21. The Revenge: A True Papuan Christmas Story

(Original Title: “De weerwraak” in KRUIS EN KORWAR, Drs. F.C. Kamma, et al  Den Haag: J.N. Voorhoeve, 1955, pp 215-219)

By BABS KAMMA

Translated from Dutch into English by Celly Akwan

***

A Raja Ampat panorama

There he lay, the big muscular fellow, whose name was Yamuni; one of the strongest men in the village.

Crawling away in a thin cover, his small sleeping mat slid near the fire, puffed Yamuni in his sleep. His chest went gasping up and down; big drops of sweat glittered on his forehead.

And behind his closed eyes thumped the pulsation of his blood; Yamuni was sick.

“Very sick,” had the wise women of his village said and they rubbed with their dry hands his feverish limb and looked seriously at him.

One of them went into the forest to find healing herbs. Others squatted silently around the fire and waited until she returned.

They took fresh betel nuts and chewed them and were lost in thought while gazing at the little flames. Occasionally, they spat small jets of red liquids into the fire; then whizzed the burning small embers and smothered.

Suddenly, they heard the faltering steps at the doorway. They turned themselves half around and looked with stern faces at the young man who was standing behind them. The women immediately recognized him and they nodded at him to come closer.

Ashamed, a bit shy while looking around him, the boy let himself squat and shoved among them near the fire. His eyes searched for the sick man, and when he saw him lie, his face became sober. 

“How is it . . . . Is Yamuni sleeping?” he asked in a whisper and bowed over to the little old woman with gray hair who was sitting beside him. 

The little woman shrugged her shoulders and spat, apparently unaffected, into the fire.

“Just tell us, Kaneri,” began one of the women and she  stringently gazed with her sharp small eyes at him.

“You have fished, haven’t you? And then came the rain and it fell on you, in the middle of the sea. You came back  soaking wet and Yamuni, the strongest man, became sick.

“Because of a small downpour,” she decided and glanced at him scornfully. “What would happen to our people if our young men become sick only because of  some little water?  No, Kaneri. Tell me the truth.”

The boy was startled and glanced at the skinny woman opposite him. The old, scrawny little woman, with her eyes as those of a rat: watery and yet very mean. And Kaneri, the frightened boy,  was sad because his friend lay here while churning in his sleep and sometimes moaning softly. 

Then, he looked down and began waveringly, “Yes, er . . ., we rowed up to the bay, Yamuni and I. We wanted to catch fish at the reef, er . . . .”

“At which reef?” the old woman suddenly snapped at him. “At ours, right? At the Makebon reef. Kaneri, don’t tell me that you’ve gone farther away,” she suddenly exhorted him in such a way that the other women were startled by her shooting, strident voice.

“Er . . . yes,” Kaneri nodded and he tried to talk very convincingly.

“Yes, certainly. But we didn’t catch a lot and then . . . .”

Then, he suddenly  began to jabber off his story: “We didn’t catch any fish. Yamuni said: ‘Come, let’s go further on and try once more.’ We rowed across the bay and tried fishing once more, now close by the village of Yenkate. And suddenly things went better. We fished for a long time; then, I suddenly realized that the wind got up. Black clouds rushed from the mountain ridges over the bay. The wind screamed through the small clefts between the mountains on both edges of the bay.

“We were lying close by Yenkate; we could notice the houses on the beach.”

A shiver ran through the old woman; she nodded speechlessly.

But Kaneri continued: “And then the thunderstorm broke loose. The rain clattered down on our heads, but we rowed further as hard as we could. We were drenched. But it didn’t take a long time before our canoe drifted over the reefs of our own village. We pulled the boat on the dry ground, covered it up with some coconut leaves and ran for home.

“In the evening, Yamuni told me he felt warm and shivery. ‘I’m going to get some sleep,’ he said. And now he is sick,” Kaneri ended his story with a sigh.

“Why Kaneri . . .?” sounded the voice of the old little woman suddenly and her question was sharp and bitter as if she had already known the answer. “Why did you go fishing at the reefs of Yenkate? Don’t you know, Kaneri, that our village is forbidden to fish there? For years, it has been that way; our ancestors have taught us.”

“Yes, but . . .,” Kaneri hesitated. The guru, the guru said that we should no longer live in hostility with the people of Yenkate. Lord Jesus has offered Peace among all peoples. What the ancestors did was not good in His eyes.” He nodded and looked at the woman soberly. But she shrugged her shoulders again and laughed a bit sourly. 

