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LoginAl Jazeera accused of censoring doco about West Papuan struggle
Members of Sampari, a dance group in West Papua, were interrogated by Indonesian security forces for wearing the banned Morning Star flag. Photo: Pride of Warriors
Pacific.Scoop
Opinion – By Jason MacLeod of Truthout
Recently, I watched Pride of Warriors, a documentary about resistance in West Papua. The filmmaker, Jono Van Hest, had asked me to comment on the film’s content as he prepared it for public broadcast on Al Jazeera’s English language channel.
Then, after an article about the film, which quoted Indonesian government sources, appeared in the Jakarta Post, Pride of Warriors was pulled from the broadcaster’s schedule.
Van Hest’s documentary was inspired by the arrival of 43 West Papuan refugees in Australia in January 2006.
Faced with an Indonesian ban on foreign media, van Hest smuggled six video cameras into West Papua.
The territory, which is located on the western rim of the Pacific and shares a land border with independent Papua New Guinea, has been controlled by Indonesia since a sham referendum in 1969.
Since then, West Papuans have been working to enlarge the prospects of freedom.
Two things about the film stand out to me. The first is the filmmaker’s decision to portray unarmed civilian-based opposition to the Indonesian government’s rule in West Papua.
Van Hest highlights four separate stories: of Yani, the daughter of an independence leader, who was kidnapped and tortured because of her father’s political activity; of Matias Bunai, a customary leader from Paniai who is fighting to keep his culture alive; of the rebel leader Tadius Yogi who has put down his guns and now advocates a peaceful solution to the conflict; and of Sampari, a group of young dancers who were interrogated by the Indonesian security forces for performing a dance.
These are stories that the Indonesian government does not want you to hear. These are stories that West Papuans want to be told.
These are stories that Al Jazeera has silenced. And because Al Jazeera has bought the rights to Pride of Warriors, refusal to air the film means Al Jazeera has not only silenced stories of civil resistance, it has acted to kill the film’s distribution.
Matias and the Sampari dancers are struggling for fundamental freedoms: the right to display Papuan symbols like the banned Morning Star flag; the ability to practise their own cultural traditions in peace. These demands could be realised under the framework of an enlightened Indonesian state. Instead they are met with harsh repression from the Indonesian security forces and central government.
Such bullying and intransigence is exactly the type of behaviour that pushes Papuans towards the conviction that freedom will only be realised in an independent state.
The second thing that stands out for me is that the Indonesian government’s alleged response to Pride of Warriors appears to be part of a sophisticated pattern of repression and control to maintain rule in West Papua.
Brian Martin from the University of Wollongong has developed a framework for understanding how powerholders attempt to inhibit outrage to injustice. This framework is useful for describing the Indonesian government’s response to dissent in West Papua.
The government’s strategy has five mutually reinforcing elements: cover-up; devaluation and stigmatisation of Papuan identity and culture; reinterpretation of reality; the use of policy and procedures to give the appearance of justice, and intimidation.
# Firstly, the Indonesian government effectively restricts international media and independent scrutiny of what is happening in its restive Pacific periphery. The recent banning of Red Cross visits to West Papua and the apparent attempt to prevent the broadcast of van Hest’s film are the latest instances in a long sequence of silencing and marginalising critical voices.
# Secondly, the Indonesian government stigmatises Papuan dissent and devalues Papuan identities. Oswald Iten, a Swiss journalist who was jailed in West Papua in 2000 after recording a nonviolent demonstration, observed this dynamic while in prison. Iten witnessed Indonesian police taunting Papuan students and political prisoners in detention: “You eat pig meat which is why you look like pigs.”
# Thirdly, the Indonesian government reinterprets what happens, expressing more concern about a film made by an undercover filmmaker than the root political causes of Papuan grievances.
# Fourthly, formal procedures are used to give a veneer of legitimacy to what Papuans privately say amounts to an occupation. The far-reaching Special Autonomy Law of 2001 was designed to address many of the root causes of Papua’s problems, but has been ineffective because the regulations that enable the law to be implemented have never been passed. This allows the Indonesian government to give the appearance of responding to Papuan concerns and satisfying the international community while doing precisely nothing.
# Finally, the Indonesian government will use threats and intimidation to silence dissent. This is certainly what happens to Papuan political leaders and their families, including Edison Waromi and his daughter Yani, whose story of abduction and assault is featured in van Hest’s film. While Papuans like Filep Karma receive a 15-year jail sentence for organising a nonviolent flag raising, few Indonesian police and soldiers are brought to justice for human rights violations.
Of course, Papuans are not passive or silent in the face of this repression. They expose cover-ups and emphasise the overwhelmingly peaceful nature of the resistance and the courage and humanity of those involved. They reinterpret their experience under occupation as an injustice, mobilise public concern (rather than relying on formal procedures), and resist intimidation and bribery.
Van Hest has recorded the stories of West Papuans and brought them to a wider international audience. That is what the Indonesian government truly fears. By refusing to screen his film, Al Jazeera has come down on the side of hardliners in Indonesia.
Jason MacLeod is based at the Australian Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Queensland, where he lectures in nonviolent political change and researches West Papuan resistance movements.
Source: 6453 Pacific Media Watch
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Congratulations to Pacific Scoop for being the only global news source on Google News to feature the Aljazeera ban on the West Papua doco.
