MSG leaders defer decision on West Papua membership

Transcript

West Papua's quest for full membership of the Melanesian Spearhead Group has been dealt a setback of sorts by the group's leaders.

The leaders of the MSG countries last night announced that a decision on the United Liberation Movement for West Papua's membership application has been deferred until September.

Our reporter Johnny Blades told Jamie Tahana they said there was a criteria issue with the West Papuans' application, and the group's secretariat needs to establish guidelines for membership.

JOHNNY BLADES: Well it was a classic Melanesian Spearhead Group deferral really. They've done this before actually on the whole question of West Papuan membership, where they've postponed it to a later date basically because they can't reach consensus. We understand the breakdown on the decision really was that three of the four members - Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and the FLNKS of New Caledonia - were keen to have the West Papuans have full membership, but Papua New Guinea and Fiji aren't keen. So because they couldn't reach an agreement on that they've just kind of played it to the margins for the time being.  

JAMIE TAHANA: Yeah, so on the face of it it seems a tactic to try and buy some more time. Why is that?

JB: The sounds coming out of the MSG after that was that it was about some sort of technical issue, they had to take a closer look at the guidelines around membership criteria. But you would imagine that after, you know, all these years that they would have membership guideline criteria sort of sorted out. Vanuatu's prime minister, Charlot Salwai, in his statement after this outcome sort of expressed disappointment that the secretariat didn't in fact have that sort of criteria locked down. But yeah, it's really due to, I'd say, the great lobbying by Indonesia who are so opposed to West Papuans having full membership and in fact very opposed to the liberation movement as an organisation. I think it's a measure of how much they've lobbied the members to not let this thing go through.

JT: But the United Liberation Movement has been lobbying a lot as well. What does this mean for their quest, I guess, for some concrete diplomatic recognition - which would be a first for them. What does this setback mean for their journey now?

JB: I think it is a bit of a setback. One of their main things has always been that they internationalise the West Papua issue and that has been done actually, they've achieved quite significantly on that front really in the last year or so since coming together as a united group. But it is a bit of a setback because I think the people of Melanesia, grassroots people who feel very strongly about West Papua being part of the group, will see this, I think, as a bit of a disappointment, and therefore the MSG's integrity is also on the line. So, while it's not quite dead in the water yet, the ULMWP, it does bode not so well for their chances of membership. We'll have to wait and see later in the year, I guess.