[Kabar-Irian] News: Aug 8-10 2007
Admin-Editors Kabar-Irian
editors at kabar-irian.info
Thu Aug 9 22:48:13 MDT 2007
KABAR IRIAN NEWS
Aug 8-10
TOPICS
* Papua lawmaker: autonomy to fail without mediation
* The Thousand Headed Snake
* Pacific: the spread of Islam in Melanesia
* Green Moon Rising
* Papua's autonomy not even skin deep: MRP
* Paths to Justice and Prosperity: West Papua 2007
* Intl. Mediation needed in Papua
* Embracing the future of Indonesia
---
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SYD114978.htm
Papua lawmaker: autonomy to fail without mediation
07 Aug 2007 02:55:54 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Rob Taylor
CANBERRA, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Indonesia's military continues to crack down
on Papua and an autonomy
deal for the restive province will fail without international mediation, a
senior Papuan lawmaker said on
Tuesday.
Indonesian security forces were creating chaos in Papua to control rich
mineral and natural resources,
Agus Alua, the chairman of the indigenous Papuan People's Council set up
by President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono, told Australian lawmakers.
"The army and the police, they do not support the president," Alua told
Reuters before meeting Australian
foreign ministry officials and lawmakers at Parliament House in Canberra.
"Special autonomy deal cannot save Papua or Papuans, because the military
has its own agenda going
on," he said.
Independence activists in Papua -- which is made up of two provinces on
the western half of New Guinea
island -- have waged a campaign for more than 30 years to break away from
Indonesia, while a low-level
armed rebellion has also simmered for decades.
Yudhoyono has pledged to end the conflict in Papua and speed development
under the 2001 Special
Autonomy Agreement, which human rights critics say has not been implemented.
Alua, whose representative council was meant to give Papuans a say over
their own affairs, said a pledge
of billions of rupiah in support from Yudhoyono's government meant little
when the military, known as TNI,
was determined to prevent autonomy.
"The troops are working strongly to fully control the land and the Papuan
people in their villages, therefore
Papuan people in their homeland cannot move anywhere freely to look for
food, for hunting, fishing,
traditional religion," a briefing paper given to Australian lawmakers by
Alua said.
Indonesian troop numbers were on the increase in Papua, he said,
particularly intelligence soldiers used
to keep check on separatists. Torture of separatists also continued to occur.
Security forces have consistently denied rights violations and National
Police spokesman Sisno Adiwinoto
recently said no one was immune to human rights law.
Alua said he wanted Australia, which supports Indonesian sovereignty over
Papua, to push Jakarta to
introduce autonomy more actively and take on a mediation role.
Jakarta took over Papua from Dutch colonial rule in 1963. In 1969 its rule
was formalised in a vote by
community leaders which was widely criticised as political theatre.
In June U.N. envoy Hina Jilani said concerns persisted over the actions of
security services despite
assurances from the military commander and the chief of police in Papua.
---
Hi
Link below goes to a good Channel 4 news piece aired on Wednesday in the
UK on illegal logging and
timber trade between China and Papua, Indonesia, which focuses on a recent
report we have just
released in Jakarta. You can see the news clip (8 minutes) on the page, or
just read the narration. The
report, called “The Thousand Headed Snake” exposes how rampant corruption
in Indonesia’s judiciary,
police and enforcement community is preventing the country from reducing
illegal logging and the trade
in illegal timber, and is available at EIA’s website:
www.eia-international.org
Enjoy,
Jago
Exclusive: Trading in Illegal Timber
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/world/asia_pacific/exclusive+trading+in+illegal+timber/342547
China is trading in timber that has been logged in parts of south east
Asia and Africa where timber laws
are lax.
>From the tropical forests of West Africa to a timberyard in Zhangjiagang,
a Yangtze riverport, a metre
and a half in diameter 100-year-old hardwood tree is to be sliced into
planks.
Soon it will be a wardrobe, or a table or wooden flooring in one of
China's new high-rises - or a piece of
furniture on display in a European shop marked Made in China.
We drove around the shipyard where the logs are delivered -hundreds of
thousands of them. Most are
from countries where environmental campaigners say timber laws are lax,
there's little or no forest
management and the profits go to politicians and generals.
Rainforests of the world
It seems that the rainforests of the world are here. I've seen logs from
Papua New Guinea, Burma,
Cameroon, Congo, Gabon; not all the trade is illegal - it's out in the
open, all the logs are here for
everyone to see. But it is having a devastating effect on the environment.
China is a key link in the trade, a chain which goes from south east Asia
and Africa to Europe and
America.
Two years ago the Indonesian government banned the export of any Merbau, a
hardwood from
Indonesia, other than small, planed planks.
But, on the island of Papua, in Indonesia's last virgin forest, the Merbau
trees are still being felled.
After the police arrested scores of people involved in the illegal timber
trade the logging eased, but late
last year, judge after judge acquitted the most important suspects.
Voicing concern
The claim coincides with a push by the United States for tougher laws on
the import of illegally logged
timber.
The Environmental Investigation Agency is voicing concern about the link
between China and European
hardwood imports from the Far East and from vulnerable forests across the
globe.
Posing as would-be buyers, EIA researchers covertly filmed the timberyards
and talked to directors of a
syndicate who claimed to ship 3000 cubic metres of illegal Merbau to
Chinese ports every month, bribing
customs officials when the government checks containers.
Tracking down Merbau
Back in China, we followed a Mr Qu we had met at the logyard in
Zhangjiagang. There was no Merbau on
public display there but he said he could take us to his own yard.
And sure enough, there it was: square logs and rough sawn merbau,
characteristically red.
We didn't say we were journalists, but told him we might be interested in
buying some merbau logs. The
price has quadrupled he said, it's now six thousand yuan, that's £400 per
cubic metre.
We also found Indonesian Merbau, alongside other hardwoods from vulnerable
forests across the globe,
in a timber market in Shanghai.
