Abbott warns West Papuan activists

TONY Abbott has issued a stern warning to West Papuan activists, declaring he would not allow Australia to become “a platform to grandstand against Indonesia”.

The Prime Minister’s comments come as Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said three West Papuan activists who made a series of political demands at the Australian consulate in Bali left the building voluntarily in a taxi.

Speaking at the APEC summit, Mr Abbott said he wanted to stress “in flashing neon lights” that Australia’s relationship with Indonesia was strong and people seeking to grandstand against the country were “not welcome”.

“We have a very strong relationship with Indonesia and we are not going to give people a platform to grandstand against Indonesia — I want that to be absolutely crystal clear,” he said.

Mr Abbott said Australia respected the territorial integrity of Indonesia, and claimed the situation in West Papua was “getting better, not worse”.

Ms Bishop dismissed suggestions by the Greens that Australian officials threatened to hand three West Papuans over to the police. “I understand that the three men left voluntarily, that there were no threats made at any time,” she told The Australian.

She said the three men delivered a letter to the Australian consulate, spoke with the consul-general, and then telephoned a friend to collect them. She said when the friend could not be reached, they phoned for a taxi.

“I am advised that the consul-general did not make any threats at any time,” Ms Bishop said.

Source: The Australian

Breakthrough imminent in Indonesia: O’Neill’s plan to defuse standoff over West Papua

By Rowan Callick === A breakthrough may be on the way for one of the most intractable conflicts in the Asia-Pacific region. Relations between Indonesia and the Melanesian nations, led by Papua New Guinea, have remained awkward ever since the Dutch withdrew from “Netherlands New Guinea,” and the Pacific islands became independent states.

The plight of “West Papua” as it is often called, has prevented Indonesia, the biggest and closest country in South-East Asia, from building the links that might otherwise have been expected, with the island countries to its east—even since it became a liberal democracy 15 years ago.

But, the PNG government, led by Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, has recently launched an initiative aimed at defusing the stand-off over West Papua, building the economy of the centre of New Guinea island, and gaining diplomatic spin-offs.

The western half of New Guinea island comprises two Indonesian provinces: Papua, whose capital is Jayapura, and West Papua, whose capital is Manokwari. It has a 750-km mostly mountainous and often in the past fraught and dangerous border with PNG.

In 2001, the area now covered by the two provinces was declared autonomous with 80 percent of its tax receipts to be retained for local use. But this process has remained only partially complete compared with the more successful governance situation in Aceh, at the other end of the Indonesian archipelago.

O’Neill, who led a delegation to Jakarta for talks with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said: “West Papua has been a sticky issue for PNG and the western Pacific for quite some time. Our role is to open up discussions.

Genuine desire
“We feel the government of Indonesia has a genuine desire to ensure issues relating to West Papua are managed in a mutually beneficial manner. For the first time in our bilateral discussions, we were able to discuss this openly with the Indonesian government,” said PM O’Neill.

He said he is convinced that Yudhoyono now wishes to withdraw military presence from West Papua, and allow for more autonomy through economic empowerment of the people.

“We feel this is a good opening for us to engage with the Indonesian government so we can participate in the improvement of the lives of Melanesian people there and of our own people along the border. Our officials are now engaged meaningfully in establishing the cooperation we agreed,” he said.

PNG’s Foreign Minister Rimbink Pato elaborated on the deal that was informally struck: “The Indonesian president will adopt a softer approach to West Papuan issues, allowing them greater autonomy.”

As an indicator of this, official representatives will participate in the Melanesian Festival of Arts and Culture to be hosted by PNG next year.

He said Indonesia would allow Papua New Guinea communities near the border to draw on its excess hydro power capacity with state-owned enterprise PNG Power buying electricity for its grid from Indonesia, and that the two countries would jointly explore for oil and gas in highly prospective targets that straddle the border.

Indonesia, Pato said, would fund an ambitious paved highway from Merauke on its side of the border in the south, to PNG’s Wewak on the northern coast.

The countries’ leaders signed a total of 11 MOUs during O’Neill’s visit, after which Pato and his Indonesian counterpart Marty Natalegawa began to chart an implementation course.

Extradition treaty
They agreed on an extradition treaty—which may ensure that Indonesian businessman fugitive Joko Chandra—wanted for corruption and who obtained PNG citizenship under a process that is being challenged legally—returns to face charges.

Another agreement under final negotiation, will permit planes to fly from Nadi, Fiji, through Honiara in Solomon Islands, then Port Moresby, and on to Bali.

One goal of the warming of relations, Pato said, was to prevent any resurgence of asylum-seekers from the Indonesian side of the border. About 8,000 refugees remain in PNG, living in camps in Western province run by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees following earlier conflicts, many of them seeking refuge more than 25 years ago.

The discussions between PNG and Indonesia have led to the latter inviting the foreign ministers of the four Melanesian states — Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji, as well as PNG, who form the “Melanesian Spearhead Group” (MSG) — to visit its Papua and West Papua provinces.

O’Neill flew for talks with Yudhoyono instead of attending an MSG leaders’ meeting held at the same time in New Caledonia.

