As 300 West Papuan traditional artists put the issue to rest about who they were as a Melanesian people, a full regalia of Melanesian art at the Melanesian Festival of Arts held in Port Moresby produced corresponding ripple effect which infected and affected the pulse of PNG and Melanesia in other subtle ways. The fire burned, and there was smoke. West Sepik police have requested more information from a Vanimo West Coast villager who hoisted the Morning Star flag at Yako Village for a period of two weeks from 22 June to 11 July 2014. The flag was already flying for most of that time to coincide with the Melanesian Festival of Arts held in Port Moresby, and Police in West Sepik Province through its hierarchy responded to what was perhaps a national security concern, and to enforce the country’s laws where necessary. However, this writer chooses not to be short – changed by the authorities and saw nothing wrong with hoisting the Morning Star flag. The following is the narrative of what would be non – issue on PNG soil.
On Thursday 10 July 2014, police detectives requested information over the hoisting of the flag based on occasion triggered by the Indonesian Consul based in Vanimo, but the flag was already flying for the entire duration of the Melanesian Festival of Arts, and only one day remained. The Indonesian Consul was uncomfortable with the display of one of the primary symbols of hope of West Papua’s dream to be free one day, and uneducated about PNG’s model of Western Democracy in which any citizen’s right to express freely within the country’s laws is guaranteed by the PNG Constitution. A few observations are necessary to enable us in Melanesia to assist Indonesia to see the way forward.
Thus, despite the diplomatic maneuvering by the Indonesian Consulate in Vanimo the standard to go by for all organs of state in PNG, including the Sandaun Provincial Administration, is to promote PNG’s national interest, and not blunder and be seen to appease the Indonesian Consulate. The Indonesian Consul in Vanimo must be educated to accept the democratic principles that form the basis of our type of government, much like those in established Western democracies of the US, Britain, Australia, France, and Germany. UN Declaration of Human Rights Article 19 which allowed the hoisting of the Morning Star flag without frontiers, anywhere in the world.
Human rights monitors and human rights advocacy in the world, and in Papua New Guinea, have been influenced by the United Nations itself and what it stands for. Secretary-General Kofi A. Annan led the charge to get things done properly. At the Time Warner Center (USA), on 08 December 2006, he urged end to impunity, and set forth ideas to bolster UN efforts to protect human rights. He counted on the work of courageous human rights leaders from around the world. At the time, Secretary – General, Kofi Annan reaffirmed the role of the United Nations. He took offence that the United Nations was failing in its special stake, and a special responsibility, in promoting respect for human rights worldwide but often failed to live up to that responsibility. Kofi Annan was worried that today many governments say they protect human rights but are themselves gross violators of human rights and could never function as effective human rights defenders. Thus, the Secretary-General talked of making human rights central to all the UN's work and to make it the UN’s “third pillar”, on a par with development and peace and security.
In a hypothetical scenario in which a decision to hoist the Morning Star flag, the symbol of West Papuan hope for independence from Indonesia, became an issue, the logic is simple to navigate through a fallacy knowing the UN’s expectations of its member countries including Indonesia to do more than the little being put in to bolster the UN efforts to protect human rights. Firstly, to hoist the flag was to give real meaning to the principle of “Responsibility to Protect”. In 2005, at the World Summit, the UN formally endorsed the momentous doctrine – which means, in essence, that respect for national sovereignty can no longer be used as an excuse for inaction in the face of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. For example, what was happening in Darfur up until 2005, was a sign that the UN’s performance has not improved much since the disasters of Bosnia and Rwanda. Sixty years after the liberation of the Nazi death camps, and 30 years after the Cambodian killing fields, the promise of “never again” was ringing hollow.
The tragedy of Darfur had raged for over three years up until 2005, and still reports poured in of villages being destroyed by the hundred, and of the brutal treatment of civilians spreading into neighbouring countries. How can an international community which claims to uphold human rights allow this horror to continue? Indonesia is doing the same thing in West Papua today.
Secondly, to hoist the flag was to put an end to impunity. The UN made progress in holding people accountable for the world's worst crimes with the establishment of the International Criminal Court, the work of the UN tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the hybrid ones in Sierra Leone and Cambodia, and the various Commissions of Experts and Inquiry, have proclaimed the will of the international community that such crimes must not go unpunished. Indonesia must also account for the genocide and ‘slow – motion’ genocide taking place in West Papua that is well documented, and the United States Congress has followed the situation closely.
Thirdly, to hoist the flag was to make the point that the rogue – statism in Indonesia is undemocratic, not keeping with the accepted principles of Western Democracy, and there is a need for an anti-terrorism strategy that does not merely pay lip-service to the defence of human rights, but is built on it. At the UN Summit in 2005 all states agreed that “terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, committed by whomever, wherever and for whatever purposes” is “one of the most serious threats to international peace and security”. This is about looking at terrorism in itself as an assault on the most basic human rights, starting with the right to life.
Finally, to hoist the flag was to admit how human rights defenders could lift their game and not be content with grand statements of principle. It must be an assignment to make human rights a reality in each country. After 60 years of its illegal occupation of West Papua, Indonesia still continues to kill Papuans instead of allowing them to self – determine, a process began by the Dutch colonial masters in 1961. West Papua struggled for 60 years now to be independent and separate from Indonesia’s illegal occupation, an alienable right for all human beings.
Going by Secretary – General Koffi Annan’s commitment to human rights as a third pillar to be embraced by the UN, West Papuan aspirations for freedom and independence are in order, and cannot be viewed as a national security threat, and therefore request a host country to enforce the country’s laws to suppress such a human right, certainly not on PNG’s shores. Thus, PNG laws were not breached and legal advice suggests that the PNG Constitution which provides for freedom of expression and as such the hoisting of West Papua’s symbol of aspirations for independence and freedom cannot be considered a criminal offence. Furthermore, the hoisting of West Papua’s symbol of aspirations for independence and freedom cannot be considered a summary offence.
It would be normal to reaffirm and espouse what the UN considered was the correct approach to protecting and promoting human rights which is first and foremost a national responsibility. Every member state of the UN can draw on its own history to develop its own ways of upholding universal rights. But many states need help in doing this, and the UN system has a vital role to play. Indonesia has a long way to go yet. The UN Declaration of Human Rights Article 19 states that freedom of expression can be exercised without frontiers.
In the final analysis, it means the Morning Star flag can be hoisted or displayed at Yako Village or elsewhere in the country and the world as an expression of support for the struggle by West Papua to be free from Indonesian control, and to self – determine a political status separate from Indonesia. An independent West Papua, like PNG, would ensure the United Nations has a special stake, and a special responsibility, in promoting respect for human rights worldwide and importantly concentrate on how to live up to that responsibility at the right time by exercising such human rights guaranteed by the West Papua Constitution and UN Ratifications on Human Rights, Development, Peace and Security. In the Indonesia/PNG talks to build an Indonesian Consulate in Vanimo, the recommendation was to do so quickly so as ‘to force’ a stable relationship between the two nations. This would be a view on progress that was materialistic and not keeping with the spiritual truth and reality, that the very people who live across the border in West Papua are our people – we are a Melanesian race and are brothers and sisters on this one island land mass. We are not dealing with Indonesians, a simple fact. The Morning Star flag is a simple fact too. It tells the truth about West Papua and therefore an assignment for us all in Melanesia.
