Senator Andrew Bartlett
Portfolio: Foreign Affairs
| Dated: 25 Feb 2003
Location: Melbourne Trades Hall Council
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Senator Andrew Bartlett speech: Debating the Future of West Papua |
I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land. Of course this conference is about acknowledging the traditional owners of the land which comprises West Papua.
It is worth noting the title of this section, “Debating the future of West Papua”, because for decades it has been exactly that – an honest, comprehensive debate on the future of West Papua – which has been so desperately needed and which has been absent.
There is obviously a willingness amongst many for that debate to occur. The debate is important - it is crucial within the international community, within our own region and, most importantly, among the West Papuan people and the Indonesian people. That is exactly what this conference represents – a willingness to put this issue on the political agenda and talk about options for the future.
Certainly from my point of view, as the Leader of the Democrats, I indicate my party’s willingness, indeed keenness, to play a part in facilitating that debate. We want to assist in drawing attention to issues that need to be recognised, acknowledged and addressed in order to ensure a just future for the people of West Papua.
There are many options, of course, and that is what people will be subsequently debating over the course of this evening and tomorrow.
As people who worked for many years on the East Timor issue would know, getting justice and attention to issues of concern can take a long time. But as that particular issue demonstrates, we should never give up drawing attention to injustices and drawing attention to what needs to be done in order to address them.
You will hear from others later who have much greater expertise and historical understanding than I do of this issue, not just about what has happened in the past, but what is happening now and the issues that need to be addressed. I guess I see my role, as a person in the political environment, to talk about what I see the current environment as, as well as where that might go and how we might be able to best utilise that, so that we can work to address the issues in the context of that political environment.
If Indonesia wants the situation to remain the same over West Papua, then rather than simply try to stifle any debate, to the contrary the Democrats believe that Indonesia should be prepared to make its case openly and defend it. In that way, I think it is very unfortunate that a government representative wasn’t willing to come to an event like this and put forward that case.
Time and again we see that, whether it is Indonesia or anybody else, or indeed the Australian Government, a Government loses credibility when it interferes with democratic process and it silences dissenting voices. That, of course, is the fundamental criticism of the Act of Free Choice – that it lacked legitimacy because of Indonesia’s interference with proper democratic processes. Of course there has also been criticism of the Australian Government for being willing to allow that to occur.
Any debate about the future must start with an honest look at the past and it is important that one of the sessions tomorrow is devoted to considering West Papua in its historical context. Many, if not most, countries around the world have aspects of their history which continue to cast a shadow on the present. Neither Australia nor Indonesia are exempt from this and each has a responsibility to account for past actions and remedy past wrongs, whether this involves quashing legal untruths such as the doctrine of terra nullius, or acknowledging and addressing past human rights abuses. It is not about who is right or wrong – it’s about moving forward.
Two obvious issues that the Democrats believe need to addressed are the appalling and ongoing record of human rights abuses in West Papua and the illegitimacy of the Act of Free Choice.
There is clearly enough evidence to establish that grave human rights abuses have been committed against the West Papuan people. Whilst there might be conflicting evidence about the details, there is no doubt that many, many deaths, wrongful imprisonments and acts of torture have occurred. A widely used figure of at least 100,000 West Papuans have been killed by the Indonesian army.
The UN Committee against Torture, in November 2001, found that a climate of impunity had been fostered by Indonesia because there has been little progress in bringing to trial members of the military, the police or other state officials, particularly those holding senior positions. Amnesty International reports that no perpetrator of human rights violations has been brought to justice in recent years. Meanwhile those members of the West Papuan community who have agitated for greater autonomy and self determination have been constantly harassed and put on trial for their legitimate, peaceful activities.
The first priority when debating the future of West Papua is to put an end to this record. Human rights abuses are never justified. Whatever else is talked about in terms of the future political structure of West Papua, it should occur in a climate where people are free from fear and from human rights abuses.
This highlights an important part that not only the Australian Government, but also the Australian Parliament, can play. As a key nation within our region, we have a responsibility to try and ensure that people in the region are free from human rights abuses and to draw attention to any cases where human rights abuses occur. It is an important aspect of the rule of law that no one, including the government of the day, is above the law.
In terms of the Act of Free Choice, I imagine many of you here would know the history of that better than I would, so I won’t go into it in detail, but I think it is important just to briefly highlight that history. The Act of Free Choice has consistently been challenged by the West Papuan people and is frequently referred to as the “Act of No Choice”.
On any assessment of proper democratic processes, the Act of Free Choice was illegitimate. There is plenty of evidence detailing the intimidation, violence and threats associated with the vote. Coercion was a central part of the process and the whole manner in which it occurred was a farce. It remains a blot on the United Nations’ record, as well as the Australian Government’s, that it was prepared to accept such a flawed process.
We do need to look at the situation honestly and some of the issues that need to be addressed in a political context. It’s one thing to talk about the injustices of the past and how they should be addressed, but we also need to look at where we go from here and that is partly why conferences like this are so important.
Even if the Indonesian Government and the wider international community were prepared to acknowledge the illegitimacy of the Act of Free Choice, any attempt to remedy that will raise many challenges and many questions. We would have to look at the issue of transmigration and the more than one million people from other parts of Indonesia who have now migrated and reside in West Papua and what role they would play in self determination. We would also have to look at what practical planning would be required to facilitate the process towards self-determination, if that was endorsed by any subsequent vote.
Although these complex issues need to be raised, they should not dissuade us from remedying the wrongs of the past and assisting the West Papuan people to determine their own future.
There are also issues like Indonesia’s interests in West Papuan gold and copper resources and the question of what happens to those resources under any move towards autonomy or self determination. The issue of tensions between various West Papuan tribes also needs to be acknowledged.