Two other stilted houses in Raja Ampat

“What does the guru know to tell us about?” she said contemptuously. “He’s a stranger in our village. Only a short time ago did he come to live among us.

“And since then . . . .” She spat furiously into the fire. “Since then, our young men haven’t known what our ancestors have taught us. They neglect the old  laws; they dishonor everything, what was originally sacred to them. And they do only that because a guru told them about things none of us has ever heard of.”

Suddenly, one of the women stood up. “We will seek the offender,” she said. “We will foretell it and if Yenkate is shown, we know that it has called up the spirits  to take revenge on the offenders of the old laws.”

In the same evening, the offender was divined, and the lot cast pointed to Yenkate. But in the same night, while the guru was kneeling beside Yamuni and praying with him, the strongest man of Makebon died.

It was Christmas the next day; the school children were busy. They  joined brightly colored flowers and fruits with long festoons; in such a way, the little church was decorated.

Together with the guru, the bigger boys made a big Christmas tree. In the soft bark of a young but small banana tree, they pricked the tree with long palm leaves and supported it with strong branches.

Then, they stuck candles into long but small bamboo holders and fastened them to the branches. It became a splendid tree. Tomorrow, tomorrow would be the celebration of the Child in the Manger,  the joyful Christmas celebration!

But in the evening when the guru still had another look at the decorated church, a small boy sneaked off to him, very afraid and cautious.

And then he told the guru that the people from his village were preparing themselves for a crossing to the village of Yenkate, at the other side of the bay, to take revenge on the death of Yamuni.

***

Just after the break during the Christmas festivity; a half of the candles were burning out.

“People of Makebon,” said the guru, his hands holding firmly the edges of the small lectern while bowing his head forward and looking earnestly at the rows of properly dressed up people in front of him.

“We have celebrated Christmas, the festivity of the child of whom the angels sang ‘King of Peace.’ The Child who brings peace among the peoples.

“And we, here in Makebon . . . . We have buried a young man.” 

The listeners were startled for a while when they heard this, but the voice of the guru suddenly sounded loud and grim.

“We who will be baptized; we, the people of Makebon . . . .

“In the dusk, we come together to meet, to draw up a war strategy because . . . soon, we will pull our canoes in the sea and prepare our machetes; we want to murder somebody because of our fear for the wrath of our ancestors concerning the death of one of our young men.

“Aren’t we Christians? Why don’t we harass the spirits; isn’t Lord Jesus after all on our side? No, people of Makebon.

“We will put out our candles; we’re going to end our Christmas celebration because tomorrow, we’re going to sail to Yenkate and we will continue our Christmas celebration together with them. That will be our revenge. Lord Jesus Himself has set us the example when He died for us. And we want to honor His offer.”

It remained quiet in the church, but then some men stood up and put out the candles, one by one – and by the light of some resin torches hurriedly lighted, all went outside and returned to their homes.

And just as the guru and his school children had agreed upon, it also happened. The next day, very early in the morning, a small canoe crossed over the bay to Yenkate; the guru and the oldest school children went to the village to ask the people whether they might celebrate Christmas with them tomorrow.

The village head was first very suspicious. They had heard about Yamuni’s death, and were watching out for revenge. What did those people want with their “Christmas celebration” here at this time?

But he finally gave in. Good, if people trusted him in such a way, why should they then have fear for them?

The school children shouted for joy and while singing they rowed  with their guru back to Makebon.

So it happened that a Christmas was celebrated once more, but this time in Yenkate.

The guru told the story of the Child in the Manger and the school children sang as beautifully as they could accompanied by the small orchestra of bamboo flutes.

And when the candles were lighted, the village head invited the people for the feast. 

Suddenly, a fright ran through the guests. Eating . . . that was really  too dangerous! Since earlier times, people had already mixed magic spells with the food if they wanted to kill someone without his knowing this soon.

But the people of Yenkate thought: “Go ahead, then, if you  have a lot of trust in us, just taste it.” And they looked in silent anticipation at their guests.

The guru understood why the people hesitated. He, therefore, stepped forward and called: “We are happy that we could celebrate Christmas together. The feast of peace and friendship. And that’s why we’re delighted to sit around the feast and stick our hands in the same dish with them, who were formerly our enemy.”

