JOURNALISM UNDER DURESS

Dr DAVID ROBIE is editor of Pacific Journalism Review1 Indonesian repression and betrayal in West

Papua Blood: A Photographer’s Eye- witness Account of West Papua Over 30 Years, by Peter Bang. Copenhagen, Denmark: Remote Frontlines, 2018. 248 pages. ISBN 978-87-430-0101-0 See No Evil: New Zealand’s Betrayal of the People of West Papua, by Maire Leadbeater. Dunedin, NZ: Otago University Press, 2018. 310 pages. ISBN 978-1-98-853121-2 researched historical account of New Zealand’s originally supportive stance WO damning and contrasting for the independence aspirations of Tbooks about Indonesian coloni- the Papuan people while still a Dutch alism in the Pacific, both by activist colony and then its unprincipled slide participants in Europe and New Zea- into betrayal amid Cold War realpolitik. land, have recently been published. Peter Bang’s book features 188 of Overall, they are excellent exposés of his evocative images, providing colourful the harsh repression of the Melanesian insights into changing lifestyles in West people of West Papua and a world that Papua, ranging from pristine rainforest, has largely turned a blind eye to to hu- waterfalls, villages and urban cityscapes man rights violations. to dramatic scenes of resistance to op- In Papua Blood, Danish photog- pression and the defiant displays of the rapher Peter Bang provides a deeply Morning Star flag of independence. personal account of his three decades Some of the most poignant im- of experience in West Papua that is a ages are photographs of the use of testament to the resilience and patience the traditional koteka (penis gourds) of the people in the face of ‘slow geno- and traditional attire, which are under cide’ with an estimated 500,000 Papu- threat in some parts of West Papua, and ans dying over the past half century. customary life in remote parts of the With See No Evil, Maire Lead- Highlands and the tree houses of the beater, peace movement advocate coastal marshlands. and spokesperson of West Papua Ac- Besides the photographs, Bang tion Auckland, offers a meticulously also has a narrative about the various

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‘Police [and] soldiers conducted frequent punitive expeditions with reference to violation of “laws” that the indigenous people neither understood nor had heard about, partly because of language barriers and the huge cultural difference,’ writes Bang (p. 11). The list of atrocities has been endless.

There were examples of Papuans who had been captured, and thrown out alive from helicopters, strangled or drowned after being put into plastic bags. Pregnant women killed by bayo- nets. Prisoners forced to dig their own graves before they were killed. (p. 12)

A book that provided an early impetus while Bang was researching for his in- volvement in West Papua was Indone- episodes of his life in West Papua. sia’s Secet War by journalist Robin Os- Never far from his account, are borne, a former press secretary for Papua the reflections of life under Indonesian Prime Minister Sir Julius colonialism, and the extreme racism Chan, the leader who was much later displayed towards the Papuan people ousted from office because of the- San and their culture and traditions. From dline mercenary affair. This book also the beginning in 1963 when influenced me when I first began writing under Sukarno wrested control of West about West Papua in the early 1980s. Papua from the Dutch with United After travelling through Asia, a Nations to the approval six years later young Peter Bang arrived in West Pap- under a sham ‘Act of Free Choice’ ua in 1986 for his first visit, determined against the local people’s wishes, fol- to journey to the remote Yali tribe as a lowed by the so-called ‘Transmigrassi’ photographer and writer interested in programme encouraging thousands of indigenous peoples. He wanted to find Javanese migrants to settle, the Papuans out how the Yali people had integrated have been treated with repression. with the outside world since missionar- ‘Disaster for Papuans’ ies first entered the isolated tribal area Bang describes the massive migration just 25 years earlier. of to West Papua as ‘not When Bang visited the town of only a disaster for the Papuan people, Angguruk for the first time, ‘the only but also a catastrophe for the rainforest, wheels I saw at the mission station were earth and wildlife’ (p. 13). punctured and sat on a wheelbarrow … PACIFIC JOURNALISM REVIEW 24 (2) 2018 241 JOURNALISM UNDER DURESS

It was only seven years ago that human flesh had been eaten in the area’ (p. 16). During this early period of jungle trekking, Bang rarely ‘encountered anything besides kindness—only twice did I experience being threatened with a bow and arrow’ (p. 39). The first time was by a ‘mentally disabled’ man con- fused over Bang’s presence, who was scolded by the village chief.

