West Papuans are still fighting for independence, and we are starting to grasp the feeling of living in a democratic world, both within Indonesia and within ULMWP organisation. There is a misunderstanding among us West Papuans, because we think we know democracy than those Indonesians, but in reality, we are just “dreaming of it”, without actually being democratic, and we are miss-placing democracy or we think we can be democratic during the time of revolution and within the our independent movement. We do not know that in reality there is no democracy during revolution and there is no democracy within a government.
The matter of fact is that we West Papuans are acting against the normal democratic principles and practices. We think we can run our TPN/OPM, TPN PB and WPRA democratically. We think we can run KNPB, PNWP, NRFPB, DAP and ULMWP based on democratic principles, and therefore, we should consider all aspirations from all parties and communities all over the world. We think that ULMWP should be democratic, and therefore it should listen to and involve all West Papuan peoples and organizations.
It is good that we want democracy. There is nothing wrong about it. But we should also be aware that democracy requires its container to operate; and democracy is not a godly form of government that should be applied by everyone, everywhere in the world. There are various models of democracy that we should choose from in relation to our contexts; and democracy is not applicable in all aspects of life.
Democracy is a form of government, not a form of military organisation. Democracy is a process by which politicians acquire support to run a government, a way of electing the representatives who will form and run the government of a country. Democracy is not a way of running an organization, and clearly not for an organization coordinating a liberation movement. There are laws within bureaucracy, structure and responsibility in running organization. Whether the power and responsibility devolved, distributed or centralized, there is no voting within a government bureaucracy in order to make decisions.
West Papuans should also learn and understand that we need democracy only to a certain degree. The ULMWP should focus on how to free West Papua from colonialism and should not spend time and energy on listening to every aspiration of the people and organizations as an effort to try to be democratic.
The ULMWP is not a government. The ULMWP does not exist within a free and democratic country. ULMWP is set up to carry coordinate the revolution to free West Papua from colonialism.
The ULMWP should focus on how to free West Papua as quickly as possible, in any way as possible. It should not spend time with various domestic issues that do not support the campaigns to free West Papua.
All democratic countries in the world know that there is no democracy within a government bureaucracy, and there is no democracy during a revolution time. Only West Papuans think and trying hard to engineer democracy within its independence movement, and within the ULMWP management. What a pity. Not time left to carry out the real work it should be actively involved in. How long will this learning process continue? Do we have time to wait for the ULMWP to learn democracy and then liberate West Papua from colonialism?
