JUST SAY NO TO EVERYTHING

 WHAT ELSE DO WE NEED TO NO?             

 

                           

The key to clickbait is to give an odd-number singe-digit list of things to confirm prejudices. Here’s Duncan Graham’s Nine Reasons to Resist Change

 

1: Henry Ford, the guru of capitalism - the faith we worship - said: ‘History is bunk’. That means whether it’s the last 60 minutes or 60,000 years. It means we look ahead. There are exemptions, like Anzac and Don Bradman, but don’t confuse the issue.

2: Follow the wisdom: Founding father John Howard says GO NO because British colonisation was ‘the luckiest thing that happened’. Spot on. Had old Nic Baudin planted the Tricolor first then we wouldn’t have had the right to reject a republic.

3: People are judged by the company they keep. Getting on-side with leading public intellectuals driven by altruism, like Peter, Jacinta and Warren, will uplift us all when they win. They’re likeable, evangelical, happy folk wanting all to share their vision of love. The other mob are so serious.

3: Who can unravel a speech by Noel Pearson? The suntan sprayer uses language in a way you’d never hear in a bar, so his arguments fail the pub test.

4: An unelected mob took six years to bash out something they call the Voice - though there’s no audio. How about that? People want podcasts and tweets, not 26-page dodgy dodgers.

5: Taking so long to agree on something simple means that in the future decades will pass to get anything done. Imagine deciding the gauge for a trans-continental railway or settings for an NBN roll-out, matters which would normally be fixed before lunch. Nation-building schemes, like Snowy Hydro, will be bogged down with getting permission to run tunnel-boring machines above sacred caves.

6: All they’ve done is create ‘birthing trees’ to stop progress. Widening roads are our birthright. They didn’t even invent Christianity. If you want to talk about ochre scribblings on cave walls drawn before the pyramids, know this: They clearly say NO.

7: A YES vote guarantees costs will triple, quadruple, whatever you like, bashing down hard-working taxpayers struggling to put food on the carpet. Woolies and Coles will be forced to prove everything on their shelves complies with indigenous beliefs like Muslims demand halal labels. Cashiers will have to speak to customers in the local gibberish, and we don’t mean Mandarin or Vietnamese.

8: NO will lead to harmony as the YES mob will just go back to where they came from. We’re already the envy of the world because we’re equal, united, and sharing our common wealth. Whether your name is Gina, Clive, Andrew or Fred and Mavis, you can access the nation’s leaders and set the agendas.

9: The world jeers when they see ‘dancers’ stamping the dust in gaudy gear telling fantasies about emus. Dinky-die culture features little swans and magic flutes.

So say NO to anything that might make Australia like NZ. They’ve had a deal with the locals since 1840 and they’re still at the bottom of the world. OK, there’s the All Blacks, but Captain Sam Cane is all white.

First published in Independent Australia 19 September 2023: https://independentaustralia.net/life/life-display/everything-you-need-to-no-for-the-voice-referendum,17915

DIPOSING OF THE DEAD - A HOT QUESTION IN INDONESIA

 The final question: Bury or burn?

Joe's burial in Blitar 

Many tourists in Bali will have witnessed Ngaben, the open-air Hindu cremations. Those for the rich and famous can be spectacular events. But in Java, the process is more industrial as Duncan Graham discovered.

About 88 per cent of Javanese follow Islam which requires a body to be buried within the day of death, a wise rule in the tropics.

This has led to community organisations developing slick undertaking duties.

 News of a passing comes through white flags with a black + symbol. The body is washed, briefly displayed for family and friends, wrapped in a kafan (shroud) or a plain coffin, and then dashed to the graveyard before the sprinkled perfumes can no longer mask the decomposition.

Common hearses are labelled ‘ambulances’ and the drive to the cemetery heralded by a siren. The hole has already been dug and the body is soon interred.

For non-Muslims wanting burial but needing to stall so distant friends and relatives can gather, there are commercial mortuaries. Formaldehyde can be injected, though this tends to discolor and distort features.

Families that keep the body at home for a service need plenty of ice. Long sermons hasten the melting. Water dripping into buckets under the trestle focuses the mind on the short span of life.

In Indonesia the word Kristen means Protestant and separate from Katolik.  This curious cataloging dates back to government decisions after the Ministry for Religious Affairs was formed in 1946 to approve faiths.  There are currently six, with Confucianism and Buddhism added to the four mentioned above.

