The world needs to pay attention to the longest-running and most violent political conflict in the South Pacific Opinion | Sophie Chao
While racism towards West Papuans is endemic across Indonesia, the roots of the protests lie in the region’s long-standing and violent history of political colonisation, ethnic domination, and cultural assimilation under Indonesian rule.
Instead of a one-man-one-vote, this “Act of Free Choice” – or what many Papuans call the “Act of No Choice” – saw some 1,022 Papuan men handpicked and coerced into voting under military pressure, resulting in what many Papuans see as the forceful incorporation of West Papua into the Republic of Indonesia.
A low-level guerrilla resistance movement against Indonesia continues across West Papua, concentrated predominantly in the highland areas and supported by Papuan activists in exile such as, chair of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua and founder of the Free West Papua Campaign. Community impoverishment and ecological degradation remain rife in areas where top-down extractive and other corporate activities are underway. Despite its rich natural resources and high regional GDP, West Papua remains the poorest region of Indonesia, with the highest mortality rates in children, the lowest literacy rates, and the second-highest HIV/AIDS rates in the country.
Singapore Latest News, Singapore Headlines
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