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The Melanesian Spearhead Group has thrown away a golden likelihood for attaining a historic step in direction of justice and peace in West Papua by missing the braveness to just accept the principle Papuan self-determination advocacy motion as full members.
Membership had been broadly anticipated throughout the Pacific area and the MSG’s silence and failure to clarify West Papua’s destiny on the finish of the two-day leaders’ summit final week was a tragic anticlimax.
Many see this as a horrible betrayal of West Papuan aspirations and an undermining of Melanesian credibility and solidarity in addition to an ongoing menace to the area’s safety and human rights.
It is usually seen as successful for Indonesia’s chequebook and cultural diplomacy within the area that has intensified in recent times and months with a notion that Jakarta has bribed its strategy to stop the United Liberation Entrance for West Papua (ULMWP) from upgrading its standing from observer to its rightful full membership.
Questions are sometimes requested about why is Indonesia even within the MSG, albeit solely as an affiliate member, when this organisation was based with a imaginative and prescient expressed in Goroka, Papua New Guinea, in 1986 for Melanesian independence, solidarity and improvement.
Its personal web site declares that the MSG stands for “a powerful and shared political want, for your complete decolonisation and freedom of Melanesian nations and territories which [are] nonetheless underneath colonial rule within the South Pacific, thereby growing a stronger cultural, political, social and financial identification and hyperlink between the individuals and communities of Melanesia.”
Why have a Malicious program of their midst? A former Vanuatu prime minister, Joe Natuman, questioned the path of the MSG again in 2016 when he claimed the West Papuans had been “bought out” and likened the failure of the organisation to grant ULMWP membership to when Jesus Christ was betrayed and bought for 30 items of silver.
Pushed by ‘personal agendas’He complained on the time that “some individuals” had been attempting to drive the MSG for their very own agendas with implied criticism of Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.
Earlier this 12 months, Natuman was much more specific when he admitted that the MSG had made a mistake by permitting Indonesia to hitch the Melanesian physique in 2015.
“We Melanesians have an ethical obligation to assist West Papua’s wrestle consistent with our forefathers’ name, together with our founding prime minister, Father Walter Lini, Chief Bongmatur, and others,” he stated.
“Vanuatu has reduce its canoe over 40 years in the past and efficiently sailed into the Ocean of Independence and in the identical spirit, we should assist our brothers and sisters within the United Liberation Motion of West Papua (ULMWP), to chop their canoe, elevate the sail and in addition assist them sail into the identical future for the Promised Land.”
This week’s failure of the Melanesian management to face by the ULMWP is a travesty.
Proper. Lastly have the MSG Leaders Summit communique. Melanesian leaders reject ULMWP’s bid for full membership. No consensus. Benny Wenda and co can be bitterly upset by this, whereas Indonesia can be very happy 1/ pic.twitter.com/7keV9WGFDR
— Stephen Dziedzic (@stephendziedzic) August 25, 2023
The justification as outlined within the last communique – there was a silence on West Papua when the summit ended and a promised media convention by no means eventuated – is barely credible.
The communique claimed that there was no consensus, the ULMWP “doesn’t meet the prevailing” standards for membership underneath the MSG settlement, and it additionally imposed a one-year membership moratorium, apparently closing the door on West Papuan future hopes.
Surprising surrenderThis is a surprising give up on condition that one of many present and founding members isn’t an unbiased state, however a political motion – the Kanak and Socialist Nationwide Liberation Entrance (FLNKS) of Kanaky New Caledonia. Already a constructive precedent for ULMWP.
The FLNKS has lengthy been a powerful supporter of West Papuan self-determination and was represented at this week’s summit by former entrance president Victor Tutugoro.
The opposite members are the host nation Vanuatu (represented by Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau, now chief of a minority authorities after the Supreme Court docket ruling on Friday), Fiji (Sitiveni Rabuka, who made a public assertion earlier within the 12 months backing West Papuan chief Benny Wenda and the ULMWP), Papua New Guinea (Prime Minister James Marape), and Solomon Islands (Manasseh Sogavare).
The tone was set on the MSG when the Indonesian delegation (the biggest on the summit) walked out in protest when ULMWP interim president Benny Wenda addressed the plenary. An insult to the “Melanesian method”.
Indonesian delegation walks out of MSG leaders summit earlier than West Papuan chief Benny Wenda’s speech. pic.twitter.com/qW0YMxnrVk
— Ben Bohane (@ben_bohane) August 23, 2023
Solely a day earlier, Wenda had expressed his confidence that the MSG would admit ULMWP as full members. This adopted per week of large demonstrations in West Papua in assist of MSG membership.
Stressing West Papua’s vulnerability and fixed historical past of human rights violations by the hands of Indonesian safety forces, Wenda stated: “That is the second your complete world, all Melanesians, are watching. It’s a check for the leaders to see if they’ll get up for West Papua within the eyes of the world.”
Had he been lied to by MSG officers? What went mistaken?
‘Irritating day’“It was a irritating day since there was no press convention regardless of repeated guarantees and thus far no official assertion/communique,” main Vanuatu-based photojournalist Ben Bohane stated of the summit wrap. “Leaders took off and media really feel like we had been lied to.”
Throughout the Pacific, many have reacted with shock and disbelief.
“I’m completely upset within the failure of the MSG leaders to grab the chance to redefine the way forward for West Papua and our area,” PNG’s Nationwide Capital District Governor Powes Parkop, lengthy a staunch advocate for the West Papuans,” advised Asia Pacific Report.
“Worry of Indonesia and proactive lobbying by Indonesia once more has been allowed to dominate Melanesia to the detriment of our individuals of West Papua.”
Parkop stated it was “apparent” that the MSG leaders had been “not guided by any sound complete coverage” on West Papua.
“The MSG Secretariat has didn’t do a correct historic and social political evaluation that may information the MSG management,” he stated.
Parkop stated this coverage of appeasing Indonesia had not labored within the “final 50 to 60 years”.
‘Affront to Melanesian management’“So banking on it once more is not going to solely condemn our individuals of West Papua to extra hardship and struggling underneath the brutal Indonesian rule however is an affront to the management of Melanesia.
“I’ll proceed to advocate in opposition to Indonesian rule and the established order until we see actual tangible adjustments within the rights and freedom of the West Papuan individuals.
“Melanesia, as late Father Walter Lini eloquently acknowledged in his prime, isn’t free whereas West Papua isn’t free.”
Dan McGarry, investigations editor of the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Challenge, stated: “Many individuals in Melanesia will see this as a betrayal. Public sentiment all through the subregion runs strongly pro-independence for West Papua.
“That stated, the chances of consensus on this had been vanishingly small. Indonesian and French lobbying within the lead up additional decreased these odds.”
Lewis Prai, a self-styled West Papuan diplomat and advocate, additionally condemned the MSG rejection, blaming it on “throwing away ethical values for the sake of Indonesia’s soiled cash”.
“We all know that we’re victims of Indonesian oppression and [of] the unwillingness of Melanesians to do the proper factor and get up for freedom, justice and morality.
“And it is rather unlucky that this Melanesian organisation has been morally corrupted by one of many greatest human rights violators in Asia — and one of many worst on this planet — Indonesia.
“Thanks to the West Papua supporters in Vanuatu and the encircling area. We are going to proceed to talk. No amount of cash will be capable to silence our voices.”
Dr David Robie, editor and writer of Asia Pacific Report, has written on West Papuan affairs for the reason that 1983 Nuclear Free and Impartial Pacific (NFIP) convention in Port Vila and is writer of Blood on their Banner: Nationalist Struggles of the South Pacific.
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