Catholics in Java still prefer burials - Protestants aren’t too fussy.  Cemeteries are getting crowded and costs rising, so there’s a movement towards following Hindus and Buddhists and turning to fire. 

Unlike Singapore, where 80 per cent of the dead are now cremated (in Australia it’s 70 per cent and 60 in the US), the practice in Indonesia is only slowly catching on.

Expansion is compounded by a lack of facilities. There are only seven crematoria in Java according to the British-based charity the Cremation Society,

This was established in the 19th century, ‘for developments in the law so that this rational, safe and dignified method of disposal of the dead might be practised with the least possible restriction.’

The crematorium in Surakarta (Solo)  (below) was idle when your correspondent was in the Central Java city.

There were no queues for the three ovens - a contrast to the situation in Australia where business is brisk and sterile, with the encased corpse far from the mourners and on a short conveyor belt.

After the eulogies the officiating minister presses a button on the lectern. The casket disappears through curtains so all the confronting mechanics of disposing of the dead are invisible.

Not so in Solo. The coffin was on a trolley before a roller door looking much like the front of a suburban garage or lock-up shop.

When the service and petal showering had finished the door was raised to reveal the incinerator. The family walked through to a smoke-stained workshop with brooms, shovels and other tools propped around. It had all the ambience of a kampong car repair yard.

Workers pushed the coffin off the trolley and into the oven while relatives stood around, said prayers and took photos. The eldest son split a watermelon on the side of the furnace and then dashed it onto the floor.

This is a Chinese practice sometimes followed by other ethnicities. It symbolises the dispersal of the deceased’s descendants during life and their coming together at the end.

The heavy steel door was slammed shut and the onlookers retreated to the open-air hall. Apart from chairs it was unfurnished with no religious insignia. 

The roller door rattled down. A blue light, like those used on police cars, started flashing as the next-of-kin pushed a button on the wall. A siren briefly moaned. Our friend was on his way.

This openness helps dispel a common myth about cremation - that bodies are taken from the casket, the corpse stripped of valuables and the box resold. There’s also the practical issue -  an unsealed coffin is on the nose.

The diesel-powered furnace fired up to 1,000 degrees and two hours later the ashes were cooling and ready to be taken. A body of 80 kilograms gets reduced to one. The chimney at the rear was high enough to prevent odors from reaching the mourners.

They also didn’t see the backroom process viewed by this writer in the Surabaya crematorium where limb bones hadn’t been roasted to grey ash so had to be crushed to fit in the urn.

The workers used a hand-cranked mincer, then a stainless steel prosthetic once worn by someone who’d undergone expensive surgery. The smooth ball at the end of the artificial joint together with an iron pot made for an ideal mortar and pestle like a kitchen set.

For those interested in death rituals but reluctant to be present at the real event, the magnificent documentary Lempad of Bali by the late Australian producer and director John Darling is a respectful tribute to the 116-year-old artist.

What’s a cremation cost? Prices vary according to the province and the services sought. Start at around Rp 10 million and fly upwards.  Like a soul released.

First published in Indonesia Expat 7 September 2023: https://online.fliphtml5.com/qinqh/gsab/#p=22

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THE SILENT WAR GETS LOUDER

 TROUBLES NEXT DOOR? NOT OUR PROBLEM   

    

                  

An Australian academic is risking an eruption of diplomatic fury by publicly criticising Indonesia’s brutal response to the Papuan independence movement, a hypersensitive topic for the governments of both countries.

 

Queensland historian Dr Greg Poulgrain (above) last week told a Jakarta seminar that the Indonesian government’s approach ‘has long been top-heavy, bureaucratic, clumsy and self-serving.

 

‘The military arrived in 1962 and 60 years later they’re still there in strength … more troops there now than ever before.  

 

‘The NGO Kontras  declared that 734 Papuans were killed in 2022. That’s two-and-a-half times the number of Palestinians killed by the Israeli army last year. And from (the highland province) Nduga there were 60,000 refugees.’

 

His comments were made just as the Papua independence movement failed to get Pacific Islands’ backing at a stormy meeting in Vanuatu with an Indonesian delegation walk-out.

The bid was thwarted by an alleged ‘corrupt alliance’ of member states apparently after pressure from Indonesia which is funding Vanuatu airport repairs (including the VIP lounge) worth AUD 1.47 million. More of this later.

 

A report of the Jakarta seminar, organised by the government research agency Baden Riset dan Inovasi Nasional (BRIN), was published in Indonesia’s leading newspaper Kompas. It ran to 830 words but didn’t mention Poulgrain or his comments, though he was the invited international guest speaker.

