15 - Electoral Politics and Democratic Freedoms in Papua

Summary

Indonesia' process of democratisation has been most problematic in those provinces where large parts of the population wanted to be independent of Indonesia. In East Timor, Papua and Aceh, local people took advantage of the democratic space that opened up after the end of the Suharto regime to press their demands for independence, leading in each province to renewed political tensions, violent conflict and government repression. The crises that resulted were resolved by independence for East Timor and a peace deal for Aceh. But no such resolution has taken place in Papua.

Compared with other parts of Indonesia, Papua in some ways is caught in a democratic time warp. Certainly Indonesian security forces exercise a degree of control there that they no longer exercise elsewhere. Human rights abuses remain endemic in Papua and popular aspirations for independence are suppressed. But in other ways, democratisation has proceeded in Papua much as it has in other parts of Indonesia. Indeed, the results of the 2009 parliamentary and presidential elections have provided a reassuring picture of normalcy. The largest political parties—Golkar, the Democratic Party (Partai Demokrat, PD) and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (Partai Demokrasi Indonesia Perjuangan, PDIP)—are all committed to upholding the national integrity of the Indonesian state. Yet all did well in Papua in the national elections, and each is represented in Papuan legislatures at every level of government. The pattern of voting in Papua differed somewhat from that for Indonesia as a whole, but not as sharply as did South Sulawesi, Bali or Aceh. In the presidential election, Papuans supported the re-election of the nationally popular incumbent, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Can these two different pictures of Papua be reconciled? In this chapter I attempt to do so by arguing that there are two distinct realms of politics in Papua. The realm of Papuan nationalist politics is partly clandestine, partly public and tightly controlled. The realm of electoral politics, on the other hand, is open and highly competitive. The former is reminiscent of the repression of the New Order regime rather than the ideals of Indonesia' reform era. The latter has many of the characteristics of electoral competition that have developed throughout Indonesia since the resignation of Suharto.