‘…Vanuatu is forcing the rest of the MSG to take a stand on West Papua - something that is bound to test the integrity of the grouping in the months and years to come. Its boycott of the leaders’ visit to Indonesia, which incidentally has observer status in the MSG grouping - is rooted in its conviction and clearly not mere politicking’

From Islands Business

The apparent cohesiveness among the MSG (Melanesian Spearhead Group) member nations suffered a body blow last month when Vanuatu firmly and unambiguously boycotted an MSG leaders’ official tour of Indonesia.

This is the first time that such open dissent in the group has hit the news headlines since the formal establishment of the inter-governmental organisation in 2007, though there have been rumblings of dissent on other issues before.

In 2010, it was the only nation in the MSG grouping that failed to attend the ‘Engaging Fiji’ meeting, which was held in Fiji and which leaders from Papua New Guinea, Fiji, the Solomon Islands—the three other major member nations of the MSG—attended along with the leaders of Kiribati and Tuvalu.

The meeting was perceived in the media as an alternative to the annual Pacific Islands Forum leaders’ meeting. Fiji stands suspended from the Forum grouping. Vanuatu was conspicuous by its absence.

The country has a history of standing its ground on principles and in support of what its people believe in.

Its opposition-led boycott of the MSG leaders’ visit to Indonesia is based on its strong belief in the West Papuan cause, which unfortunately has a few friends and supporters internationally.

This is despite a consistent stream of reports about human rights abuse, the mysterious disappearance of activists and journalists, the rampant looting of natural resources in collusion with Indonesian authorities and the ruthless silencing of dissenting voices for decades now.

It must be said, though, that there is a growing number of non-government organisations and activists lending their voice to the West Papuans’ unfortunate plight, particularly in New Zealand and Australia.

Within the Pacific Islands region, however, Vanuatu happens to be the only sovereign state that has assiduously stood up for the people of West Papua and their cause since its independence.

It’s founding Prime Minister, the late Father Walter Lini, had said Vanuatu would never be fully free until other colonised countries including West Papua were politically freed.

Vanuatu’s boycott of the leaders’ visit to Indonesia is rooted in its conviction and clearly not mere politicking.

The joint visit by Melanesian leaders was decided last year at the MSG leaders’ summit that took place in Noumea, New Caledonia. The purpose of the meeting was to examine the status of the province of Papua—something that would have greatly interested the Vanuatu delegation because of the country’s deep and abiding interest and its concern for the people of West Papua.

According to Vanuatu’s Foreign Minister and former Prime Minister Edward Natapei, the agenda in West Papua was not revealed until the very last moment and when it was, Vanuatu found that the Indonesian hosts had ignored the conditions on which Vanuatu had agreed to participate in the high profile mission.

Vanuatu had said it would only be part of the delegation if it were given the opportunity to meet West Papuan civil society and pro-independence groups, church leaders and others concerned with the alleged human rights violations in the beleaguered territory.

That request was ignored, which the delegation found out on the eve of its departure to Jakarta.

That is when Vanuatu pulled the plug.

Vanuatu must be commended for its principled stand, rooting for people of its ethnicity, which have been much wronged following unfortunate historical circumstances.

The people of the large resource-rich region, which shares a border straddling the entire width of the island north to south with Papua New Guinea, have been callously and violently suppressed for more than two generations now and their Indonesian masters continue to plunder their natural wealth under the most controversial of methods.

Vanuatu has always held the cause of the West Papua people close to their hearts and rarely shied away from supporting it vocally. This is not to say that other countries of the MSG grouping have not.

Their support has always been muted compared to Vanuatu’s. But it is surprising that Vanuatu had to go on this boycott on its own, without even so much as a murmur from its co-members of the Melanesian brotherhood.

In standing firm and standing alone, the country has risked opprobrium from Indonesia, a key trade partner for the MSG as a group and a co-signatory to a number of accords including the region’s fisheries.

It is unlikely that Indonesia would contemplate isolating it in any way because it should know that as a bloc, the MSG is strongly united and would not brook mistreatment of any of its member nations.

How it has stood for Fiji in the face of adverse regional reaction is a case in point.

Earlier last year, Natapei, then the Leader of the Opposition, demanded the withdrawal of the Kilman-led Vanuatu Government’s cooperation agreement with Jakarta and also appealed to the MSG leadership to review Indonesia’s observer status in the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) ahead of last year’s Noumea meeting.

That might have clearly incensed the powers that be in Jakarta. Last month’s action might well prove a turning point in Vanuatu’s relationship with not only Indonesia but also within the MSG, though the MSG Secretariat has refused to comment publicly on Vanuatu’s stand.

While West Papuan activists and leaders welcomed Vanuatu’s stand and continuing support, they also said that a crackdown on their activists ahead of the MSG leaders’ carefully choreographed mere half-day visit to Jayapura in West Papua, prevented any of them interacting with the visiting leaders.

In Natapei’s words, the MSG leaders’ agenda was hijacked and as the West Papuan leaders alluded to, the leaders met people and visited places that the Jakarta administration wanted them to see.

Vanuatu is already a staunch supporter of the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation, which is the organisation representing the people of the territory, to be admitted to the MSG in the same capacity as New Caledonia’s FLNKS (Front de Libération Nationale Kanak et Socialiste or Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front).

It is not a demand that will go down well with Indonesia and remains to be seen as to how the MSG Secretariat will react, when push comes to shove.

In the meantime, Vanuatu is forcing the rest of the MSG to take a stand on West Papua—something that is bound to test the integrity of the grouping in the months and years to come.