On Aug. 18, 2018. I was with Dad at GBK Stadium; we were fortunate enough that you purchased two passes to watch the opening ceremony of the Asian Games live. Around us, fellow Indonesians were guffawing, sharing snacks, singing alongside, or crying with delight. All over social media structures, different Indonesians watching TV have been posting similar feelings. Despite all the typical political and sectarian conflicts that night and the following weeks, we had all been one. We had all been proud Indonesians. Fast ahead a year. All hell is breaking loose in a handful of cities throughout Java and Papua.
What began as a kerfuffle among a small organization of Papuan college students marching for a rally in opposition to some other small institution of Malang residents in East Java escalated within days to a racism-tinged siege at a Papuan college students’ dorm within the province’s capital Surabaya then backlash riots in opposition to government symbols in the Papuan towns of Sorong, Manokwari, and Fak-fak. The trendy tendencies noticed more troops deployed to Papua, and the Communications and Information Ministry suspended the cellular telephone carrier in Papua.
Meanwhile, (paid) buzzers of each camp claw every different on social media, easily forgetting that only 12 months ago, we felt oh-so-brotherly and sisterly with one another. I am one of those people who believe the backlash was mainly fueled by way of the racist slurs heard in a widely circulated video. I am additionally one of the folks who will come forward to acknowledge that racism in opposition to our brethren is nothing new. Many Malays populating western Indonesia have long proven varying stages of racism in the direction of Melanesians within the United States of america’s eastern zones.
Unsavory jokes about dark pores and skin and curly hair are a staple heard because of my adolescence, on a par with anecdotes approximately Chinese slanted eyes. My parents abhorred their jokes and were adamant about me not repeating them, but many different adults were no longer as considerate. In truth, I am pretty positive many children who unfold those jokes first heard them from adults.
As I grew older, the anecdotes took an extra sinister flip; eastern Indonesians have been best precise for work related to guide labor, with a streak of violence if necessary. I have even met business people who bragged approximately hiring Flores bodyguards (considered more powerful than their Ambonese opposite numbers), best to be out-bragged by other businessmen pronouncing they have got Papuan muscle in their pockets.
At some point, the anecdotes stopped and became asterisks. They became familiar with the collective judgment of right and wrong — so much so that a Papuan with a graduate diploma in sociology from a top Indonesian college who I met in Kaimana a few years ago advised me that not most effective become he no longer spared the demeaning stereotypes, at a few factors he surely needed to answer “testing” questions to prove he was an academic and not a mafia heavy.
Admit it; many Indonesians see our eastern brothers this way. As for our Eastern sisters? As soon as a Timorese woman in my college who, through the second semester, straightened her voluminous curls to escape the garden variety hair jokes, the “Gadis Sunsilk” image in those years became of straight, lengthy, and “tender” locks.
Yet, on every occasion, the problem of the Free Papua Movement resurfaced, and enough Indonesians abruptly felt they needed to push upward, voice objections, and cite the loss of Timor Leste. It is flippant, haughtily privileged, and as infantile as moody teenagers who no longer deal with their boy/lady friends properly but get all upset. In contrast, the stated boy/female friend asks another person to dance.