The trader selling it told us he had ethnic Chinese business partners who
bought forests in Indonesia and
hired locals to cut down the trees. Believing us to be potential clients,
he took us back to his office.
We were told we could ship from Indonesia directly to the UK, but that
there wouldn't be very big profits
due to environmental policies.
And finally we located it in Nanxun, known as the hard wood flooring
capital of the world. We were shown
Merbau flooring and told it could be exported under the label 'Made in
China' - so no-one need ever know
the timber came from Indonesia. And no Chinese law would be broken.
Protect at home, plunder abroad
As we filmed logyards and flooring factories, Chinese television was
showing the annual tree-planting day
celebrations.
In the late 90s, after flash floods, the Chinese government curbed logging
and embarked on a massive
planting programme. While the government protects forests at home, Chinese
businesses are ravaging
rainforests elsewhere.
They no longer use Merbau at the last flooring factory we visited. There
are so few trees left in Indonesia,
we were told, it's too expensive. But that wasn't a problem, one of the
managers said - they've moved onto
Burmese teak instead.
Jago Wadley
Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA)
62/63 Upper Street
London N1 0NY
United Kingdom
+44 (0)207 354 7967 direct line
+44 07747621745 mobile
+44 (0)207 354 7960 reception
+44 (0)207 354 7961 fax
www.eia-international.org
The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) is the world's leading
organisation dedicated to exposing
crimes against wildlife and the environment.
---
http://uk.equilibri.net/article/7468/Pacific__the_spread_of_Islam_in_Melanesia
Pacific: the spread of Islam in Melanesia
For several years Melanesia has witnessed a phenomenon all but ignored by
the international community;
amongst the Pacific islands the diffusion of Islam has obtained highly
successful results and in every
country in the region an Umma, Islamic community, has been founded.
Valentina Moniga
Equilibri.net (08 August 2007)
The term Melanesia indicates the region that extends for the western side
of the Western Pacific to the
sea of Arafura which touches the northern and north-eastern coasts of
Australia. The islands belonging to
the area are: he Bismark archepelego, the Fiji Islands, New Caledonia,
Papua New Guinea, the Maluku
Islands, the Solomon Islandsm the Torres Strait Islands, Vanuatu and Palau
Islands. Nauru, Timor, Flores
Islands and Sumba are not entirely part of the region.
Islam is the religion that diffuses itself faster than any other and this
tendency has been confirmed in the
Pacific. Islamic organisations from Saudi Arabia and Malaysia are actively
promoting Islam in the region
and are actively involved in creating numerous Umma in Australia, New
Zealand, and Fiji. The level of
diffusion is unparalleled throughout the world. The Melanesian culture is
characterised by religious
dynamacy and a tendency to experiment: the concept of Kastom (the
traditional social model, also tied to
magic) and the Christian movements continue to evolve, mix, change and
create new beliefs. Now even
Islam can be added to this mix and its effect on Kastom, on national
politics, and regional security will
have to be monitored very carefully. It is estimated that thousands of
natives have chosen to convert to
Islam in the states of Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and
Fiji alone. In New Caledonia
there is a consistent presence of Islamic communities that have appeared
following migratory flows from
the Francophile world over the last 100 years.
Parallels and cultural differences
There are numerous point that link the Islamic culture to that of the
Pacific. First and foremost the fact
that Islam developed from the Arab tribal culture and maintains decisional
bodies (shura) that, in the
social organisation and in their non hierarchical nature, are similar to
the chief’s councils in Melanesia.
Even the concept of ‘an eye for an eye’ is common to both cultures, while
Jesus’ example of ‘turning the
other cheek’ had never been taken into consideration by the Melanesians
despite the strong Christian
influence throughout the region. Western law has never been fully accepted
in that it does not, as
opposed to Islamic and Pacific traditions, offer compensation to the
victim. Polygamy and the division of
the sexes, such as separate structures for men and women, are other common
points. In addition given
that the Melanesian population is used to sitting on the ground the mosque
results as being a more natural
environment than a church. Westerners tend to be more secular and give
greater importance to the role
of the State, give greater importance to corruption and unemployment,
while a Melanesian’s view of life
tends to be based on the principals of Kastom, religious obligations, and
agriculture. Little emphasis is
placed on the role of the State in as much as it is a concept of recent
implementation and only really of
interest in the major cities. It can be deduced that in this region there
is no great concept of the
separation between religion and state. It is clear that the Muslim
communities continue to augment in
number, as happens with Christian organisations the Islamic counterparts
supply medical assistance,
schooling, morals and religion, and access to global networks capable of
facilitating political and social
goals.
The conversion to Christianity has also been guided by practical
considerations and the very same in
happening with Islam. The violent tsunami that struck the Solomon Islands
last April demonstrated the
presence of Islamic organisations, the International Muslim Aid
Organisation acted swiftly in supplying
medicines and aid to the most damaged areas and, as is obvious, this was
greatly appreciated. Another
factor that has facilitated the penetration of Islam as opposed to other
religions consists in the fact that
the process of becoming a Muslim is easy: to be accepted all that is asked
for is to take a conscious
decision and to recite, three times, the basic dogma of the religion in
the presence of other members of
the faith. Missionaries believe that this is not a conversion but an
invitation to come closer to ancestral
traditions. It is in any case difficult to understand how Islam can
separate religion and philosophy from
the practices of Islamic culture. Those interested in preserving Kastom
are sceptical and believe that the
rise of Islam risks damaging local traditions in the same way Christianity
did during the past century. It is
important to underline that these Pacific islands are not entirely
knowledgeable of the ‘varieties’ of Islam
which range from the most tolerant to militant Salafism. Islam is
spreading rapidly and thus it is in the
interests of these nations to encourage the penetration of non violent
groups.
