Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region.

Dr Robie, deputy chair of Asia Pacific Media Network and editor of Asia Pacific Report, talks about the struggle to raise awareness of critical Pacific issues such as West Papuan self-determination and the fight for an independent “Pacific voice” in New Zealand  media.

He outlines some of the challenges in the region and what motivated him to work on Pacific issues.

Listen to the Earthwise interview on Plains FM 96.9 radio.

Interviewee: Dr David Robie, deputy chair of the Asia Pacific Media Network (APMN) and a semiretired professor of Pacific journalism. He founded Pacific Journalism Review and the Pacific Media Centre.

Interviewers: Lois and Martin Griffiths, Earthwise programme

Broadcast: Plains Radio FM 96.9, 18 March 2024 plainsfm.org.nz/

Café Pacific: youtube.com/@cafepacific2023

Microsite: Eyes of Fire : 30 Years On

Papuan people throughout the territory of West Papua have held huge demonstrations of support for full membership of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) in the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG).

Delighted with the response but disappointed with the delay, organisers appealed to supporters to “keep going” with the solidarity.

The national action was scheduled to be held simultaneously throughout West Papua’s territory in seven provincial regions.

• READ MORE: Other West Papua reports

The MSG leaders summit was supposed to have opened on Monday but has now been postponed until August with the actual dates not yet decided.

In the highlands town of Wamena yesterday, thousands of people from the Laa-Pago Region thronged the municipality wearing traditional clothes and decorating their bodies with patterns of the Morning Star — Papua’s flag banned by Indonesia — and the five flags of the permanent members of the MSG — Fiji, Kanaky (FLNKS), Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

Other actions supporting the same MSG membership agenda were also staged in Jayapura City — outsid the residence of the chair of the West Papua Council, Buchtar Tabuni, at Kamwolker.

There were also solidarity demonstrations throughout West Papua, including in the Yapen Islands, Sorong, Manokwari, Merauke, Timika, Kaimana, Paniai, Biak, Serui, Merauke and several other regencies.

The ULMWP solidarity groups also delivered a four-point statement:

1. The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) is a political organisation that legally represents the political aspirations of the Papuan people in an effort to fight for the right to self-determination for the people and nation of Papua in the western part of the island of New Guinea to gain independence and sovereignty from foreign colonialism.
2. We the people of West Papua declare that we fully support the ULMWP to become a full member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) as the official representation of West Papua from Sorong-Merauke;
3. We the people of the West Papua firmly declare that the colonial existence of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI) in the MSG does not represent the people and nation of Papua from Sorong-Merauke; and
4. We fully declare our support and recognition of the ULMWP, referred to as the West Papua Provisional Government, attending the MSG Leader Summit (KTT-MSG) or MSG Leader Summit in Port Vila, Vanuatu, representing the people and nation of Papua from Sorong-Merauke.

The Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC) continues to pledge its commitment to advocate for the United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP) to become a full member the of Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG).

Last week, the PCC and other civil society partners hosted the leader of the ULMWP, Benny Wenda, at a prayer vigil in Suva where the Morning Star flag — banned by Indonesia — was raised, ahead of the 8th MSG Ministers of Arts and Culture Meeting (MACM) in Vanuatu this week.

PCC general secretary Reverend James Bhagwan said the people of the Pacific had recognised the ULMWP as the political representative of the people of West Papua.

• READ MORE: Other West Papua reports

“PCC have been flying the Morning Star flag even though it was in tatters to remind us that while our family/vuvale in Papua are oppressed, displaced, repressed and face constant attacks on their dignity and human rights, they remain hopeful for their right to be self-determining,” Revered Bhagwan said.

“You do not go alone to that MSG meeting,” he said.

“You go with God and with us in your heart, knowing that while you await formal recognition of ULMWP as a full member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group, your Pacific churches and civil society, the people of the Pacific have recognised the ULMWP as the political representative of the people of Tanah Papua”.

Papua election ‘hotspots’
Meanwhile, the Papua police say 12 out of 29 regencies and cities in Papua are at “risk of conflict” during the next year’s elections in February 2024.

According to Jubi, this is the forecast of a vulnerability index for the general election.

Papua police Chief Inspector-General Mathius Fakhiri expressed concerns about the noken system, also known as the tie system.

General Fakhiri said the system often led to conflicts because political actors could manipulate the remaining votes.

This system was commonly used in Central Papua and Mountainous Papua provinces, and the general proposed reducing its use in the next election.

He also suggested better control of the permanent voters’ list, and implementing the “one person, one vote” principle for the election.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.