Transcript
APRILA WAYAR: Several times I got harassment, stalking, and also intimidation from the police when I covered Papuan (stories) especially when they talk about democracy, talk about Papuan freedom, talk about human rights or anything to do with Papuan people's rights. It's like the Papuan problem, Papuan human rights problem for fifty years in Papua never solved by the government.
JOHNNY BLADES: You know all about media restrictions in Papua. Interesting that you've written this book, and it's about the perspective of a foreign journalist who was in Papua to do some work. Tell me more about it.
AW: Yeah, 'Sentuh Papua' means 'Touching Papua' in English. It's really about a foreign journalist. As you know, there's many restrictions on foreign journalist press in Papua. Sentuh Papua dealt about Papua conflicts from the perspective of a foreign journalist in Papua. As you know, it's very difficult for a foreign journalist to come and cover Papua. But this novel comes from a true story about how the foreign journalists look at the conflict in Papua, and also Papuan history from foreign perspective, foreign journalist's perspective.
JB: So have you tracked a real story of a journalist who did go in to Papua, and you've converted the story into a novel under a different name?
AW: Yeah. At the time, I became the fixer of him, and for me as a novelist it's a very interesting story because it gives me a lot of new perspective about Papua; how he understands Papua's story better than me as a Papuan. Because he's from the Netherlands and he knows about Papuan history. But there's a little bit of distance between new generation of Papuans now and the history. Because, when the first generation of Papuans fled Papua in the beginning of the 1960s until 1984, they also took the Papuan history with them. That means new Papua generations lose the history. Maybe I know, maybe when I was a child I hear the names like Seth Jafeth Rumkorem, I hear the names like Richard Joweni (former Papuan pro-independence leaders). But I not know exactly who they are, what they do. But after I meet him, I know a lot from him, but also do research and I make this become a novel, because it's based on a true story, so I cannot say that this is a fake story. Ninety percent of this book is telling about that.
JB: You were his fixer. Do you think that the work that he did is important too, is that a part of this (book), the coverage that he was able to do?
AW: Yeah I think it's very, very important. Why? Because many people abroad only know Papua from what they read in international outlets. In this case, I know that many international outlets also not come to Papua, not touch Papua by themselves, and not feel the Papuans, and not talk to Papuans about what they feel, what they want. In the same time, I think Indonesia try to hide some things. But in this novel I try to figure out what Papuan people want.
JB: So, what do Papuan people want?
AW: (What) most Papuan people want is to (be) free from Indonesia. They want to get their own right to live in peace in their own land without fear that somebody will come, kill them, threaten them or do something... They just want to live in peace.
JB: Are you saying things are not improved these days under the new president? Things have changed in parts of Indonesia, maybe there's been some democratic reform. Are you saying this is not the case in Papua?
AW: From the new government, I really appreciate what (President) Jokowi do because it's never done before by the other presidents. But it's not what Papuan people want, because Papuan people want they to improve the system of the law, like the police or TNI (Indonesian military forces) who come to Papua and kill Papuan people in the many cases of human rights abuses in Papua. What they think about Papuan people, that this Papua is a war zone or what?
JB: Is the relationship between Papuans and non-Papuans (in Papua) getting any better? There's a lot of shared history now. Isn't it just a case of getting on with living together?
AW: Yeah, this is also the issue I highlight in my novel. It's about transmigrasi (transmigration of people from other parts of Indonesia to settle in Papua), transmigration in Papua, and also mixing. I understand that. For me myself, I make Papuan transmigration in three parts. First part is Indonesian people who come in the beginning of the 1960s, they are good people. They come and they give enough education for Papuan people. But also most of them are Indonesian soldiers at the time. After 1984, they come as real transmigrants in Indonesian programme. So they come and they live also. They not make a lot of conflict in Papua at the time, in my perspective. But the biggest problem is the generation from transmigrasi after Autonomy OTSUS Special Autonomy (status that Indonesia granted Papua in 2001). This is really, really sad for me because they tried to make many conflicts then between native Papuans and Indonesian people. For me, it's heartbreaking because we have a good life before when the first transmigrasi. But after that everything disappears, disappears and people not know each other, they make sectarian violence.