Financing local communities
Last January controversy broke out between Australia and Saudi Arabia over
the suspicion that the Saudi
Embassy in Canberra had financed around twenty Imam in Australia. Riyadh
categorically refuse to
identify the groups even though Canberra’s version of the facts was
supported by witnesses amongst the
local Muslim community. The Saudi diplomats have conducted a number of
visits to the Pacific
communities and have placed a lot of attention on financing international
students, allowing them to study
abroad, through the assistance of the Islamic Development Bank. The Saudi
refusal to respond to the
Australian demands has underlined a lack of transparency, something that
is cause for concern. At the
same time a training program entitled Pacific Islam Training Course,
available to Australians and those
living on the islands, has been made available at the Islamic University
of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, and,
from what is understood, there have been numerous inscriptions. It remain
to be seen exactly if Saudi
Arabia and Malaysia are competing or cooperating.
The question of security
Generally speaking a peaceful form Islam has been absorbed in eastern
Melanesia, however, in the
western part and in particular in the area under the control of Indonesia
a certain level of disorder has
been noted. These areas host violent groups and there are periodic
outbreaks of violence, as happened
in Ambon in the Maluku Archipelago where, at the end of the nineties, more
than 10.000 dies in clashes
between Christians and Muslims. The local population accused the
Government of being responsible and
of promoting a policy that obstacles integration between the two
communities. The Government’s position
is based upon the fear that these territories are seeking independence
from Indonesia. In West Papua,
that is the Indonesian part of New Guinea, the Free West Papua Movement
has for years sustained that
some groups, such as the JI and the Laskar Jihad, are involved in
subversive activities aimed at
suppressing independence movements. In addition to this they are accused
of attempting to extend their
activities to neighbouring countries such as Papua New Guinea, Australia,
and other Pacific islands.
It is also feared that numerous training camps have been set up in West
Papua where the militant Islamic
groups have had a foothold for a long time. All considered, apart from
public disorder in Indonesia, it has
to be evidenced that in the rest of the Pacific no violence has been
notes, in addition the Muslim
communities live in harmony with the rest of the population. All of the
nations in question provide for
religious freedom in their constitutions. There is the risk that these
countries are taken advantage of by
violent groups. The November 2002 arson attack on the mosque in Port
Moresby, capital of Papua New
Guinea, raised concerns. The cause of the incident may well have been the
declaration of the Deputy
Prime Minister who claimed that the constitution needed to be revised in
order to include an article which
banned violent religions, something a number of individual consider Islam
to be. Whilst the Muslim
population suffers attacks from time to time in 2005 a group of Indonesian
militants were accused of
recruiting inhabitants of the Salomon Islands and training them in camps
in Indonesia.
Conclusions
Far from encouraging signals in regards to the spread of Islam are
arriving from the Pacific: if on the one
hand pacific movements are being formed the opposite is also true and
vigilance is required. It would
appear that the danger lies with foreigners rather than inside the local
communities. The local
communities should, in their own interests, make an effort to accept the
peaceful message of Islam while
being wary of the violent currents. Local governments will have to
understand that placed too much
emphasis on the role of the State will not permit the freedom of the daily
spirituality typical of the Pacific
islands. There is also the issue that while Australia and the USA are
concentrating on the situation in Iraq
and Afghanistan they are not following what is taking place much nearer to
home.
---
http://www.pacificmagazine.net/issue/2007/06/29/green-moon-rising
Green Moon Rising
Islam Is Spreading In Melanesia
By Words and Photos by Ben Bohane, Port Vila
Much of the funding for the Hohola mosque in Port Moresby comes from
Malaysian and Saudi sources.
For Mohammed “Sambo” Seddiq, a Ni-Vanuatu Muslim who provided land and a
small building that
houses Vanuatu’s first mosque, conversion to Islam didn’t happen overnight.
Sitting on a prayer mat inside the green-painted house in Mele village
that from the exterior looks like any
other house in the community, Seddiq tells me it was a process that
happened over many years,
beginning with a sense of curiosity, until he felt that “Allah had truly
called me” and it was time to change
his life.
“I was a Pentecostal Christian before, with the Neil Thomas Mission, but I
didn’t feel in control of my life
and I had a problem with alcohol,” he says openly. “Islam is straight
forward and disciplined and this is
what I needed to be a better person in the eyes of Allah. You know, the
Bible is only full of stories, but I
found that the Qur’an gives direction to life.”
He was first exposed to the faith when one of his relatives, John Henry
Nabanga, had returned from India
in 1978 where he had been sent for Bible studies and scriptural
translations but instead came home
converted to Islam.
Seddiq watched how Islam had transformed John “Hussein” Nabanga into an
honorable and generous
man and the way his extended family began to embrace it through his
personal example. In 1992, the
Mele mosque was opened and each Friday since then, the dozen or two local
Muslims who live in the
capital Port Vila can be found at prayers in the stark room, unadorned
except for a curtain screening off
the women and a large clock with a picture of Mecca on it.
Today, there are between 100 and 200 ni-Vanuatu converts to Islam. Mosques
are now springing up in
the outer islands of the archipelago, such as in the islands of Malekula
and Tanna. Chiefs are often the
target of proselytizing efforts on the often correct assumption that if
they convert then their extended
families, clans and other islanders will also likely convert.
Of course, it is not just Vanuatu witnessing the phenomenon — throughout
the Pacific Islands, Islam is on
the rise and an umma (Islamic community) is being established in every
country of the region.
Islam is the world’s fastest growing religion and the Pacific is proving
no exception: indeed it seems to be
actively targeted by Malaysian and Saudi-funded organizations, with
oversight coming from within the
established umma in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. In many instances,
African Muslim missionaries are
being deployed in the belief that Pacific Islanders will naturally respond
better to the efforts of fellow black
missionaries.
Nowhere is the growth of Islam more palpable than in Melanesia, which has
a culture of religious
dynamism and experimentation, where kastom, cargo cult and Christian
movements continue to evolve,
blend, mutate, syncretise and spawn new belief systems. Now Islam can be
added to the mix and its
effect on traditional kastom, national politics and regional security can
no longer be overlooked.