Wow, what an incredibly flawed piece of reporting.
The writer is leveling serious accusations against al Jazeera, a network whose global reputation was built on its fearless reporting. Al Jazeera has a long record of lending voice to popular movements around the world and criticizing governmental abuse.
The writer never gives Al Jazeera an opportunity to comment on the accusations. Its requires just a simple call or e-mail.
Why don’t we get al Jazeera’s side of the story?
didn’t watch pride of warriors but i watch al jazeera..it’s largely pro-islamic..given that indonesia is an islamic country you just add one and one..that guy me thinks gave his tapes to the wrong network..
I am a New Zealander living in Indonesia.
A completely biased and one sided reporting of a very complex issue such as displayed in this article does nothing to help the cause of anyone. There is a good reason why Indonesia bans foreign journalists, they sensationalise a situation for their own ends and never, ever, ask the Indonesians for their side of the story.
Lately on the local news we have seen plenty of Papuans shooting at workers in the Freeport mine, most of whom are Papuans. So it is not true that there is only peaceful protest to Indonesian sovereignty over Papua. I know a number of Papuans and they are fine with being part of Indonesia, none of them want to live in a crazy country like PNG and the majority of Papuans do not support the handful of criminals who shoot at Papuans, other Indonesians and foreigners.
And of course the ones who moan the loudest about Indonesia have never been here and don’t know the reality. They often come from Australia which as we all know has a much worse human rights record with the indigenous people of Australia.
In Indonesia we have Papuans operating at all levels of society including goverment MPs and Ministers, senior government officers and in many other high profile positions.
Part of Papua (the Birds Head Peninsula) was part of the pre-European Majapahit Javanese Empire, there have been Malay (Indonesian) people living in certain coastal areas of Papua for as long as there have been Malay people living in the area.
In Jayapura ( the largest city in West Papua) half the workforce works for the Indonesian government, government salaries in Jayapura are higher than in the rest of Indonesia to account for the relatively high cost of living there. I’m not sure that’s the policy of a government determined to oppress the local people. Indonesia pours a lot of money into the province for development.
You can’t judge Indonesia of today by the attitudes of the former police state. The country has changed a great deal in the last 10 years. You can however judge the actions of Aceh, which has given up an insurgency and remains in Indonesia.
It is only a small hardcore of criminals who create all the trouble in Papua, most of the community have integrated into Indonesian society. There have been protests and negotiations over profit sharing of mining operations with the native landowners, but they have condemned the current round of shooting attacks on mainly Papuan workers on their way to work on Papuan buses. We are all appalled at that behavour. The Indonesian police are tasked to protect the locals in this situation.
There is no media ban on Indonesian journalists working in Papua, the Indonesian media is now one of the freest in the world and very critical of the government. The footage we see on TV is of police and workers being shot at. We see more graphic footage here than is ever shown in the west. From where I’m sitting it looks like the problem is that the local gangsters in Papua are armed and supported by well meaning liberals and Papua New Guinean interests.
I wonder how the author, as a Queenslander, would react if the Queensland Police were to shoot down a gang of Armed Native Australian Criminals determined to commit mass murder against the local working population?
Indonesia is a democracy now, not a police state
I don’t think it is helpful to jump to conclusions about who is responsible for the series of tragic deaths and injuries on the access road to Freeport. There have been some arrests of local people, but many are sceptical that the correct culprits have been identified. The sniper attacks took place in the highly challenging environment of the perilously steep mine access road and were carried out with sophisticated weapons. No-one has been tried and the attacks are ongoing.
I also think it is important to stress as Jason MacLeod’s article does that thecivilian based movement is very important and it is united around a simple call for peaceful dialogue with the Indonesian government.
What is more that call is gaining more support in Indonesia. For example, earlier this year the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), published a Papua Road Map which looks back at earlier attempts at dialogue and gvies a thorough overview of the way that the 2001 Special Autonomy Law has failed West Papua in terms of development , health, education and so on. LIPI said that education is worse today that when West Papua was still a Dutch colony.
Ninety percent of Papuan villages have no access to health clinics. HIV/Aids is at epidemic proportions – over 2% are infected and this is the highest rate of anywhere in Indonesia with the exception of Jakarta.
LIPI is advocating a gradual process but says the issues of demilitarisation by Indonesia and an end to any armed struggle by the Papuans need to be addressed.
It is hard to imagine how a productive dialogue can happen unless the issue of political status can at least be discussed, and people can be free to display the banned Morning Star flag without being sent off to jail.
I am sorry the Al Jazeera documentary did not screen as I think it would have helped international viewers to understand something about the concerns of West Papuans. I sat up late at night to catch it but it had been pulled at the last minute.
I am an Al Jazeera fan too – there is a new beginning with a new administration in Jakarta – perhaps Al Jazeera might change its mind?!
To imply that Papuans can’t be responsible because “sophisticated weapons” were used is disingenious. From the footage on local TV it was very obvious that automatic weapons were being fired. There is nothing sophisticated about an automatic weapon, they are routinely smuggled over the border from PNG which is awash with illegal weapons. The Indonesian Police are incompetent and arrested the wrong guys, but it doesn’t mean that Papuan criminals didn’t commit the attacks.
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Back to the point.
Al Jazeera pulled a doco.
Question is: why?
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