By: Edward Krey )*
In terms of historical and juridical, there are no more gaps to bring up that Papua is an inseparable region of the NKRI which is recognized de facto and de jure, but strangely there are still a handful of people and groups who still want Papua to be separated from Indonesia by various reasons.
The reason is that PEPERA (Determination of People’s Opinion) in 1969 was carried out with full intimidation and cheating on the Differences in RAS with other Indonesian tribes. Cultural differences during joining with Indonesia there was no development, instead the wealth of Papua was dredged for people outside Papua and others.
In addition, the existence of the KKB in Papua which helped encourage / provoke external parties, namely opportunist activists abroad and a small country in the south pacific that always had a minor voice against the Government of Indonesia, namely Vanuatu.
However, if we look at the reasons above, all of them can be disputed with accurate data, as PEPERA is aware of being carried out by the United Nations, where in the implementation there is an observer country and the Government of the Netherlands, so there is very little possibility of fraud or intimidation.
PEPERA in Papua on November 19, 1969 was implemented smoothly, in an orderly and safe manner, this PEPERA was implemented by the United Nations and supervised directly by several observer countries, as a result the People of Papua and West Papua said they would continue to join and become part of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia.
The results of the PEPERA have been submitted to the UN Secretary General and then ratified through the UN general assembly. Not only that the Dutch who were still a colonial country at that time also accepted the results of the PEPERA. So that Papua, after the proclamation of August 17, 1945 – 1969, was still under Dutch colonialism, after PEPERA became legitimate “as an inseparable part of the Unitary Republic of Indonesia”.
The UN Secretary General finally headed to Jayapura to make it clear that the UN would guarantee the smooth process of the transfer of power from UNTEA to the Government of Indonesia. Because Papua integration guidelines May 1, 1963 and the results of PAPERA 1969 which gave birth to UN resolution 2405.
Papera results were finally endorsed by the UN General Assembly through resolution 2505 on November 19, 1969, which means that Papua has returned to the Lap of Indonesia and has been fully supported by the UN International community.
The Indonesian government’s policy towards the status of Papua in terms of international law is final, namely, Papua and West Papua are part of the territory of the Republic of Indonesia. Remember when the process of integration of international law into national law.
Therefore international law must also respect the national law of a country. Including Indonesia in this matter.
In 2017, the British Government through the British Ambassador to Indonesia, Moazzam Malik revealed, that the British Government’s policy clearly supports the unity of Indonesia and Papua is an absolute part of the Republic of Indonesia
The racial differences which according to the separatists as one of the reasons they want to separate the Melanesian race from the lap of the Republic of Indonesia, according to them are different from the Malay race, so they must be separated from Indonesia, but statistically it turns out that more Melanesian Race people living in Papua and its surroundings compared to outside Papua, in addition to that Melanesian Race is divided into dozens of countries in the southern Pacific. So there is no specific country for the Melanesian Race and no country in the world based on the RAS as Adis Hitler’s Facis understood before the Second World War exploded.
Of course we do not want any war between the nation’s children in Indonesia, moreover Papua will host the National Sports Week (PON) event. Therefore we must ensure that they are our brothers. Papua and West Papua are friends for all Indonesian people.
We must also avoid the attitude of racism towards the people of Papua. This is certainly as our manifestation in practicing the values of Pancasila which have become the ideology of the Nation.
In addition, community support for the government in developing Papua is certainly needed, because the development effort is one of the concrete things for Papua so that they do not feel denied.
)* The author is a social political observer