http://www.thepaper.org.au/issues/043/043australia_bows_to_indonesian_pressure.html
Australia bows to Indonesian pressure
by MARNI CORDELL
Australian Government and public institutions alike surrendered to
pressure from Indonesia last month to withdraw support from a number of
events recognising the plight of West Papua, a resource-rich province
that has been struggling for independence since its Indonesian takeover
in the 1960s.
The Morning Star Concert for West Papua, held on Friday 28 February at
the Melbourne Concert Hall, was designed to be “part of an energetic
awareness raising campaign for the issues of West Papua”. It was a high
profile event, featuring popular Australian and West Papuan bands, from
which all proceeds will go to support the West Papuan human rights
monitoring group ELSHAM. Concert organisers had advertised that the
ABC’s Radio National and Triple J would be broadcasting the event.
However, in the week preceding the concert – following complaints –
Minister for Communications Richard Alston ordered that the ABC withdraw
their ‘support’ for the event, and ABC managing director Russell Balding
accordingly issued a directive, reportedly stating that the ABC could
not go against its charter to support a ‘political’ occasion. The ABC
were never in fact supporting the concert, but merely recording it, in
order to broadcast the event at a later date.
Similarly, RMIT University (Melbourne) surrendered to pressure from
Indonesia last month to withdraw their support for the West Papua
Futures forum. The forum, held on 25 and 26 February, was to be in
RMIT’s Storey Hall, but was moved at late notice to the Victorian Trades
Hall after a complaint from the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra.
Although the forum was jointly sponsored by New Internationalist
magazine and the Globalism Institute, a research facility located within
RMIT, the university administrators have distanced themselves from the
event. Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation, Neil Furlong,
commented: “it is not appropriate that universities formally endorse
activities such as conferences and forums where criticism on matters
pertaining to the sovereignty of other nations is intended.”
Australasian editor of New Internationalist Chris Richards described the
move by RMIT as “outrageous”, explaining that the conference did not
intend to challenge the territorial integrity of Indonesia, but sought
to encourage “open dialogue and debate” about the many social and
political challenges the province is currently facing.
“We organised the conference because there are so many divergent views
between Indonesia and West Papua about the future of West Papua: what
should it look like, how should they be governed, what is actually
happening in terms of human rights in the country at the moment?”
The conference was held in the same week as the Morning Star Concert for
West Papua and aimed to be “an academic addition to what was quickly
becoming a West Papua week; an opportunity for people who are interested
to learn about the country and to experience some of its culture.”
Greens Senator Bob Brown, a programmed speaker at the forum, was
“appalled” at the decision. “The RMIT should not have caved in to
Indonesian government pressure to ban its conference on the future of
West Papua”, he commented.
“The plight of West Papua, like Tibet and other invaded and suppressed
Indigenous peoples, must be open to scrutiny, and the goal of indigenous
self-determination must be debated.”
While claiming that reduced federal funding to tertiary education had
made universities prey to this sort of pressure, he maintained that, as
an academic institution “RMIT should not have bowed to any government,”
and described the decision as “effectively banning debate” on one of the
great social issues of our time.
Last week, Indonesian Charge d’Affairs, Imron Cotan, requested that
Senator Brown withdraw from speaking at the conference. Senator Brown
refused, stating: “it is an issue I’ve been involved in since I got into
Tasmanian parliament 20 years ago, and I intend to continue.”
This is not the first time that RMIT has bowed down to pressure from
Indonesia. The university apologised for “any offence that may have been
unintentionally caused” after a ceremony honouring West Papuan political
refugee Jacob Rumbiak raised protest from the Indonesian Embassy in
August last year.
Pro Vice Chancellor Furlong comments: “the university has a clear
obligation to respect the reputation of its students, staff, alumni and
institutional partners both domestically and internationally.” However,
it is also understood that RMIT has withdrawn support from the forum in
part to avoid financial repercussions; a significant proportion of the
university’s international fee-paying students hail from Indonesia.
According to Richards, “instead of taking an academic response to what’s
happening in West Papua, RMIT have taken a commercial response.”
“I am speaking out, out of concern for the public interest: the fact
that the Indonesian Government is prepared to intervene in academic
institutions for a particular result; and, more concerningly… that
academic institutions are prepared to respond to that pressure.”
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Free West Papua !
Papua Merdeka !
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