Although there are no official figures and few academic studies, it is
believed there has been thousands
of indigenous converts to Islam in recent years in Papua New Guinea,
Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji
alone. New Caledonia also has a large, but unknown number of Muslims who
have settled there from all
over the Francophone world over the past 100 years.
It was while cruising PNG’s rugged highlands highway two years ago and
noticing the increasing number
of bush mosques springing up, that first prompted me to ask: why is Islam
becoming a serious religious
alternative for Pacific Islanders?
My first instinct was to dismiss it, thinking: “nah— Islam is never going
to take hold in a region which is
based on pig culture.” But perhaps I’m wrong.
Prayers at the Mele mosque outside Port Villa.
There are indeed cultural parallels. First among these may be the fact
that Islam developed from a tribal
Arabic culture also and maintains decision-making bodies (shurias) that
are similar, in their social
organization and un-hierarchical nature, to Melanesian chiefly councils.
The notion of “payback” is one that resonates strongly in both Melanesian
and Islamic tradition, ie the
notion of “eye for an eye.” Although Christian influence is strong, Jesus’
example of “turning the other
cheek” has not, it must be said, been largely adopted by Melanesians.
One of the widespread frustrations among islanders to Western law stems
from the fact that Western law
does not compensate the victim, unlike traditional Melanesian and Islamic
law. Polygamy and gender
separation (such as Men’s Houses and Women’s Houses in Melanesia) are part
of both Pacific and
Islamic culture. Seddiq in Vanuatu even suggests that since his people
traditionally sat on mats on the
floor, mosques feel more natural to them than sitting in Church pews.
Part of the problem Western observers have in understanding the region is
that they tend to have a
secular outlook and place primacy of their analysis on the role of the
State (issues of good governance,
corruption, service delivery, unemployment etc) when in fact the world
view of Melanesians today is
virtually the opposite – their daily lives remain governed by kastom and
religious obligations and
subsistence agriculture. They place little emphasis on the role of the
State since it is an introduced
concept, heavily centralized in the capital cities and usually has little
impact on the daily lives of islanders
living in rural and remote areas.
Scott Flower, a PhD student at the Crawford School of Pacific Policy at
the Australian National University
in Canberra, is one of the few to take the growth of Islam in Melanesia
seriously, with a regional view.
“Melanesian people generally do not comprehend or desire the separation of
religion and the State. The
centrality of religion in their daily life is very important,” he says,
suggesting an inherent feeling towards
living in a theocratic State; whether it is in kastom, Christianity or Islam.
Flower argues that Muslim communities in each country will continue to
grow in size and number
because, like Christianity, Islam and its associated organizations provide
islanders with public goods
(such as health and education), a moral and spiritual system, and access
to other global networks and
opportunities, prestige and alternative paths to social and political power.
“In general, conversions from traditional religions to Christianity in
Melanesia were not only for theological
and spiritual reasons but for practical purposes as well. It is unlikely
that the attraction to Islam in this way
will be any different,” he says.
Already, an Islamic school in Oro province in PNG is attracting children
from neighboring villages happy
for any schooling.
I have met families from poor squatter settlements in Port Moresby, Port
Vila and other urban centers
who are sending their children away to madrassas (Islamic schools)
overseas in Malaysia, Yemen, Fiji,
and Saudi Arabia “because they will have better opportunities there,” they
tell me.
When the deadly Solomons tsunami crashed through Gizo and Western Province
killing 53 people and
displacing thousands of villagers, the international Muslim Aid
organization quickly dispatched medical
teams and supplies for the affected areas and islanders embraced this aid
as much as any other. It is
believed to be the first time a major Islamic charity has offered
assistance to a Pacific country following a
natural disaster.
The process to become a Muslim is in itself simple, compared to other
faiths: one needs only to have
made the decision definitively in your mind and recite the basic tenet of
the faith three times (“There is no
God but Allah and Mohammed is His prophet”), in the company of fellow
Muslims, to be accepted into the
faith.
Foreign and local missionaries alike often suggest that what they offer is
not conversion, but reversion–
that is, by embracing Islam islanders are reverting back to kastom and
ancestral ways. It is clever
marketing, but slightly disingenuous. When I discussed this notion with
Seddiq in Vanuatu and Yaqub
Amaki from the PNG Muslim Association at the Hohola mosque in Port
Moresby, both conceded that
eventually Islam has primacy and there was little kastom that would survive.
The foundations of much Melanesian kastom relating to pigs, beetlenut
chewing, kava drinking, ancestral
worship as well as dancing related to courtship or ancestral/ nature
worship is not halal ( therefore tabu)
for those who truly embrace Islam. This prompts the question: what kastom
is left? Can Pacific kastom
find a place within orthodox Islamic interpretation?
This question goes to the heart of one of the central questions facing
Islam globally–how can Islam
separate its faith and philosophy from Arabic cultural practices?
Those interested in preserving Melanesian kastom see Islam as potentially
a damaging cultural force,
rather than a security one. Professor Kirk Hoffman, one of the founders of
the Vanuatu Cultural Centre
puts it bluntly: “The growth of Islam will destroy Melanesian kastom in
perhaps the same way that strict
Christian missionaries did 100 or 200 years ago.”
There is also the issue of Pacific Islanders not being fully aware of the
whole breadth and range of Islam
to choose from, from the very tolerant, mystical Sufi tradition, to
orthodox Sunni and Shia beliefs, to
militant Wahhabi-ism, to explicitly non-violent sects of Islam such as the
Ahmadiyyah, founded in 1889,
who believe “there can only ever be a jihad of the heart” and who are
deemed heretical by other Muslims
for believing that a Sufi-inspired Indian prophet named Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
was “the last prophet,” not
Mohammed.
Often persecuted in their own Muslim countries, some of Ahmadiyyah’s 100
million followers worldwide
are ironically seeking sanctuary in Christian countries, including the
Pacific. There is already a strong
community in Kimbe, PNG and in Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. Unlike other
Islamic groups, the
Ahmadiyyah seem much more transparent with their activities, with
information on its Australian and
Pacific activities available on its website www.ahmadiyya.org.au.