 

An estimated half-million indigenous Papuans are alleged to have died in the past fifty years through Indonesian military action. But the Australian Government stays hush.

 

Before she became Foreign Minister Senator Penny Wong wrote that Labor was distressed by ‘human rights violations’ in West Papua. However, there’s a ‘don’t touch’ clause in a two-nation pact signed 17 years ago ‘to address security challenges’. 

 

The Lombok Treaty  binds Australia and Indonesia to mutually respect the ‘sovereignty, territorial integrity, national unity and political independence of each other.’ 

 

New England University academics Dr Xiang Gao and Professor Guy Charlton claim ‘non-interference’ limits Australian responses ‘despite the domestic sympathy much of the Australian public has given to the West Papuan population.’

 

They quote a 2019 website post from Wong saying the treaty ‘remains the bedrock of security cooperation’ between Australia and Indonesia.

 

Poulgrain told his Jakarta audience that the military’s presence in Papua ‘has led to amazing problems. ‘In the first 40 years, the Papuan death toll was horrendous. In 1983 the London-based Anti-Slavery Society sent me to check a report that Papuan under-fives in the Asmat district (South Papua) were dying like flies – six out of ten were dying. The report was correct.

 

‘We’re dealing with a people about whom very little effort to understand has been made. It has been claimed that the indigenous inhabitants of Papua should be grateful that so much money is spent …. but the benefit they receive (as a percentage of the intended amount) is hardly any benefit at all.’

 

The Indonesian government says it has allocated more than Rp 1,036 trillion (AUD 106 million) in the past eight years for development (mainly roads) in a bid to appease self-government demands. That’s a tiny sum against the income.

 

The Grasberg mine in Central Papua has ‘proven and probable reserves of 15.1 million ounces of gold.’ If correct that makes it the world’s biggest gold deposit.

 

It’s run by PT Freeport Indonesia a joint venture between the Indonesian Government and the US company Freeport-McMoRan. 

 

Poulgrain claims gross revenue from the mine last year was about AUD 13 billion: ‘We can be sure that the immense wealth of gold was a crucial influence on the sovereignty dispute in the 1950s and still influences the politics of Papua and Indonesia today.’

 

 Despite the riches, Papua is reportedly one of the least developed regions in Indonesia, with poverty and inequality levels up to three times above the national average of 9.5 per cent, as calculated by the Asian Development Bank.

 

In 1962 control of the Western half of the Island of New Guinea, formerly part of the Dutch East Indies, was temporarily run by the UN. In 1969 it was ceded to Indonesia after a referendum when 1,025 ‘leaders’ hand-picked by the Indonesian military voted unanimously to join Jakarta. 

 

It was labelled an Act of Free Choice; cynics called it an Act Free of Choice. Historian Dr Emma Kluge wrote: ‘West Papuans were denied independence also because the UN system failed to heed their calls and instead placed appeasing Indonesia above its commitment to decolonisation and human rights.’

 

Secessionists have since been fighting with words at the UN and at first with spears and arrows in the highland jungles. Some now carry captured modern weapons and have been ambushing and killing Indonesian soldiers and road workers, and suffering casualties.

 

In February the West Papua National Liberation Army, the armed section of the umbrella Organisasi Papua Merdeka (freedom), kidnapped NZ pilot Philip Mehrtens and demanded independence talks for his release. After searching for six months the Indonesian military (TNI) has so far failed to free the Kiwi. 

 

The OPM started gaining traction in the 1970s. Indonesia has designated it a ’terrorist group giving the armed forces greater arrest and interrogation powers. 

 

Amnesty International claimed this showed Indonesia’s ‘lack of willingness to engage with the real roots of the ongoing conflict’, though failed to pick apart the ‘roots’ or offer practical solutions. 

 

Communications in the mountains are tough and not just because of the terrain. Cellphone signals could lead to discovery. Journalists are banned. Requests for entry by this correspondent were given verbal OKs but are now ignored.

 

The only news comes from Christian pastors smuggling out notes, and statements from different OPM factions like the United Liberation Movement for West Papua. (ULMWP)

 

This is chaired by Benny Wenda who lives in the UK. In 2003 he was granted political asylum by the British government after fleeing Indonesia while on trial for leading an independence procession. He has not backed the kidnapping of Mehrtens. The secessionists' failure to speak with one voice exposes their weakness.