While PNG is helping to usher its fellow Melanesians in towards better relations with Indonesia, Indonesia in return is backing Port Moresby’s membership of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

ASEAN has 10 members at present — and PNG feels it is entitled to join it because it has such a long land border with the group’s largest state.

Indonesia is also backing PNG’s bid to host the 2018 summit of the APEC forum — which would bring the American and Russian presidents, among other leaders, to Port Moresby — which will be decided at the next summit in Bali in October.

“It’s important for us to have such a relationship with Indonesia,” said Pato — who points out that in previous years, tensions not only unresolved but not even fully discussed about West Papua had prevented the full development of positive, mutually beneficial arrangements between the countries.

Now a joint committee of ministers from the countries has been formed to tackle the details and ensure the MOUs are implemented, he said — starting with the joint economic projects.

Source: Islands Business

Abbott’s task with Indonesia not as easy as it looks

Analysis by: Michael Bachelard === Tony Abbott has backed away from his pledge to visit Indonesia in his first week in office but the promise stands to make it his first overseas destination as prime minister.

The meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum will be held in Nusa Dua, Bali, early next month, so if he also travels to Jakarta before that, he’ll be going twice to the country in his first month in office. His visit, or visits, will be watched closely.

But without Abbott having lifted a finger, economic circumstances have done him one big favour. In response to a current account scare and the plunge of the rupiah, Indonesia’s new finance manager has removed the quota on beef imports in the name of economic stimulus.

The short-lived Australian ban on live exports in 2011, followed by the nationalistic assertion in Indonesia that it could be self-sufficient in beef by 2014, conspired both to damage the Northern Territory cattle industry and send Indonesian beef prices soaring. Abbott used it ruthlessly to hurt Labor.

Indonesia’s quiet abandonment of that policy during Australia’s election campaign has cleared one issue off the bilateral table but Abbott cannot expect the rest of his demands of Indonesia to be settled so easily.

On asylum seekers particularly, he has raised hackles. His boat-buying policy has been labelled “crazy”, with senior MP Mahfudz Siddiq saying this week that it was clear Abbott “doesn’t understand diplomacy or bilateral co-operation”.

His “turn back the boats” policy is also deeply unpopular right up to the presidential office.

This is a question of sovereignty and national pride on both sides of the ocean.

When Australia’s navy turns the first boat around under Operation Sovereign Borders – and it becomes the responsibility of Indonesia’s anaemic search and rescue capability – or limps back to an already bursting immigration detention system, expect Indonesian civil society and politics to object loudly about Australian chauvinism.

At Abbott’s back, though, are the expectations he himself has raised.

Former Liberal foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer, for example, has argued that Australia should earn respect in Jakarta by muscling up.

“If John Howard had rung me and asked if he should sign a joint communique with Indonesia saying we would never act unilaterally to protect our borders, I would have told him it would be a sell-out of our national interest,” Downer wrote in July. “It would be weak and fawning. You don’t win respect signing documents like that. But that’s hypothetical. Howard, a patriot if ever there were one, wouldn’t have countenanced signing such a document.”

Abbott is known in Indonesia as Howard’s political offspring. That is not an unalloyed positive. Castigated first as George Bush’s “deputy sheriff,” Howard did develop a good relationship with Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono personally, and Indonesia generally, after the first Bali bombing in 2002, sealing it with a billion-dollar donation after the Aceh disaster in 2004. But he is still widely blamed for “masterminding” the separation of East Timor.

Meanwhile, Abbott will turn up in Indonesia promising, for the sake of domestic politics, a huge cut to foreign aid – $4.5 billion out over the next four years. The fact that this is likely to hit Indonesia hardest – it is our biggest aid recipient – has already been noted in Jakarta. A Jakarta Post opinion story on Monday said of aid: “The future looks bleak.”

A wild card in the diplomatic mix is one tiny boat with six people aboard. The Pog, the last vessel of the so-called Freedom Flotilla, set off on Monday morning from far north Queensland en route to West Papua. The Pog carries Amos Wanggai, one of the indigenous Papuan men who deeply disturbed relations between Howard and Indonesia in 2006 by sailing in the opposite direction and successfully seeking asylum in Australia.

West Papua is the poison apple in the bilateral relationship. After that refugee incident, Howard tried to find an antidote with the Lombok treaty of 2006, which guarantees Australian support for Indonesian control over Papua.

However, many Indonesians simply do not believe the words, and think Australia still agitates for the province’s independence, just as it did East Timor’s.

The landing of the Pog, its interception by the Indonesian military, and the possible imprisonment of its sailors may pose an early challenge for Abbott and his likely foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop.

Indonesia’s economy is growing fast. Its military is gearing up. It is flexing its diplomatic muscles as the largest economy in the Association of South East Asian Nations. It is becoming more assertive about its place in the world.

It is also at the end of an electoral cycle. SBY’s term ends next year and he already looks like yesterday’s man. His replacement may not be as sympathetic or measured towards Australia’s needs, and the relationship remains full of potential misunderstandings on both sides.

