Jakarta – Observer of Strategic and Global Issues Prof. Imron Cotan said Indonesia’s achievements in the 2023 Melanesian Spearheaded Group Summit (MSN Summit) were very good.
One of the results of the decision of the 2023 Melanesian Spearheaded Group Summit (KTT MSG) was to again reject the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) as a member of the MSG.
“It would be best for them to carry out an evaluation so as not to prolong their futile struggle which proved to be a failure at the MSG Summit last August,” said Prof Imron Cotan in a Webinar held by the Moya Institute, Friday 22/9/2023.
According to him, Benny Wenda and ULMWP do not represent the majority of people in Papua, because the seven major tribes there are not represented by Benny at all.
He added that at last year’s UN session, one of the youth leaders from Benny Wenda village actually raised the Red and White flag in New York, saying that the Republic of Indonesia included Papua.
“I know exactly the development of the Papua issue in the MSG group of countries,” he said.
There has been a change in paradigm for these countries when they look at the Papua issue from other things, concluded Prof Imron.
“MSG cannot accept the UMLWP because it is not a political entity of a sovereign state which states that a sovereign state can only be recognized if it has a sovereign government, has a territory, a people and is able to establish international relations with other countries, so the ULMWP does not fulfill all these requirements at all.” , he explained.
Meanwhile, Padjadjaran University International Relations Expert Prof Teuku Rezasyah said the MSG Summit program was extraordinary because it placed Indonesia in the South Pacific.
“It is very interesting that the hard efforts from Indonesia are not influenced by the movements of Benny Wenda who always strives for the separation of Papua from Indonesia,” he said.
According to him, Benny Wenda’s speech contained an unethical feeling for Indonesia because it seemed as if he had succeeded in getting into MSG, even though he had not.
On the same occasion, Chairman of the Papua Deliberative Body, Willem Frans Ansanai, said that holding the MSG Summit was an extraordinary achievement for Indonesian diplomacy.
“The presence of the ULMWP is like, if it is a sovereign state, then it should have the people, territory and government, but what was taken all belongs to the Republic of Indonesia so it has no basis for the formation of a state,” explained Willem.
It should be noted, in a joint communication or joint communique issued on August 24 2023, the leaders of MSG member countries emphasized that ULMWP does not meet the criteria for MSG membership.
