English
Bahasa IndonesiaIn this briefing we describe how Special Autonomy law has failed to achieve its objectives in two ways. First, despite promising to ‘protect’ West Papuan culture, and to economically empower indigenous West Papuans, many important aspects of the law have been only partly implemented or ignored altogether. Second, instead of implementing the law, the authorities have resorted to governing through a programme of development projects from abundant funds. While some see existing efforts as having failed because they are not based on principles of ‘inclusive’ development, alternatives of creating new provinces and districts, supposedly to ensure equitable participation, have often led to the enrichment and empowerment of the security forces in remote areas, leading to further conflict.
Briefings
Otonomi khusus (Otsus) dan pendanaannya diharapkan dapat menghentikan marjinalisasi yang diderita oleh rakyat West Papua setelah periode pemerintahan darurat militer dan transmigrasi yang panjang pada masa Orde Baru. Kendati menghentikan marjinalisasi mensyaratkan adanya pemberdayaan Orang Asli West Papua melalui peningkatan kualitas demokrasi dan hak asasi manusia (HAM), lembaga-lembaga yang didirikan berdasarkan otonomi khusus dipandang tidak representatif dan tidak sah oleh Orang Asli West Papua.
Since the fall of the New Order regime (1966-1998), with one brief period of exception between 1998-2001, the power and authority of the Indonesian security forces in the region of West Papua have remained largely undiminished. We attribute this to two reasons, both of which stem from a failure to implement genuine political reform in West Papua and Indonesia more broadly.
Sejak rezim Orde Baru (1966-1998) tumbang, kecuali dalam satu periode singkat antara 1998-2001, kekuasaan dan otoritas pasukan keamanan Indonesia di wilayah West Papua secara umum tidak pernah berkurang. Menurut kami, hal itu terjadi karena dua alasan, dan kedua alasan itu berasal dari kegagalan menjalankan reformasi politik yang sejati di West Papua dan Indonesia.
On 5 October 2020, the Indonesian Parliament passed an ‘Omnibus’ law. At the time of writing, the legislation has not yet been signed into law by President Widodo and reportedly has gone through further revisions since being passed by Parliament. The draft law remains the subject of extensive street protests across Indonesia.
It has been more than two decades since a process of democratic reform was initiated in Indonesia under which the military stepped back from its political role. As part of the reforms, the military were gradually removed both from legislative posts that guaranteed it political representation and also posts in Indonesia’s civilian bureaucracy.
However, in 2019, the military indicated its wishes to re-insert serving military officers into the bureaucracy, in Ministries and Departments not directly concerned with military and security affairs. In this briefing, we address this issue by placing it in the context of broader military reform. We argue that, although some reforms after the fall of the New Order regime under President General Suharto were effective, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (2004-2014) avoided committing to further meaningful reforms, by cloaking military influence under the banner of ‘professionalisation’.