Political change Ten years later, Bang again visited the Yali people and found the politi- cal climate had changed in the capital Jayapura—‘we saw police and mili- tary everywhere’ following an inci- dent a few months earlier when OPM Bang founded the Danish section (Free Papua Movement) guerrillas of the Free West Papua Campaign and held 11 captives hostage in a cave. launched an activist Facebook page. He struck up a friendship with https://www.facebook.com/FreeWest- Wimmo, a Dani tribesman and son PapuaCampaignDenmark/ of a village witchdoctor and healer in Oner of the book’s amusing and the Baliem Valley, that was to endure inspirational highlights is Bang’s secret for years after he was adopted into ‘freedom paddle’ on the Baliem River Wimmo’s family. when he used a yellow inflatable rubber Years later, Bang met tribal leader boat and a pocket-sized Morning Star flag and freedom fighter Benny Wenda to make his own personal protest against who, with the help of Australian hu- Indonesia (p. 123). This was a courageous man rights activist and lawyer Jennifer statement in itself given the continued ar- Robinson, was granted asylum in the rests of journalists in West Papua by the United Kingdom in 2003: ‘I felt great military authorities in spite of the ‘open’ sympathy for Benny Wenda’s position policy of President Joko Widodo. on the fight for liberation. By many, In a special section, Bang devotes 26 he was compared to Nelson Mandela, pages to the indigenous people of West although he was obviously playing his Papua, profiling some of the terriritory’s own ukelele’ (p. 81) 300 tribes and their cultural and social Wenda and Filip Karma, who at the systems, such as the Highlands commu- time was serving a 15 year sentence for nities of Dani and Yali, and the Asmat, ‘raising the Morning Star flag’, were nom- Korowai and Kombai peoples. inated for the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize.

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Fascinating insight government, sealed the face of the people Peter Bang concludes: ‘Nobody knows of West Papua,’ the author notes in her what the future holds. In 2018, the In- introduction. Prior to this ‘selling out’ donesian regime continues the brutal of a people arrangement, New Zealand crackdown on the native population of had been a vocal supporter of the Dutch West Papua.’ government’s preparations to decolonise This book is a fascinating insight the territory. into West Papuan life under duress, but In fact, the Dutch had done much would have benefitted with tighter edit- more to prepare West Papua for inde- ing by the English-language volunteer pendence than Australia had done at editors. Nevertheless, it is a valuable that stage for neighbouring Papua New book with a strong political message. Guinea, which became independent In contrast to Bang’s authentic in 1975. account of life in West Papua, Maire Leadbeater’s See No Evil book is an Game changer activist’s historical account of New Indonesia’s so-called September 30th Zealand’s shameful record over West Movement in 1965—three years af- Papua, one that is just as disgraceful ter paratroopers had been dropped on as Wellington’s record on Timor-Leste West Papua in a farcical ‘invasion’— during the 24 years of Indonesian il- was the game changer. The attempted legal occupation. New Zealand’s be- coup triggered a massive anti-commu- haviour towards East Timor has at least nist purge in Indonesia leading to an been tempered by a quietly supportive estimated 200,000 to 800,000 killings post-independence role. and eventually the seizure of power Surely there is a lesson here. For by General Suharto from the ageing those New Zealand politicians, officials nationalist President Sukarno in 1967 and conservative journalists who prefer (Adam, 2015). to meekly accept the Indonesian status As Leadbeater notes, the bloodlet- quo, the East Timor precedent is an indi- ting opened the door to Western foreign cator that we should be strongly advocat- investment and ‘rich prizes’ in West ing self-determination for the Papuans. Papua such as the Freeport gold and One of the many strengths of Lead- copper mine, one of the world’s richest. beater’s thoroughly researched book is that she exposes the volte-face and New Zealand politicians and diplomats welcomed Indonesia’s change in direc- hypocrisy of the stance of successive tion. Cold War anti-communist fervour New Zealand governments since Walter trumped sympathy for the victims of Nash and his ‘united New Guinea’ initia- the purge; and New Zealand was keen tive (p. 66). to increase its trade, investment and ‘A stroke of the pen in the shape of ties with the ‘new’ Indonesia. (p. 22) the 1962 New York Agreement, signed by the colonial Dutch and the Indonesian The first 13 chapters of the book, from

