence of West Papua according to the Papua People's Congress II 2000 mandates, regardless of who is in power in Indonesia. PDP as the single and legitimate political organisation of the Papuans should not get away from its mandate, to free West Papua from colonialism. And full stop. The PDP should back up what Mr. Jaap Sallosa had said once Megawati was elected that Mega must fulfill her father's promises. Thom Beanal once did so by asking her to fulfill the promise.

One might ask, "What is the promise?" Two versions of the promise available right now. The first one is based on the version of those who approve autonomy in West Papua. They say that the promise was for a better life or welfare for the Papuans. Therefore, it is right to approve and promote autonomy package in West Papua through Mega. The second version held by those who want independence is that Sukarno did make promises to a number of Papuan leaders at that time. He promised them that once the Dutch are out, he will give West Papua a chance to be independent. That was why some Papuan nationalists allowed Indonesian invasion to West Papua; not by openly supporting it, but by doing nothing significant against the invasion. But also remember that Sukarno was jailed in Digul Prison, Maroke, West Papua and spent some years in West Papua. But how did he escape from the Dutch prison there? A version of this story confirms that he in fact asked for assistance from Papua tribal leaders to get him out misteriously, and he did. He was given a stick, that he was carrying around the world, as his power to rule Indonesia. In reward, he promised to give West Papua after 25 years of developing the territory. So, which version is correct? Both sides will claim their version to be correct, but there is a need to investigate further to reveal the truth. The question now is which version of the story that the PDP stands for?

Besides, it is important to mention that one of Papuan youths, Josef Rumaseb has predicted in his article that some PDP members will be killed, imprisoned and some will be free and will get important positions within the Indonesian government offices. In other words, if Megawati does stand on her triangular-politics (army - Golkar/Suharto - foreign aids), then Rumaseb's prediction is about to become a reality for West Papuans'independence fighters. If this is the case, then the classic Machiavelli's `devide et impera' will be in operation in West Papua, and Papuans, especially PDP members will be fighting each other. This can mean the end of the PDP history and PDP will enter into a different chapter in its life. This can also mean the second failure of all Papuans to achieve their independence after the failure in 1969 Act of Free Choice.

It depends on the dedication of the PDP members, whether they want to put West Papua first or they will appear as cronies of Suharto in helping Wahid out of the presidential office. Or perhaps they want to play games with Indonesia by accepting autonomy by expecting that they can fight for independence after West Papua has more autonomy. If this becomes the choice, most probably Papuans will withdraw their support to the PDP and give away their mandate to other organisation(s) or they will demand for a reshuffle the PDP members.

Another suggestion from Rumaseb is that the PDP should wait the cooling down period for the first semester of Ms Megawati's leadership to see further her policies and approaches in dealing with aspirations for independence such as in Acheh, Molucas, Borneo and West Papua.

If this is the way forward for PDP, then equally the voice of the Papuans becomes number two in PDP's policies. This is on the contrary to the first path, priotising Papuans' voice for independence rather than depending on Indonesia's new President's policies. Even though this path will not cause direct withdrawal of support from Papuans to the PDP, it will raise some worries and or misinterpretations on the PDP's roles in the struggle for West Papua independence. The Papuans' enemies will find it a good chance to kill the PDP, which also means the second failure in the Papuans' struggle for independence after the 1969 failure in the so-called Act of Free Choice.

The future of West Papua depends on the PDP, but it depends more on the Papuan people. It is the people that the world should listen to. It is the people that determine the future of West Papua. And PDP is there to channel the voice of Papuan people. But if it fails, something will happen to replace the PDP. This is all about democracy in West Papua and the fundamental rights of Papuans in West Papua.