 

Earlier this year he was in Fiji and more recently Vanuatu  seeking support for Papua independence through the Melanesian Spearhead Group formed in 1998. 

 

The lobbying is angering Jakarta, a major donor to the region. Papuans identify as Melanesians and are mainly Christian. The Indonesian delegation walked out when Wenda got up to speak.

 

Indonesia’s deputy FM Pahala Mansury was quoted as saying: ‘Indonesia cannot accept that someone who should be responsible for acts of armed violence in Papua, including kidnappings, is given the opportunity to speak at this honourable forum.’

 

The ABC reported that the leaders couldn’t reach a consensus, but Wenda told Radio NZ  he was confident the ULMWP will eventually get full membership: ‘The whole world is watching and this is a test for the leadership to see whether they’ll save West Papua’.

 

 PNG’s National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop reportedly said: ‘I am totally disappointed in the failure of the MSG leaders to seize the opportunity to redefine the future of West Papua and our region.

‘Fear of Indonesia and proactive lobbying by Indonesia again has been allowed to dominate Melanesia to the detriment of our people of West Papua.’

 Curiously Indonesia is an associate member of the MSG though the Republic is dominated and led by Javanese. Around two million (0.7 per cent) Papuans are Indonesian citizens.

Dr David Robie NZ-based publisher of Asia Pacific Report responded:  ‘The MSG has thrown away a golden chance for achieving a historical step towards justice and peace in West Papua by lacking the courage to accept the main Papuan self-determination advocacy movement as full members.

‘Many see this as a terrible betrayal of West Papuan aspirations and an undermining of Melanesian credibility and solidarity as well as an ongoing threat to the region's security and human rights.’

Wenda is not the only emigre: Prize-winning Indonesian human rights lawyer Veronica Koman is  wanted by the Indonesian police for allegedly speaking out on violence in Papua. Like Wenda, she says she does not support hostage-taking.

 

Koman lives in Australia, works with Amnesty International and says she gets death threats. Her parents’ house in Jakarta has reportedly been stoned.

 

Just like The Hague’s handling of Indonesian anti-colonialists in the 1945-49 Revolutionary War, Jakarta’s policy has been force. Protesters are dehumanised, tagged as ‘criminals’ or ‘terrorists’ however mild their involvement, an ancient tactic in warfare making it legally easier to shoot than arrest.

 

The separatists’ cause gets little sympathy from Indonesians in other provinces. Papuan students in Java have been attacked and suffered racial abuse. Anyone caught flying OPM’s Morning Star flag risks 25 years in jail.

 

Vice-president Ma’ruf Amin has urged the military to ‘get tough’. At a Jakarta ceremony in June, former President Megawati Soekarnoputri was quoted as saying: ‘If I were still a commander, I would deploy the number of battalions there. That's cool, right?’

 

No, said Poulgrain: ‘The history of the Papuan people that has become the norm is not correct. This is still a problem today. It’s our perception that’s the problem. Adding battalions will not solve the problem today.’

 

Poulgrain is a specialist in Indonesian history and an adjunct fellow at the University of the Sunshine Coast and Malang State University in East Java. His interest in Papua goes back to his student years as a backpacker exploring the archipelago.

 

Poulgrain said his involvement in the debate was as an independent historian seeking a peaceful settlement. After speaking in Jakarta he flew to Jayapura to address a seminar at the Papua International University.

 

In 1999 when Megawati was vice-president (she’s now the chair of BRIN), he was invited to a meeting on Papua with ten of her advisors:

 

‘They said to me, quite frankly, Papua was a problem they did not know how to solve. I suggested vocational training schools. We started - but the whole educational project stopped when the East Timor referendum established independence. Times haven’t changed.’

 

In 2018 activists delivered a petition to the UN with 1.8 million signatures demanding an independence referendum. That’s gone nowhere. Instead, Jakarta has split West Papua into six provinces supposedly to give locals more say, but to no real effect.

 

An analysis by the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies concludes:

 

‘As the US and Australia continue to support Indonesia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in Papua, both administrations are unlikely to take bolder stances. 

 

‘International action in the situation is likely to remain limited to the Pacific Islands… Separatist violence, having shown its resiliency to Indonesia’s attempts to control the region, is thus likely to continue.’

 

First published in Michael West Media 1 September 2023: https://michaelwest.com.au/the-silent-war-australia-and-indonesia-stay-mum-on-papuan-human-right-abuses/