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‘the Pleistocene period’ to ‘Suharto who have worked hard to break the goes but thwarted hope for West Pap- mainstream ‘silence’ in spite of the ua’, are a methodical and insightful absence of specialist foreign editors documentation of decolonisation and in the local media, ill-informed main- New Zealand’s changing relationship stream editors and the closure of the are an excellent record and useful tool country’s national news agency NZPA for the advocates of West Papuan in- in 2011 (Robie, 2017). dependence. Leadbeater dismisses in just three However, the last two contempo- sentences the courageous and suc- rary chapters and conclusion do not cessful attempts by at least two New quite measure up to the quality of the Zealand media organisations—Māori rest of the book. Television and Radio New Zealand—to For example, a section of fewer ‘test’ President Widodo’s new policy than two pages on ‘Media access’ gives in 2015 by sending two crews to West short change to the important media Papua. Since then, she admits, Indo- role in the West Papuan independ- nesia’s ‘shutters have mostly stayed ence struggle. While Leadbeater quite shut’ (p. 235). rightly castigates the mainstream New One of the New Zealand journalists Zealand media for a lack of coverage who has written extensively on West for such a serious issue, her explana- Papua and Melanesian issues for many tion for the widespread ignorance about years, RNZ Pacific’s Johnny Blades, is West Papua though is simplistic: barely mentioned (just the RNZ visit to West Papua), Tabloid Jubi editor Victor A major reason (setting aside Radio Mambor, who visited New Zealand in New Zealand’s consistent reporting) is 2014, Paul Bensemann (who travelled to that the issues are seldom covered in West Papua disguised as a bird watcher the mainstream media. It is a circular in 2013), Scoop’s Gordon Campbell, problem: lack of direct access results in a dearth of objective and fully rounded Television New Zealand’s Pacific reporting; editors fear that material correspondent Barbara Dreaver and they do receive may be inaccurate or documentary maker Tere Harrison (who misrepresentative; so a media blackout produced a shirt film,Run It Straight in prevails and editors conflate the result- 2016) are just a few of those who have ing limited public debate with a lack contributed to growing awareness of of interest. (p. 233) Papuan issues in this country who have not been given fair acknowledgement. Mainstream ‘silence’ Even in my own case, a journalist She points out that the mainstream and educator who has written on West media coverage of the ‘pre-internet Papuan affairs for almost four decades 1960s did a better job’. Yet she fails with countless articles and who wrote to explain why, or credit those con- the first New Zealand book with an temporary New Zealand journalists extensive section on the West Papuan

244 PACIFIC JOURNALISM REVIEW 24 (2) 2018 JOURNALISM UNDER DURESS struggle (Robie, 1989), there is a re- markable silence. One has a strong impression that Leadbeater is reluctant to acknowledge her peers and the selective sourcing weakens her work as it relates to the millennial years. The early history of the West Papuan struggle is exemplary, but I look forward to another more nuanced account of the contemporary struggle. Papua Merdeka!

Note 1. Dr David Robie was awarded the 1983 NZ Media Peace Prize for his coverage of Timor-Leste and West Papua in ‘Blood on our hands’.

References Adam, A. W. (2015, October 1). How In- donesia’s 1965-1966 anti-communist purge remade a nation and the world. The Conversation. Retrieved from htt- ps://theconversation.com/how-indone- sias-1965-1966-anti-communist-purge- remade-a-nation-and-the-world-48243 Osborne, R. (1985). Indonesia’s secret war: The guerilla struggle in Irian Jaya. Sydney, NSW: Allen & Unwin. Robie, D. (1989). Blood on their banner: Nationalist struggles in the South Pa- cific. London, UK: Zed Books. Robie, D. (2017). Tanah Papua, Asia-Pacif- ic news blind spots and citizen media: From the ‘Act of Free Choice’ betrayal to a social media revolution. Pacific Journalism Review : Te Koakoa, 23(2), 159-178. https://doi.org/10.24135/pjr. v23i2.334

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