Geoffrey MG's Beyond Wallacia

British-American writer Christopher Hitchins uses words of the poet W.H. Auden to illustrate the "pathetic oversimplification, which describes skepticism, agnosticism, and atheism as equally 'fundamentalist'" as a religious faith which is "simultaneously the ideology of insurgent violence and of certain inflexible dictatorships."

One of Auden's most beloved poem, September 1, 1939, laments Europe's toppling into a chasm of darkness and reflects on how this catastrophe for civilization had come about:

Exiled Thucydides knew
All that a speech can say
About Democracy,
And what dictators do,
The elderly rubbish they talk
To an apathetic grave;
Analyzed all in his book,
The enlightenment driven away,
The habit-forming pain,
Mismanagement and grief:
We must suffer them all again.

"The enlightenment driven away … This very strong and bitter line came back to me when I saw the hostile, sneaky reviews that have been dogging the success of Ayaan Hirsi Ali's best seller Infidel, which describes the escape of a young Somali woman from sexual chattelhood to a new life in Holland and then (after the slaying of her friend Theo van Gogh) to a fresh exile in the United States," Hitchens wrote in Slate.

His examples of what he calls "linguistic slippage" are provocative. So too his observation of similar trends in American civil liberties circles amongst those who refer to themselves as First Amendment absolutists.

"By this we mean, ironically enough, that we prefer to interpret the words of the Founders, if you insist, literally. The literal meaning in this case seems (to us) to be that Congress cannot inhibit any speech or establish any state religion. This means that we defend all expressions of opinion including those that revolt us, and that we say that nobody can be forced to practice, or forced to foreswear, any faith.

"I suppose I would say that this is an inflexible principle, or even a dogma, with me. But who dares to say that's the same as the belief that criticism of religion should be censored or the belief that faith should be imposed? To flirt with this equivalence is to give in to the demagogues and to hear, underneath their yells of triumph, the dismal moan of the trahison des clercs and 'the enlightenment driven away.'

"Perhaps, though, if I said that my principles were a matter of unalterable divine revelation and that I was prepared to use random violence in order to get 'respect' for them, I could hope for a more sympathetic audience from some of our intellectuals."

The experience of managing a 12-month infrastructure research project in Sorong, West Papua (1996/1997) and later visits to Biak, Timika, Tembagapura and Jayapura created a continuing interest in the progress of what are now the two provinces of Indonesian New Guinea.

Over the past year there have been some dramatic political changes, such as the newly installed Majelis Rakyat Papua's selection of indigenous Papua candidates for the governorships of Papua and Papua Barat provinces; the huge turnout of electors for the first direct election of governors in both provinces; and the subsequent self-demobilisation of one of the armed separatist groups.

However, the few international media articles on the region barely mention the changing political and administrative process and focus instead on the allegations of brutality against peaceful separatists, allegations of displacement of villagers due to security action against non-peaceful separatists and calls for unlimited foreign NGO access.

These issues are being revisited and highlighted in Australia and South East Asia by a television advertising campaign funded by a concerned Australian optical retailer, Ian Melrose, featuring the words: "Howard, Yudhoyono, you now have all the information: 183,000 dead in East Timor, 100,000 dead in West Papua. Include human rights monitoring and access for journalists to West Papua in the Australia Indonesia Treaty."

According to Kate Corbett of Australian Associated Press, the adverts will "initially be aired across Australia and then overseas on ABC Asia-Pacific [the Australian Government-owned satellite broadcasting service now renamed Australia Network and already broadcasting into Indonesia] and potentially on Indonesian television."

But in the six months since the inauguration of the new governors, Barnabas Suebu in Papua and Bram Atururi in Papua Barat, there has been much more positive news. Consider, for instance, the following February 2007 reports:

- Papuan provincial government approval of a special regulation on the allocation and management of trillions of rupiah in autonomy funds from the central government.

- President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s announcement of central government injection of investment for transportation infrastructure across the provinces over three-to-five years.

- Ministry of Environment's report that illegal logging in Papua province is decreasing as buyers as well as sellers are targeted.

- Joint National and Papuan governments' announcement of the opening of a new border road with neighbouring Papua New Guinea.

- Ministry of Home Affairs' concern that six proposed new local government districts are not yet financially viable and their formation should be postponed.

- Historic meeting of the governors, administrations and parliaments of the two provinces at the birthplace of Christianity in western New Guinea declares “"One but Two, Two but One", meaning that Papua's culture, economy and infrastructure development are unified even as its government has split into two provinces. Agreements for sharing of special autonomy funds and both provinces’ mineral and energy resources.

- A follow-up meeting of the Papua and Papua Barat governors, representatives from the provinces' parliaments and the joint MRP, and regents and mayors on 31 March will discuss implementation of eight points of agreement including the gathering of inventories for personnel and equipment as well as the documentation of regional revenue, public works, transportation, forestry, agriculture, sea fishing and mining figures; sharing of special autonomy funds; sharing of natural resources royalties based o a percentage division between producing and non-producing areas; an integrated development plan, which covers spatial planning and the development of infrastructure, strategic economic development, social and cultural development; and the development of human resources.

- The decision of the provincial governments to hand Rp 100 million (about US$11,100) to each of the two provinces’ 3,900 villages to get them active in specifying their needs and outline planned development programs, as well as detailing plans for supervising the use of the money.

- The four-day meeting of the Indonesian Catholic Youth Organisation in Merauke which was addressed by the five bishops in Papua as well as the Indonesian State Minister for the Accelerated Development of Disadvantaged Regions and which focussed on spirituality and poverty alleviation but also passed a motion agreeing to the splitting of a new South Papua province from Papua if that was the local peoples’ aspirations.

- The announcement that in 2006, Papuan gold-copper miner Freeport Indonesia paid its financial obligations to the governments of Indonesia in the sum of US$1.6 billion in corporate, employee income and other taxes, dividends and royalties. Te company also generated direct employment for 9,000 people in 2006, some 27 percent of whom were indigenous Papuans, provided another 10,700 jobs indirectly (contract workers or employees at partner firms) and had purchased domestic goods and services worth US$4.3 billion.

- The announcement that the Papua Barat Tangguh LNG plant and gas field (with proven reserves of more than 14 trillion cubic feet), operated by BP with Japanese and Chinese partners, is entering the final phase of construction and is expected to commence initial production by the last quarter of 2008,

- Papua province's announcement that it has established a joint team to draft provincial and regency and municipal government ordinances and regulations necessary for the full implementation of special autonomy by the end of the year.

If you find this information interesting check out the full reports at the new website on Indonesian New Guinea and "Papuan prospects".