Given that Islam is on the rise anyway, perhaps it is in the interests of
Pacific governments to actively
encourage the input of non-violent Islamic groups like the Ahmadiyyas in
their local Muslim communities
as one of the seeds of Pacific Islam.
Islam can offer a range of benefits to island communities in terms of
local service delivery and access to
global finance for development (through such organizations as the Islamic
Development Bank).
As the Islamic world comes in contact with Pacific culture, so too is it
important for Pacific island
communities to have a better understanding of the range of
Islam—particularly those drawn to the
faith—and the likely impact it will have on their societies. Seddiq in the
Mele mosque points out that in
Vanuatu, unlike other Pacific Islands, Islam was established by “its own
sons,” not foreign missionaries,
so that it will always maintain a local flavor.
“Islam here is homegrown, so we can control it. Other countries have
foreign missionaries but what
happens when they leave? Better that we send our children overseas to
study and come back with good
degrees than having to rely on overseas missionaries coming here.”
Right now, 28 Muslims from Vanuatu are studying in Islamic colleges
overseas: in Fiji, Malaysia, New
Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan. Given that it is the smallest
country in Melanesia, it is likely that
at any one time hundreds of Pacific Muslims are studying overseas in
madrassas throughout the Islamic
world.
Already a debate is well underway at the Hohola mosque in PNG’s capital
Port Moresby on what kind of
Islam is most suitable for this part of the world.
Regular inter-faith dialogues with members of PNG’s Roman Catholic,
Anglican, Bahai and Buddhist
clergy are also a cause for optimism that dialogue is in progress and
communal tensions can be kept in
check.
One rainy Friday I attended prayers at the Hohola mosque and was welcomed
in with all the hospitality
that Muslims are famous for.
The Imam, brother Mikail Abdul Aziz from Nigeria, was away, so I met the
acting Imam, Khaled, a
Bougainvillean who is the most senior Papua New Guinean Muslim. Khaled
comes across as thoughtful
and easy-going. He jokes about how his wife has remained a committed
Christian who occasionally likes
to argue with him on religious matters, but that ultimately it has not
affected their personal relationship
why shouldn’t that be something of a metaphor for the wider community, he
seems to imply?
Given that much of the funding for the Hohola mosque has come from Saudi
and Malaysian sources, that
its’ Imam is a Nigerian steeped in Wahhabi-ism, (the most puritanical of
Muslim ideology which Osama
bin Laden also subscribes to) and that all copies of the Holy Qur’an on
their shelf have been printed in
Saudi Arabia and follow Wahhabi-ist interpretations
I feel compelled to
ask if this is the most
appropriate form of Islam for PNG and the region?
Yaqub Amaki, a Sepik River man who is General Secretary for the PNG Muslim
Association replies: “I
can say that we have already had some very robust discussions on this
issue. Some of us think that a
more moderate interpretation, found in countries like Malaysia and
Indonesia, will be more appropriate
for the umma here. We are still finding our way here and while there are
no real divisions in Islam, there
are different paths and we need to be open to debate.
“Since the Saudis and Malaysians were here in the beginning to assist us,
it is only natural that we should
follow their lead, but I am confident that Islam here will gradually take
on a more PNG style over time.”
The question of funding for Islam in Australia and the Pacific has become
a prickly one at times. In
January this year a minor spat broke out between the Australian government
and the Saudi government
following claims that the Saudi Embassy in Canberra was funding
unidentified Islamic groups to pay
wages for at least 20 Imams in mosques around Australia.
The Saudi government refused to identify the groups and Canberra disputed
claims that all the recipients
getting Saudi cash had been vetted by Australia’s Foreign Affairs and
Trade, as is required.
Numerous Pacific Island Muslims I have spoken to have said that they
receive financial support and other
assistance from the Saudi Embassy in Canberra, believing that the mission
has diplomatic responsibility
and religious oversight for the Pacific Islands as well. Saudi diplomats
have visited numerous Pacific
Island communities and help channel scholarship funds for students who
want to study abroad, often with
the assistance of the Islamic Development Bank.
Pacific Magazine approached an information officer at the Saudi Embassy in
Canberra recently to ask
for an official outline of its assistance to Pacific Island communities,
but was told flatly, “the Saudi
Government does not provide any help to the Pacific Islands – go and talk
to the Malaysians and
Indonesians. Further questions were not responded to. Although the range
of assistance is likely to be for
non-controversial purposes such as mosque-building and education in the
islands, it is this lack of
transparency that concerns some observers.
Meanwhile a Pacific Imam training course is available for Australians and
Pacific Islanders to undergo at
the Islamic University in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. A Malaysian organization
called RISEAP (Regional
Islamic Da’wah Council of South East Asia and the Pacific) has already
funded dozens, maybe
hundreds, of Pacific Island Muslims to do the intensive three-month course
there.
Whether Malaysia and Saudi Arabia are in competition for the souls of
Pacific Islander Muslims, or are
actually working together in co-ordination is hard to tell at this stage.
The Security Question
While Islam is being quietly and peacefully absorbed into central and
eastern Melanesian nations and
most parts of the Pacific, the same cannot be said for those in western
Melanesia, particularly those
under Indonesian control. Here, jihadi groups flourish and sectarian
conflict periodically explodes, such
as in Ambon and the Molluku islands, where more than 10,000 people died in
sectarian conflict between
Christians and Muslims in the late 1990s. Locals accuse sections of the
Indonesian military of
deliberately sparking the conflict in a divide and rule tactic, afraid the
once-united community of these
islands wanted to break-away from Indonesia after the fall of Suharto.
In West Papua, the OPM (Free West Papua Movement) has for years warned
that militant groups such
as JI and Laskar Jihad are operating there to suppress the independence
movement as well as
springboarding across unpatrolled borders into neighboring PNG, Australia
and other Pacific Islands.
OPM Commander John Koknak claims there are more than a dozen jihad
training camps across West
Papua, many of them close the border with PNG and Australia.