As prime minister, Abbott cannot any longer pretend that his boats policy is unpopular in Indonesia because Labor spoilt the relationship. He must take responsibility for his own policies and set his own tone with a changing, increasingly confident Indonesia, while projecting an image that allows him to work with whoever replaces SBY.

It’s not an easy task, and it begins soon.

=> Michael Bachelard is Indonesia correspondent for Fairfax Media

Source: The Age

West Papua province builds network with Balinese tourism

West Papua is hoping to develop its tourism and to reach out to foreign tourism markets by building networks with the Balinese industry.

The West Papua tourism agency hosted on Monday an event in Sanur entitled Promoting the West Papua Tourism Potentials, to which it invited tour and travel agencies, as well as other Balinese tourism stakeholders.

“We came here to learn by building a network with this island‘s tourism businesspeople. We hope that Bali is willing to help promote our tourism,” said West Papua tourism agency head Edi Sumarwanto, while praising Bali as an international tourism destination.

Edi said that West Papua had major potential as an eco-tourism destination, because 70 percent of its region was still undeveloped, with around 60 percent of its territory part of a conservation area.

Edi also said that the West Papua region was rich with exotic culture and land and underwater biodiversity.

“We have around 43 species of birds of paradise, not to mention other types of birds, fish and sea vegetation,” said Edi.

Edi acknowledged that West Papua still lacked sufficient accommodation facilities.

In the region’s most developed regency, Raja Ampat, currently, there are seven resorts, 11 hostels and 36 homestays, while Manokwari, the West Papuan capital city, has 34 hotels, four of which are star-rated hotels.

Access to tourist destinations and limited infrastructure have been the major problem due to the long distance between one site and another, while its airport does not have proper lighting, thus only allowing daytime flights.

“We have requested the central government improve access to West Papua, including renovating the airport and providing direct flights from Bali,” said Edi,.

He stated that the national carrier, Garuda Indonesia, had not opened a route to Sorong, while other airlines had. Direct flights from Jakarta to Sorong are available, but from Bali, passengers have to transit in Makassar.

Inter-regency access relies on water transportation, such as ferry and speedboat.

Head of Raja Ampat tourism and cultural agency, Yusdi Lamatenggo, said that Raja Ampat, with its groups of islets and the stunning beauty found under its sea, is among the 10 national tourism strategic areas set by the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry.

It has been proposed for listing among the seven wonders of the world.

The Association of Indonesian Tour and Travel Agencies (ASITA)’s head of destination and promotional affairs, Edi Sanyoto, acknowledged that West Papua was one of Indonesia’s great tourism attractions that was still to be properly developed.

He said he was ready to make a visit to West Papua to see for himself the destinations, besides Raja Ampat, that were worth promoting to foreign visitors.

Source: The Jakarta Post

US and Indonesian navy warships conduct joint exercise

The US navy warship USS Benfold conducted an exercise with two Indonesian navy warships in Bali waters.

The exercise covered tactical manoeuvers, communication, and other safety procedures.

The two Indonesian navy warships that involved in the exercise were KRI Hasan Basri and KRI Uling.

The Indonesian navy hopes that the exercise would improve the capabilities of the Indonesian Navy personnel.

Meanwhile, USS Benfold commander Adrian Jansen said his ship`s presence in the region was part of his tour of Southeast Asia.

After that, Jansen said, he would return to the US to conduct other operations.

The 54-metre-long USS Benfold weighs around 8,900 tonnes and can carry 280 navy personnel.

Source: ANTARA News

Papua arts need gentle touch

The abundance of Papua traditional art potential needs serious attention and a gentle touch of professional and skilled hands, Governor Barnabas Suebu said here on Monday.

Suebu said the skilled and professional people with distant future vision were encouraged to explore, to develop, and to save the plenteous Papua traditions and cultural arts from extinction.

“Not only that, the Papuan traditional arts really have precious market value, in addition to supporting the future tourism sector in the province without without omitting their specific characteristics,” the governor said.

Suebu said from both written and electronic media he saw that various traditional arts from different ethnic communities such as in Java and Bali were developing enough in comparison from those of Papua.

But he was of the opinion that the progress of traditional arts from other provinces was because they were part of education at elementary schools until universities.

For example, the Papua governor pointed out that in Java and Bali there are Higher Education of the Arts in Surakarta (STSI Surakarta), and Bali Arts Institute.

“In Papua we are actually rich in our traditional arts but unfortunately we lack human resources to develop them, in spite of the fact that Asmat traditional sculptures have crossed the mountains and oceans to hit international markets,” Governor Suebu said.

“Therefore it should be our common consideration and awareness as Papuan ethnic community to save our own cultural heritage,” Suebu added.

Last Friday, the governor installed the new administrators and supervisors of Bina Seni Budaya Papua foundation, namely Septer Manufandu as chairman, and Dominggus Rumadas, Habelino Sawaki, and James Mayor as members.

Governor Suebu then called on them to understand and to implement their respective tasks well, and make a good cooperation among them in a bid to save the local culture and traditional arts from extinction.

Source: Antara