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| Free West Papua |
A
Tale of a Flag
1
Desember 2013 pukul 5:57
This
is a tale about a flag named "Bintang Kejora, or Morning Star.
As
with other flags ever created, it symbolizes identity and conveys particular
messages the creator would like other people that see it to understand.
But
unlike other flags, the Morning Star flag is different. Its creation rendered
the power outside of it to repress the identity and message it wants to convey.
It conversed sovereignty into sufferings, as more and more human bodies, the
West Papuans, have to be ill treated or persecuted of being accused of
committing wrong to the Indonesia state.
What
is right, human rights, then turned out to be very wrong for the power that
rule the territory. Unlike other flags ever raised in other areas in Indonesia,
such as the Yogyakarta Kraton flag, the raising of Morning Star is subversive
to the very fundamental base of Indonesia’s territorial unitary state,
or Negara Kesatuan Republik Indonesia (NKRI).
December
the 1st, each year, marked the conversion of the flag. Fifty two years ago, the
Dutch who colonized the territory called Dutch New Guinea gave the recognition
to the flag to raise together with the Nethelands’ national flag, and marked
the commitment for the Dutch to prepare the transition for independence. The
flag raised high to the sky but only lasted for two years, before Indonesia
state banned it. And so it has never been up again, to tell the world about
peace and sovereignty. Every West Papuan who tried to raise it will bare the
consequences of loosing his lives either in prison or in grave. Or perhaps in
none of those places when both life and body are unknown their whereabouts such
as tens to hundreds of West Papuans that went missing after military tanks and
personnel crushed a gathering of the flag raising led by Filep Karma in Biak,
1998.
It
was a Papuan named Tom Beanal, with ninety-nine other Papuans, who loudly state
that the day when the flag was first raise, 1st of December, is the day of
West Papuan independence. He said it in front of Habibie, Soeharto’s
successor as the President of the Republic of Indonesia. A scholar, Richard Chauvel,
notes that the perception of the flag’s raising on that particular date in the
then new political transition in Indonesia gave a new meaning for a nationalist
identity of the West Papuans, and convey a message for a new hope for
independence (Chauvel, 2005).
In
2001, the then President Abdurrahman Wahid, allowed the flag to rise again that
year. The Papuans were overwhelmed with joy and new hopes, despite of the facts
of their self-proclaimed leader Theys Eluay were jailed by Indonesia’s
authority (which then released and murdered in the same year).
The
next story is again dark and dishearten.The Bintang Kejora has again conversed
from a symbol for sovereignty any human need to continue his/her life, into a
symbol of the oppressed body, the body full of sins of being itself and thus
eligible to be destroyed by the power that rule over it. Every body and soul,
who wish to see this piece of cloth with a picture of morning star perform its
symbol of sovereignty, will add to more stories of grievances. At the same
time, this flag has become more and more strongly wave up in every Papuan’s
heart, as hopes for sovereign souls and nation becomes stronger each day.
At
the flip side of the coin, the flag is more and more threatening for Indonesian
authority. Every years before and during 1st December the central
government overly reacted to their own insecurity by deploying thousands of
military and police personnel to Papua. It’s for the sake of the security of
the Indonesian power, indeed, not for the West Papuans, by showing off power
and brutally suppresses anyone who has the intention to raise the flag. Anyone.
This
year, since the last few weeks before1st of December, already 33 activists
members of Komite Nasional Papua Barat (KNPB or National Committee for West
Papua) has been arrested and local media Tabloid Jubi reported intimidation
against four of its journalists. Amnesty International reported the strong
indication of torture and other formsof ill treatment they have in detention,
and extrajudial killing against some of the activists (Amnesty International,
2013). The last few days when I’m writing this, already several shootings were
reported in some areas in Papua.
No
willingness for any peace dialogue by the Indonesian government has ever expressed.
Instead, the choice is always by force and new promises. But no beautiful
promises from the central government can ever compensate every injured and
destroyed body of the West Papuans who gave their lives to see the flag up in
the sky all these times. Not even a promise of a new special autonomy scheme
called ‘Otsus Plus’, nor the recent decision by Indonesian parliament to
dissolve Papua into another 33 districts and three new provinces. A small
numbers of local elites, unfortunately, would trade these souls with such
promises, abandoning justice and dignity the rest of the West Papuan people
have been struggled and sacrifice all these time.
Justice,
dignity, and sovereignty. These are the message every soul in Papua wish to
convey throughthe.recognition of the Morning Star flag.
FREE
WEST PAPUA