An increasing number of bush mosques have sprouted in Papua New Guinea’s
highlands region in
recent years.
“I have been warning Australia and PNG for some time, but they prefer to
trust the Generals in Jakarta”
Koknak told me from his base in PNG. “You know, militant Islam in the
Pacific is nothing new: JI is using
the same networks as the Libyan Mataban groups who came here in the 1980s
to set up cells and
support Pacific liberation groups.”
Commander Koknak’s assessment is supported by “Robert,” a Papua New
Guinean Defense Force
intelligence operative with responsibility for PNG’s border, who
complained to me recently that infiltration
by militant groups and people smugglers is going on regularly across PNG’s
unmonitored 800km border
with Indonesia, which he described as “the gateway for terrorists into the
Pacific.”
“The Australians and Americans keep focusing on Iraq and Afghanistan, but
they should be
concentrating on their own backyard here in the Pacific instead.” Other
Pacific leaders are more
skeptical of the threat of terrorism, like former Prime Minister of the
Cook Islands, Sir Geoffrey Henry.
“Terrorism is not part of our world, it doesn’t matter what anybody else
says,” Sir Geoffrey told ABC radio
in a 2003 interview, complaining that a regional police conference had
taken the threat of terrorism as its
top theme that year.
“They’re all wrong. The fact of the matter is we are free of terrorism.”
If we discount the sectarian fighting in the Melanesian territories of
Indonesia, it is true that the Pacific
has so far not witnessed any Islamic-inspired terrorist incidents and
local Islamic communities in the
Pacific generally live in peace within the broader community. All Pacific
nations have enshrined “freedom
of religion” within their Constitutions.
But that has not stopped periodic alerts and the possibility of small
Pacific states acting as unwitting
springboards for militant Islamic groups.
Two of the September 11 hijackers lived in Fiji for several months
immediately prior to flying on to U.S.
for their mission.
In August 2002 American Samoa put a blanket ban on visits by Muslim
visitors from 23 countries,
following the closure of the American consulate there because of a
terrorist threat. Apparently two
unidentified men “of Middle Eastern appearance” had been seen
photographing the consulate and
concerns were raised about the visit by Sheik Abdul Majid, director of the
Islamic Institute of the South
Pacific (based in the Fijian capital Suva) along with a Saudi official
from the Ministry of Tourism and
Culture. Sheik Majid claimed the visit was part of a tour of Islamic
communities in the Pacific, but soon
after, in February 2003 the Sudanese-born cleric was expelled from Fiji on
the grounds that he was a
security threat.
The Islamic Human Rights Commission had also raised concern for the umma
in PNG, following an
arsonist attack on the main mosque in Port Moresby in November 2002. The
attack may have been
inspired by comments made by PNG’s then Deputy Prime Minister that PNG’s
Constitution should be
changed to allow for the banning of “violent religions,” which many took
as a reference to Islam. Muslims
have also been periodically attacked in the highlands of PNG, including
one incident in Mt Hagen when a
mob turned on a group of local and foreign Muslims, which required police
to intervene and fire shots into
the air before escorting the Muslims to their homes in neighboring Chimbu
province.
In the Solomon Islands, Radio SIBC reported in July 2005 claims made by
the countries’ Finance
Minister Peter Boyers, that Islamic militants from Indonesia had tried
recruiting young Solomon Islanders
for training camps in Indonesia.
The Minister said that Solomon Islands Muslim groups were against radical
Islam and refused the
request, something supported by Felix Narasia of the Islamic Society of
Solomon Islands. Narasia said
the Islamic Society denounces any recruitment of Solomon Island youth for
such purposes, saying such
contacts were “illegal” and outside the Islamic
Society of Solomon Islands.
Then late last year came the intriguing story of Wolfgang Bohringer and
his Slovenian girlfriend, who
sailed into Kiribati’s Fanning island in 2005 to set up a flight training
school on this remote island close to
U.S. territory.
Suspicions arose over his motives, prompting Kiribati officials and the
FBI to investigate, but when
Bohringer got wind of it, he sailed off, leaving his girlfriend behind.
How worried should we be about Islamic terrorism in the Pacific? Scott
Flower at the ANU: “While the
more alarmist government and media scenarios of terrorist threats in the
Pacific are undoubtedly inflated,
the other perspective of a completely benign security environment is also
likely to be incorrect.”
While there have been some assessments done on threats to Australia and
the U.S. from the region,
Flower points out how little study has been done on the potential for
domestic conflict within Melanesia as
Islam grows. He warns of Muslim groups taking security into their own
hands if they face repeated
persecution in PNG, particularly in the volatile highlands.
In the Solomons, a situation has developed where the Ahmadiyyas have
focused their proselytizing
efforts on Guadalcanal island while orthodox Sunni organizations have
targeted Malaita islanders. Several
former Malaitan Eagle Force militants have reportedly converted to Islam
and there is a danger that the
on-going ethnic tension between Guadalcanal and Malaita (which caused
civil war in the late 1990s and
prompted the Australian-led RAMSI intervention) could become exacerbated
by religious differences, too.
Clearly there are some warning signs there, but any threats to the Pacific
are more likely to come from
foreign militants using the cover of local Islamic communities, rather
than from indigenous Pacific
Muslims themselves. As these local Muslim communities grow, it will be in
their interests to identify those
among them who are straying from Mohammed’s message of peace, and to “out”
militants among them
whose actions will only rebound badly on local communities.
Regional Pacific and Australian governments also need to become more
nuanced in their approach to
dealing with Islam and to better understand the link between conflict and
kastom, cargo cult and new
religious movements generally, in Melanesia. Too much emphasis on “the
State” and not enough on
understanding the complex daily spirit worlds of Pacific Islanders risks
misunderstanding their real hopes
and aspirations.
