Rabu, 14 Oktober 2009

Al Jazeera accused of censoring doco about West Papuan struggle

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: pacific.scoop.co.nz
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