"Rockefeller and the
Demise of Ibu Pertiwi" ‘When Indonesia and
Australia Again Go to War’
Author: Kerry B. Collison
ISBN-10:1-921030-98-4
ISBN-13:978-1-921030-98-7
RRP $24.95
Release Date 9th
October 2017
Sid Harta Publishers
Melbourne Australia
Distributed by Dennis Jones
& Associates
In
1961 and one month following the disappearance of Michael C. Rockefeller off
the southern coast of what was then known as Dutch Western New Guinea,
Indonesia invaded, annexed and commenced the systematic slaughter of indigenous
Papuans, to pave the way for a massive wave of transmigrated Javanese.
With
the meteoric rise of the new powerhouses China and India, Indonesian-occupied
West Papua’s wealth of oil, gas and minerals precipitates an international
power-play for control over the vast, untapped natural resources.
Decades
have passed since the twenty-three-year-old Rockefeller disappeared – long
presumed dead, when sightings of the heir are widely reported.
Demands
for West Papuan independence gains momentum and Australia is again drawn into
military conflict with the Indonesian Motherland, “Ibu Pertiwi”.
View
Kerry’s previous titles at https://www.google.com.au/search?newwindow=1&site=&source=hp&q=kerry+b+collison+books&oq=kerry+b.+collison&gs_l=psy-ab.1.2.0i22i30k1l4.474.3754.0.6073.17.14.0.0.0.0.466.2486.0j1j2j4j1.8.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..9.8.2484...0j0i131k1.wqM011-ivtw
The book can be ordered
through any bookstore by mentioning Dennis Jones & Associates, Bayswater as
the distributors.
Copies will also be
available online and eBook platforms.
Indonesia occupied what we now know as West Papua, the last Dutch East Indies’ possession following years of bloody confrontation and, finally, through a tacit agreement signed to appease the United States of America and the Commonwealth of Australia, in New York, in 1961.
ReplyDeleteIn 1962 the Soviets had struck a billion dollar arms deal with the world’s largest Moslem nation that galvanized the Americans into action. John F. Kennedy intervened, pressuring both the Dutch and Australians to desist from supporting West Papuan independence, offering the resource-rich prize to the Indonesians.
On 1st May 1963 Indonesia became the new colonial power in West New Guinea. The elected West Papuan Council was disbanded, the official flags banned, as was singing of the West Papuan national anthem and the founding of any new political parties – this, in contradiction to the agreement signed in 1961 which provided for the indigenous people to be given the right of self-determination, and the option of independence.
In their role as so called ‘caretakers’, Indonesia’s Special Forces killed more than thirty thousand Papuans as part of the government’s successful efforts to influence the 1969 plebiscite.
Although the United Nations claimed the referendum would be an ‘Act of Free Choice’, for the indigenous inhabitants who had been disenfranchised by the flawed United Nations’- sponsored plebiscite, the outcome could not have been more disastrous. One thousand and twenty-six tribal representatives were chosen to represent the voice of the entire West Papuan population; Intimidated by Jakarta’s killing machine - the result, inevitable.
In 1969, supported by Australia and the United States, the former Dutch territory became Indonesia’s Twenty-sixth province.
The historic and political parallels between East Timor and West Papua cannot be ignored.
Jakarta’s bitter and brutal exit from Dili in the latter part of 1999, clearly wounded national pride, a contributing factor in the selection of targets by the Jemaah Islamiyah extremists, in the devastating Bali bombings in 2002.
In Europe, there is growing support for the international community to revisit the flawed 1969 West New Guinea plebiscite. Some member nations of the European Community, including The Netherlands, have suggested that the United Nations might consider reviewing the implementation of the referendum with the purpose of determining whether the process was, in fact, democratic.
And, more recently, driven by anti-Australian sentiment the groundswell has become evident amongst Western Pacific island states which, in concert with their African counterparts such as Zimbabwe, have become increasingly vociferous in their calls for such a U.N. resolution.
And, surprisingly, the lead has now been taken up by Ireland.
However, the situation is more than problematic for Australians.
Should the United Nations support a call for a new plebiscite to be held in West Papua, such action would undoubtedly become the genesis of any future confrontation between Australia and Indonesia – fertile ground, indeed, for the growing number of militant religious groups (both Christian and Moslem) that fester throughout the great archipelago that is Indonesia, referred to lovingly as “Ibu Pertiwi”.
Kerry’s titles at https://www.google.com.au/search?newwindow=1&site=&source=hp&q=kerry+b+collison+books&oq=kerry+b.+collison&gs_l=psy-ab.1.2.0i22i30k1l4.474.3754.0.6073.17.14.0.0.0.0.466.2486.0j1j2j4j1.8.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..9.8.2484...0j0i131k1.wqM011-ivtw
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