---
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20070809.H06&irec=5
Papua's autonomy not even skin deep: MRP
JAKARTA: Papua's five-year-old special autonomy status has done nothing to
lift social conditions for the
majority of Papuan people thanks to the poor allocation of autonomy funds,
said the Papuan People's
Assembly (MPR) in Australia on Tuesday.
Huge amounts of money have to be allocated for development programs in
education, health and
infrastructure, said MPR chairman Agus Alue Alua at the Australian
National University in Canberra.
"A bigger part of the huge autonomy funds has been spent to finance the
bureaucracy and I regret
Papuan authorities (cannot cope with) ... HIV/AIDS or (alcoholism) among
locals," he said.
"Most Papuan people have yet to accept the special autonomy as something
that could improve their
social welfare," he told Antara.
He said the main problem in Papua was not the 2001 special autonomy law,
but its implementation. --JP
---
Paths to Justice and Prosperity: West Papua 2007
A conference organised by Indonesian Solidarity in association with the
West Papua Project, Centre
for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPACS), University of Sydney, and
supported by
The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Technology
Where:
The Wool Room International
House The
University of Sydney
When:
Thurs 9 - Fri 10 August, 2007
>From 9.30 am - 5.00 pm
96 City Road Chippendale
[The organisers wish to thank Ms Jessica Carroll, Director of
International House, for her generous
support of the conference.]
Program
Thursday 9 August 2007
Opening and registration:
9.30- 10 am
Opening: Dr John Rawson (Indonesian Solidarity) and Assoc Prof Jake Lynch
(CPACS).
Launch: Dr Meredith Burgmann (former President, Legislative Council of NSW)
First Session 10 ? 11.15 am
Topic: Problems and prospects of the special autonomy law.
Speakers: Agus Alue Alua (MRP); Assoc Prof Richard Chauvel (VU) [30 mins
each]
Chair: Jake Lynch
Break: 11.15-11.45 am
First Session contd: 11.45 am-1 pm
Additional Speakers: Dr Jim Elmslie (CPACS) [10 mins]
Franz Albert Joku, (PDP, PNG) [10 mins]
Summing Up: Agus Alua
Chair: Jason McLeod
Lunch: 1-2 pm
Lunch available at Artos café next door to International House in the
Architecture building on City Rd,
and at the Wentworth Bldg [student union] further along City Rd.
Second Session: 2-3.30 pm
Topic: The role of civil society in the democratic process in West Papua;
international solidarity with
Papua?s cause.
Speakers: Rev Corinus Berotabui (GKI) [30 mins]
Professor Peter King (West Papua Project) [20 mins]
Chair: John Rawson
Break: 3.30-4 pm
Third Session: 4-5 pm
Topic: Labor and Politics in West Papua: the Freeport strike and after
Speakers: Frans Pigome (Chair, Tongoi Papua); Juliana Ibo (executive
member, Tongoi Papua) [
Chair: Matthew Jamieson
Additional Speaker: Luther Kogoya
6 pm: Conference Drinks and Dinner :
Emad?s, 298 Cleveland St, Surry Hills
Friday 10 August 2007
First Session 9.30-11 am
Topic: Problems of human rights activism and support campaigns
Speakers: Paula Makabory (ELSHAM) [30 mins]
Rev Sofyan Yoman (tbc) and tba
Chair: Noni Hodgson
Break: 11-11.30 am
Second Session 11.30 am-1 pm
Topic : Participation of women in social and political movements in
Papua;the HIV pandemic in Papua
and what to do about it
Speakers: Domingus Nari [20 mins]; David Wambrauw (YHI) [20 mins]
Chair: Anne Noonan
Lunch: 1-2 pm
Third Session 2-3.30 pm
Topic : The prospects for human rights and social justice in West Papua;
Australian policy towards
Indonesia, especially West Papua.
Speakers: J. Budi Hernawan (Sekkp) [30 mins]
Dr Clinton Fernandez (ADFA, UNSW) [20 mins]
Chair: Joe Collins
Break: 3.30-4 pm
Concluding Forum: 4-5 pm
Topic : Which Way, Papua?
Panel: J. Budi Hernawan (Sekkp); Agus Alue Alua (MRP); Rev Corinus
Berotabui (GKI)
Moderators: Eko Waluyo (Indonesian Solidarity)and Peter King (WPP)
Main Speakers
Mr Agus Alue Alua, Chairman of the Papuan People's Assembly (Majelis
Rakyat Papua, MRP)
Rev Corinus Berotabui, Chairman of Evangelical Christian Church in the
Land of Papua
(Gereja Kristen Injil, GKI)
J. Budi Hernawan OFM, Director of the Office for Justice and Peace of the
Diocese (Sekretariat
Keadilan dan Perdamain, SKP) of Jayapura (West Papua)
Domingus Nari, Independent researcher
Ms Paula Makabory, Australian representative of ELSHAM Papua, co-founder
of the Institute for
Papuan Advocacy & Human Rights, Byron Bay, and member of the Steering
Committee of the West
Papua Project. She currently lives in exile in Melbourne.
David Wambrauw, Director of Yayasan Harapan Ibu (Mother's Hope
Foundation), Jayapura; Australian
Leadership Award Fellow (AusAID)
Juliana Ibo and Frans Pigome, Tongoi Papua, Timika
Rev Sofyan Yoman, Chairman of the Alliance of Baptist Churches in West Papua
Dr. Richard Chauvel, Director of the Australia Asia Pacific Institute,
Victoria University, Melbourne.
Dr Clinton Fernandes, Senior Lecturer in Strategic Studies, School of
Humanities and Social Sciences,
the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy
Canberra.
Professor Peter King, Convener of the West Papua Project, Centre for Peace
and Conflict Studies,
University of Sydney.
