Transcript
SURYA ANTA: Because government never talks and ever teaches in schools or universities about the Act of Free Choice in 1969. Even though they aren't talking about it, they say that the Act of Free Choice in 1969 is a democratic process. But in 1969 there was pressure on the people of Papua, and only 1020 people who joined in (voted in) the Act of Free Choice process.
JOHNNY BLADES: Do people in Indonesia care much about West Papuans? Do they consider them as fellow Indonesians?
SA: It's a beautiful thing that West Papua is part of Indonesia but lots of people who occupy Indonesia, they're not thinking of them as fellow (Indonesians) because it's racism. It's racism that's particularly massive among government. Government taught the Indonesian people that West Papuans are not human, or less human, or something like that, or monkeys or something like that. But several people support West Papuans when they have a rally in Papua.
JB: You know, some people will say it (the Act of Free Choice) is not perfect but the United Nations sanctioned it so we have to look ahead, maybe life is getting better, but what do you think, being part of Indonesia, will that be a good thing in the long run for Papua?
SA: For the West Papuan people, becoming Indonesian, they are not happy about that. They're not happy as a human, as an Indonesian. So the solution is only self-determination for West Papua. If you see what happened for the last fifty years, you see genocide; you see that now West Papuan people are only 48% of the total citizens of West Papua; that it happened because of the militarisms, the torture, the killings happen every day, every month, every year. For the last forty years there were many thousands arrested because they held demonstrations campaigning about the right to self-determination.
