Don’t worry. Australian TV channels give little coverage to events in our nearest neighbour. What happens in a remote province of that sprawling Javanese Empire called Indonesia usually does not merit even a mention.

No need to reach for the remote.

However those who are interested in what is happening in our neck of the woods should read:

EVERYONE PROFITS FROM WEST PAPUA, EXCEPT FOR PAPUANS

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/12/west-papua-striking-miners-indonesia

>>The death of a striking Papuan miner at the hands of Indonesian troops is the latest brutal COLONIAL injustice inflicted on my people>>

(Capitalisation added)

Wait a moment.

That can’t be right.

Only Europeans, Americans or Israelis can be “colonialists.”

Read the article and decide for yourself.

>>So who is profiting from our sacred lands? The answer lies with companies including Freeport, Rio Tinto and BP – and, … the Indonesian government. When West Papua was colonised by Indonesia in the early 1960s, Indonesia quickly awarded the rights to mine our land to the US company Freeport-McMoRan …The multimillion-dollar Freeport contract was signed in 1967, two years before West Papuans were given a vote on whether to remain part of Indonesia in a UN referendum …The Act of Free Choice (we call it the Act of No Choice) saw just 1,025 people allowed to vote, out of a population close to 1 million, ….>>

For further worrying news about Indonesia see:

THE THREAT TO MODERATE INDONESIA

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/the-threat-to-moderate-indonesia/story-e6frg6z6-1226163349517

>>Last year, and again this year, enraged mobs of Muslim activists burned down Ahmadiya centres and beat Ahmadis to death.
[…]

Sabam Siagian is a Christian, … a former highly successful Indonesian ambassador to Australia. …he tells me: "This country faces three great challenges. The first is the decline of religious tolerance. The second is the cancer of corruption. And the third is the eroding respect for authority and institutions."

Sabam says …religious minorities -- Christians, Hindus, Ahmadis and others -- now feel insecure and often under threat in Indonesia.>>

For those who want to know a little more about West Papuan history see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Papua_%28province%29

>>Even after Indonesia's independence in 1949, Irian Jaya was retained by the Dutch for various reasons. However, Indonesia claimed all of the territory of the former Dutch East Indies, including the Dutch New Guinea holdings, so it invaded Irian Jaya in 1961. In 1969, the United Nations supervised the Act of Free Choice in which Papuan leaders decided in favour of joining Indonesia. This was however rejected by the Free Papua Movement (OPM). The OPM group then conducted guerrilla warfare against Indonesia.>>

Whats to know Steven?
The United States of America Ordered the Dutch out.
Sold out the natives to Indonesia.
Not much different than all sides of Australian politics.
My side headlining, in East Timor.
We covered up the murders of our TV men.
Do you think this country will over night grow a back bone?

Belly asks:

>>Do you think this country will over night grow a back bone?>>

I'm an immigrant. I came here at age 51. I don' know enough about Australia to answer that question.

What I will say is this. We live in a dangerous part of the world and I think it's about to get more dangerous. At the same time our "big brother" on who we have come to rely seems to be weakening.

So we'd better get some backbone.

Steven my comments Cynical ones, came via living in a time some here never saw.
My view of history is this.
That country, the whole, has been colonized by German/Holland and Managed, part of it,by us after Germany lost it.
Post WW2 America, rightly so, took over in part the British roll in this area.
Indonesia, its Army trained by Japan, fought for and won freedom.
America, a Nation I respect and value, while decrying Colonialism.
Wanted to fight Communism more.
West Papua became a pawn, it never had been other than PART of a whole land.
Germany/Holland/Australia[ we did not] Had no right to colonize the country.
America, then, now,thought/thinks Indonesia had/has
That others may influence a free people, China trys to.
Cynic? yes but I think true.
Those not sure should review the actions of the UN at the time Holland was forced out and Indonesia GIVEN another peoples country.
We should consider these slaves, murder and torture victims on our door step.
Those, either side, have no thoughts on this issue, should have none on Iran Iraq or any country.

For a long time the fashionable folk in the West, who think they have the master franchise on morality, have had a blind spot which has prevented them from seeing imperialism, except where it wears Western garb.The Javanese Empire's actions in West Irian (and other regions of the archipelago) are up there with the worst of European imperialism.

But little will change by us wringing our hands and whining about Arjay-esque conspiracies that let it happen. Each passing day sees West Irian --thanks to the deviously simple but devastating process called transmigration --become more and more like just another outer suburb of Jakarta.

(To borrow from Lenin) "What Is To Be Done?"
Here's some suggestions, for starters
1) STOP training Kopassuss (& funding the Indonesian military.Period)
2) START funding & training the OPM