by Andri Hadi
The Jakarta Post
July 30, 2004
Efforts by certain quarters, within and outside Indonesia, to question the decolonization process in Papua gain a momentum by the declassification of restricted documents in the U.S. recently.
The documents portray the 1969 “Act of Free Choice” (AFC) as a sham, among others because it excluded most Papuans (Jakarta Post, July 16, 2004). Arguably, this development may provide ammunition to the hands of people pursuing the separatist aspiration in Papua, thus endangering Indonesia’s territorial integrity and its democracy.