Other Papuans Attending
Rev Naboth Manufandu, Coordinator of Pastoral Counselling, HIV/AIDS
Commission of GKI; Australian
Leadership Award Fellow (AusAID)
Yohana Baransano, UNDP Project Officer, Gender Mainstreaming into
Development Policies and
Programs; Australian Leadership Award Fellow
Wiwince Pigome, student, WA
Jacob Prai, OPM office, Sweden
Franz Albert Joku, ex PDP (Presidium Dewan Papua--Papua Council Presidium)
Luther Kogoya, Tongoi Papua
Contacts:
John Rawson 02 9217 3874 indonesian_solidarity at yahoo.com.au
Peter King 02 9351 6945 peterk at econ.usyd.edu.au
Peter King
Research Associate
Discipline of Government and International Relations
HO4
University of Sydney 2006
NSW
Australia
Tel 61 2 93516945
Fax 93513624
Mobile 0422 647 025
---
RADIO AUSTRALIA NEWS
Last Updated 09/08/2007,
A politician from Indonesia's Papua province has called on the Australian
government to raise the issue
of Papuan independence with the Indonesian president at next month's APEC
summit in Sydney.
The chairman of the upper house of the Papuan People's Assembly, Agus Alue
Alua, was speaking at a
human rights conference at Sydney University.
He says since special autonomy was introduced to the province five years
ago, Indonesia has doubled its
military deployment there and human rights violations against Papuans have
increased.
"We need international mediation to start a dialogue to achieve the
solution of political problem and
human rights violation in West Papua," Mr Alue Alua said.
The former Dutch colony in the western half of the island of New Guinea
has a majority Melanesian
population and was incorporated into Indonesia as a province in the 1960s.
An armed seccessionist group has been fighting for independence ever since.
---
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaileditorial.asp?fileid=20070809.E03&irec=2
Embracing the future of Indonesia
Ichsan Malik, Jakarta
Before 2006, violent conflicts in Indonesia tended to be massive. However,
in 2006 they transformed into
smaller scale with limited area, specific actors and more actual issues.
Recent examples of smaller scale violence are property damage, aggravated
assault, murder and
aggression involving individuals, groups or organizations, either
civilians or state apparatus.
According to Institut Titian Perdamaian (ITP) research, 240 violent
conflicts occurred from January to
November 2006 in Indonesia. Hence, a violent conflict occurred every 36
hours in Indonesia.
These days potential sources of small-scale communal violent conflict
include political crises, especially
mass mobilizations for provincial or regency elections. Other potential
sources of conflict are natural
resources and territorial or land crises. Nevertheless, the most
frightening conflicts are religious or
ethnic-based. Indeed, violence has occurred in 90 regencies/cities in 26
provinces in Indonesia.
Regarding the intensity of these conflicts, five provinces are classified
as very high, where communal
violence occurred more than 15 times in 2006. These are Jakarta, West
Java, East Java, Papua,and
Central Sulawesi.
Potential areas for large-scale violent conflict in Indonesia
Papua has three main problems that have the potential to erupt into
large-scale violent conflict.
The first involves the interpretation of Papua history. For the government
of Indonesia, after the New York
Agreement in 1962, and after an international understanding through a
referendum in 1969, Papua's
integration into Indonesia is final.
For Papuans, the integration has two core problems: lack of local
participation, and it was marred by
conspiracy, intimidation and other political violence. Other sources of
conflict in Papua are their
aspirations for independence, and human rights violations in the area.
However, Papuans also have the potential to build peace. In 2000, they
declared -- through religious,
traditional and social institutions -- Papua as a Land of Peace.
After the Malino agreement in 2002, violence between Muslim and Christian
communities abated.
However, violence in Central Sulawesi still exists.
There are three main problems in Poso.
The first is the corruption of post-conflict refugee and development aid
due to the central government's
failure to cooperate with the local government.
The second is the growth of religious radicalism of youth communities in
Poso.
The third is post-conflict religious development aid from the central
government that has exaggerated
religion exploitation and marginalized local religious networks.
Nevertheless, peace-building initiatives in Poso and Central Sulawesi rose
during the peak of the conflict
in the middle of 2000. Several local and national NGOs, religious
institutions, universities and the central
government finalized these initiatives through the Malino declaration.
Meanwhile, in Aceh, after the tsunami in 2004, Aceh faced its great
transformation era and entered its
peace-building stage, consisting of reintegration, rehabilitation and
reconstruction.
During this stage, Aceh has had to re-develop its structures and
infrastructure. At the same time, Aceh
entered its conflict prevention stage, which consists of several efforts
to prevent another conflict. To clear
up all of the violent tribulations, the government is preparing a truth
and reconciliation commission.
Nowadays, Aceh has successfully elected a new governor who was promoted as
an independent
candidate. This successful election has established Aceh as a fair and
democratic province. However,
during its peace-building period, Aceh still has to struggle with
reintegration problems at the community
level, interaction problems with outsiders and sharia enforcement that is
more likely to be just a political
agreement.
After the Malino agreement in 2002 and local initiatives from Baku Bae
Movement Maluku and Pattimura
University in January 2003, Maluku generally saw an end to any violence
involving mass mobilization.
However, several time bombs are waiting to explode, such as the South
Maluku Republic (RMS).
Another time bomb in Maluku is its well-isolated economic development.
Maluku has nothing but its deep
sea, which needs a great vision, strong commitment and lots of capital to
develop.
For such a big dream, Maluku has stepped forward by forming Majelis
Latupati Maluku (Maluku's Kings
Assembly). This association of kings will support peaceful development in
Maluku through its own natural
and human resources.
Until we have a comprehensive state regulation on conflict settlement, we
will handle violent conflict not
only in a partial and reactive manner, but also in a political, exclusive
and conservative way. In many
areas the government prefers to settle violent conflicts with a military
solution. This kind of settlement
promises nothing but sorrow.
In order to embrace a brighter and more peaceful future for Indonesia, we
must share a mutual
awareness of peace itself. The upcoming International Day of Peace is a
chance to fulfill our peaceful
dream. Several institutions have committed to commemorate the
International Day of Peace in Indonesia
this Sept. 21.
We have committed to share our dreams of peace and build a brighter future
for Indonesia together.
The writer is director of Institut Titian Perdamaian, Jakarta.
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