Citizen Media and Civil Resistance in West Papua
ENDANGERED JOURNALISTS
and a small group of strategically savvy elders. On June 18, several thousand
demonstrators (reports vary from between 2000 to 15,000) from seven districts
converged on the provincial parliament in Jayapura to officially hand over the
people's decision. Protest leaders gave members of the DPRP until July 8 to
hand back Otsus. That time expired with no indication from the DPRP that they
would even publicly discuss the issue. So on the morning of July 8 demonstrators
mobilised outside the MRP building in Kotaraja and began a long march into the
DPRP building in Jayapura (approximately 10 kilometres away). Accounts of
exact numbers vary. The International Crisis Group and police reported 2500 to
3000 demonstrators but several photos and eyewitness accounts obtained by me
indicate that the number was in excess of 10,000, and possibly as high as 25,000.
Mass based organisations like DAP, the West Papua National Committee and the
West Papua National Authority helped mobilise their members and reported to
West Papua Media, an external based independent media outlet, in real time to
coordinate international media.
When members of the DPRP failed to receive them—the Speaker of the House,
John Ibo, was away in Jakarta-5000 demonstrators decided to occupy the parlia-
ment overnight. Simultaneous demonstrations were organised in Timika, Manok-
wari, Merauke and Wamena. Privately a small block of a dozen parliamentarians
supported the protesters's demands but, caught between the government in Jakarta
who demanded loyalty to the state and their constituents who were clamouring
for a referendum, the group felt too scared to say anything publicly. By 5pm on
Friday July 9, nearly 36 hours after the Papuans occupied parliament, police were
getting ready to forcibly remove the demonstrators.
The decision by protesters to peacefully disperse was made a few hours later.
When it was given, everybody-a few thousand people representing a range of
different groups and with different ethnic affiliations—all left the parliament
grounds. This nonviolent discipline in itself was remarkable. Contrast this to
when protesters threw stones in 2006, ultimately killing five members of the
Indonesian security apparatus. Back then the police reacted with deadly violence.
As a result of the killing of the Indonesian officers, any moral high ground the
protesters might have had evaporated. This time-in July 2010 there was a
clear organising structure and discipline was maintained, which kept the em-
phasis on the message, the failure of Otsus, rather than on protester behaviour.
And although the action was high risk, no one was killed.
The protesters did not succeed in achieving their most immediate objective-
a special session of parliament to debate the failure of Otsus-but they did learn
a lot about organising and the power of unity.
Independence declared-again
The occupation of parliament failed to result in a third-party-mediated dialogue,
PACIFIC JOURNALISM REVIEW 22 (1) 2016 47View entire presentation