Papua

‘The State of Freeport’ – A Fait Accompli Tragedy

Radio Netherlands | Military Aggression | Tue, March 07 2006, 13:13 PM

Written by Aboeprijadi Santoso · 3 min read >
Photo: gannett cdn

Papua is a synonym for a fait accompli tragedy. It is frequently forced into situations by external forces which then become immutable. First, the Dutch came and it was forced to become part of the Dutch East Indies, and then to become part of the Republic as the result of New Order-style trickery, but which was accepted as legitimate by the rest of the world.

The third fait accompli was the operations of a major corporation which combined local political and economic interests with (multi-)national interests to exploit its natural resources for the benefit of everyone excepting the local people but which also brought Papua a multidimensional disaster, a tragedy called Freeport.

No longer keeping quiet For two weeks, there has been uproar in Papua. It all began when a number of men panning for gold in the operational area of the mighty US copper and gold company, Freeport McMoran Copper and Gold Inc. were arrested.

It subsequently turned out that they had come there to pan thanks to the efforts of an army unit in charge of guarding the Freeport mine.

So, this means that these illegal panners were rounded up by the very same army unit that had brought them there in the first place? The reason? They were accused of being from the OPM, Organisasi Papua Merdeka.

But if they were OPM, why had they been brought there? Outsiders, people from Jakarta or from overseas, are in the habit of using NKRI (United State of the Republic of Indonesia) as nothing more than a slogan, proclaiming that ‘it must be the OPM’. Isn’t that what is undermining the NKRI? So what more do you want?

But when you talk about the “OPM”, it means that there is no security, while the lack of security is the reason for increasing their bill for taking charge of Freeport’s security.

Papuan people who are well aware of the dynamic in Papua have known about this for a long time. But this time they are no longer staying quiet.

‘This has been army’s way in Papua for decades,’ they say. And they have been speaking out not only to the media but also in the streets. Not only in Wamena, but also in Nabire, Jayapura, Manokwari, Makassar, Jogjakarta and Jakarta. They are calling for Freeport to be closed down because they see the company here as ‘The State of Freeport’.

Is ‘The State of Freeport identical with the New Order?

The company that is running one of the world’s biggest gold mines is more than simply a business enterprise. It is situated in a very remote region, on a mountain called Grasberg, on the slopes of the Central Highlands.

Its history is amazing. This was the very first foreign investment concluded under the New Order, which was signed at a time when Papua (West Irian) was still in limbo, on 1 April 1967, still awaiting the results of the Act of Free Choice in 1969.

Today, according to a report in The Australian, Freeport’s annual income is US$4.2 billion, with a profit of US$934.6 million. Whereas the New Order began life with the tragic massacres in 1965-66, it began its accumulation of wealth from the natural resources with Freeport’s arrival in Papua.

Freeport is more than a fait accompli tragedy. It arrived along with the New Order under the centralist military rubric of NKRI. With its headquarters in Louisiana in the US, it operates in the depths of the Papuan jungle, on the slopes of Grasberg. No journalists have ever entered the area. You can only glimpse Grasberg with the help of Google.

During its lifetime, Freeport has earned the third largest profits in this Republic while lining the pockets of the Soeharto Family and the army.

Since the 1980s, thanks to the efforts of Soeharto’s son-in-law, Major General Prabowo, Freeport has paid money to the local military command, army units and police which have guarded Freeport, in violation of American law, though such laws do not exist in Indonesia. Freeport’s operations have never been transparent and with good reason.

Freeport is also part of the mechanism of the New Order and its operations would never have been possible without the New Order regime, with its NKRI centralism. So, like it or not, Freeport is a kind of state.

Thanks to Google, we know that the men panning for gold, other outsiders and even the local inhabitants cannot enter the area of Freeport operations, high up in the mountains and heavily guarded by the army, excepting when these panners are brought there by the men guarding Freeport. And according to Papuan observer, Dr Benny Giay, ‘in the territory of Freeport, the army is God’.

Thanks to an article in The New York Times last December, we know all about the privileged position of Freeport ever since the New Order because of their exceptional contract.

Contract must be revised

Now, the people in the Central Highlands are furious. Movements have emerged that have been inspired by the struggles of America’s civil rights fighter, Martin Luther King and are occurring in Papua as well as in towns and cities in Java and Sulawesi. Now, they are angry with Freeport and with the army who is in control of Freeport.

Several months ago, a young boy from the locality was shot in Waghete, and the man who shot him received a light sentence. Even worse was the detention of a dozen or more people together with Antonius Wamang, charged with the murder of US citizens, teachers at a school near Timika, in August 2002.

According to the police chief at the time, I Made Mangku Pastika, the perpetrators were a group of TNI soldiers but after the US exerted continual pressure on Jakarta for the arrest and trial of the perpetrators, Jakarta brought forward Wamang and a number of Papuans, who were not the real perpetrators.

These are the events that resulted in the Central Highlands protest calling for Freeport to be closed down.

Of course, the government in Jakarta does not like the idea of losing this highly profitable resource, while Freeport for its part is not happy about losing an investment which is now worth $US 12 billion. So once again, Papua is caught in a fait accompli.

No wonder, the demand being made Central Highland Papuans is being interpreted as a demand for the revision of Indonesia’s contract with Freeport.

That’s Freeport for you!

Written by Aboeprijadi Santoso
Independent Journalist in the Fields of Anthropology, Political History, Political Science and Social History. Formerly with Radio Netherlands. Profile

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