It is important to realise that autonomy or self determination, in itself, would not signal the end of West Papua’s challenges, but the beginning of a new set of challenges. In that context, I think it is important to broaden the debate beyond just the issue of self-determination and look at the broader issues of the West Papuan people’s future.
It is significant that this conference is being held in Australia because it highlights the importance of our relationship as a nation with both Indonesia and West Papua. We too, as a nation, must take responsibility for some of the past wrongs committed against the West Papuan people, as we should have with the East Timorese. I believe our first priority should be to prevent further human rights abuses being committed and there is nothing to prevent open and honest diplomatic dialogue with Indonesia about those issues.
We do have the issue at the moment of the political context in which Australia relates with Indonesia. It is appropriate for us as a nation, in my view, to develop a cooperative relationship with all the countries in our region - the Asia Pacific region – including Indonesia, in order to work against some of the security threats that we are now having to address. It is one of the great tragedies of the way the Howard Government has gone about dealing with the US in relation to war in Iraq, that it has unnecessarily antagonised almost every country in our region. Once again, we are playing the role of deputy sheriff to the United States, rather than looking at the role that we play as an independent nation in our own region.
We do need to ensure that we can work cooperatively, where possible, with nations in our region. In my view that doesn’t mean that you just ignore difficult issues. No relationship can really be effective unless you are able to be open and honest with those other nations. That is something that the Australia Government has sometimes failed at in the past. On the issues on which they should have taken a stand, they’ve been complacent and have basically stayed away from the hard issues. In comparison, the issues on which the Government has taken a stand are basically the ones the US wants us to take a stand on and the Government has followed the US line rather than taking an independent approach. It’s symptomatic of the very poor relations that Australia has with many nations in our own region.
We must, as a nation, listen to the accounts given by West Papuans about what they are enduring at the moment. We must provide whatever assistance we can to ensure that human rights abuses are stopped, proper democratic processes are adhered to and that the rule of law operates effectively. This will involve the allocation of resources to achieve these objectives, rather than diverting excessive amounts of money towards defence and war budgets, without any increases at all for assistance with overseas development issues and the needs of people in our own region.
It is important to acknowledge that the position of both the Australian Government and the Opposition, as expressed in their public statements, is that they are unwilling to challenge the status quo in relation to West Papua. Indeed, they make a point of emphasising the sovereignty of Indonesia – the ongoing and unchanging sovereignty of Indonesia – over the region of West Papua. That is the position that the larger parties take.
In my experience, it is not that people from other parties don’t have an interest in the issue, particularly in terms of human rights abuses. I note from my experience on select committees and other groups that there is in fact an interest amongst politicians, and in many cases a concern that injustices are being done, but a lack of certainty as to how best to deal with this situation.
That is just another reason why conferences such as this are so important. They provide ideas for people who are involved in the parliamentary process, they make people like myself and others in other political parties aware of what the reality is and what the options are.
Often I think people look at parliamentarians, and I think some parliamentarians have a tendency to view themselves, as knowing all the answers – that we just go about doing our work with our perfect solutions we have already figured out. But in many cases, the reality is that politicians don’t know about issues and we won’t know about issues unless people tell us the reality. Some of us are more interested in listening than others, but the more you highlight that reality the more difficult it becomes for politicians to ignore. But there is some goodwill amongst many people in the political process from all sides of politics and it is worth trying to identify people who are prepared to be supportive and endeavour to work with them to try and get the spotlight put more on issues.
That is something that the Democrats specialise in and we have worked hard at it for many years. In our role in the Senate, we use various processes to draw attention to the plight of particular people and to draw attention to human rights abuses. We have done so in relation to West Papua, particularly the role of the military and others in tormenting and torturing the people of West Papua, and highlighting some of the particular abuses that are occurring. There is scope through Parliamentary Committee inquiries as well. We will continue to condemn human rights abuses that occur and draw attention to the illegitimacy of the Act of Free Choice.
I certainly take this opportunity as Leader of the Democrats to renew our commitment to the West Papuan people and to assure you that we will not allow their plight to drop off political agenda. We will continue to probe, we will continue to question and we will continue to challenge. I indicate our willingness to work with you in trying to get these issues taken more seriously, to get them acknowledged and to get them addressed. There are plenty of opportunities to do that.
One of the forums that will provide opportunities is an existing inquiry being undertaken by the Parliamentary Joint Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee into Australia’s relationship with Indonesia. The Inquiry has already attracted a large number of submissions and the public hearings for that will be occurring over the next two months.
There is also a Senate Committee enquiry into Australia’s relationship with Papua New Guinea and there will be opportunities coming up through that enquiry also. So I would simply like to indicate the Democrats willingness and desire to draw attention to the issue, our willingness to work with others in the community and throughout the region who want to get attention to this issue.
I congratulate the organisers of this conference, which I think is in many ways potentially a historic conference. The overreaction from the Government in relation to its happening is an indication of the political environment at the moment, but that should not deter any of us from working hard to get these issues acknowledged and addressed.
So I urge you all to keep persevering, even when there seems to be a lack of interest from governments and a lack of willingness to address the issues. As we see with other issues, you never know when the weight of evidence and basic injustice will eventually work to generate change. You can be sure that if people give up that change won’t happen and so we do need to keep on pursuing it. The Democrats are keen to play our part in the Parliament and the community.
As the introductory speaker of the conference, I wish you well in your deliberations and I’m certainly interested in hearing some of the outcomes and looking at where we can go from here. Because – as the title of this session suggests – it is about the future, and the future of the West Papuan people, and I think we should insist that that future is a just one.
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