And he and the school children crouched down around the steamy dining pots and merrily laughed with one another.

Then, the others were also encouraged, and they went sitting, young men from Makebon near old women from Yenkate, little children from Makebon near those from the village on the other side of the Dorehum Bay.

That was the revenge of the Christians from Makebon.

And later, when their canoes came across those from the other village, the rowers then greeted one another; first hesitantly and then with broad laughter on their faces.

And often there were boys who went out fishing at the reefs of the other village.

Copyright © 2010. All rights reserved. Published with written permission from the author.

20. The Revenge: A True Papuan Christmas Story (Background Info Updated)

By CELLY AKWAN

The Revenge, a true Christmas story from West Papua, occurred in Raja Ampat Archipelago, west of Sorong, a small town west of Manokwari,  presumably in the 1930s or before World War II. Babs Kamma, the original writer of the story who is from Holland, tells us about the mistrust and hostility that must have existed between the people of two coastal villages, Makebon (pronounced as “mackeBBON”) and Yenkate (pronounced as “yenKATTay”). Their suspicion and enmity would find their expression again in the scheme of some men from Makebon for revenge on a young man from Yenkate to justify the earlier death of  another young man from Makebon believed to have been caused by the sea spirit of the coral reefs near Yenkate. They believed that by doing so, they would appease the wrath of their ancestors on them. Their scheme, however, was aborted through the power of  Christmas. To understand the story well, it is considered necessary to provide some background information for readers with less or no knowledge of the traditions involved .

The location of Raja Ampat Islands (in red lined box)

Some Relevant Info from Church History

The first Western missionaries in Western New Guinea (nowadays Papua and West Papua) were two young men from Germany: C.W. Ottow and J.G. Geissler, both were Protestants. They first landed in 1855 and stayed for some time on Mansinam, a small island near Manokwari, later the capital of the former Dutch New Guinea and West Papua, an Indonesian province in Eastern Indonesia. Then, they moved to Manokwari. 

Both were then followed by Dutch Protestant missionaries sent by the Utrecht Mission Society in Holland. From 1855 to 1907, they all worked around the Geelvink Bay (later called the Cendrawasih Bay) in Central North New Guinea. Some worked in Manokwari and its vicinity, but others worked in Windesi, a coastal village south of Manokwari, and Roon, an island north of the Wondama Peninsula, which lies south of Windesi, and Meoswar, an island north of Roon.  From 1870 to 1956, their mission work became part of the Dutch Reformed Church Mission.

After the Great Spiritual Awakening of the Geelvink Bay Papuans that started in Roon in which the Rooners converted in masses to Christianity on January 1, 1907, this new spiritual awareness also spread to other places in the Geelvink Bay. It spread to Wondama, Windesi, Manokwari and its vicinity, Kebar, Biak-Numfor, Yapen-Waropen, and Nabire. Christianity was then disseminated to other places along the northern coasts of Western New Guinea: the Raja Ampat Archipelago to the west of the Geelvink Bay; Kaimana and Arguni Bay along the southern coast of Western New Guinea; and some other areas to the east of the Geelvink Bay, including Sarmi, Depapre, Tanah Merah, villages in and around the Humboldt Bay (near the present-day Jayapura, the capital of Papua province), Sentani Lake, Genyem, and Nimboran. The spread of this main-stream Protestant Christianity of Calvinistic background was then expanded to other coastal and hinterland areas or villages in Western New Guinea before WW II; after this great war, it reached the northern part of the highlands, including the Baliem Valley in the Central Mountain Range, Teminabuan and Ayamaru hinterlands near Sorong.  In 1956, still during the Dutch period, the work of the German and Dutch missionaries that began in 1855 and spread to other parts of Western New Guinea resulted in the establishment of the Evangelical Christian Church in Netherlands New Guinea. In 2006, this church had a membership of 600.000 people, making it the largest Christian church in Papua and West Papua.

Christianity in Raja Ampat 

Something of the past history of Raja Ampat Archipelago has been told in this blog. You might want to review this in the stories of Gurabesi and Fakoki and Pasrefi. 

The missionaries from the Dutch Reformed Chruch Mission reached the islands for the first time in 1913. However, three missionaries from Manokwari had reached, during their missionary voyages, these islands before 1913: Geissler, Van Hasselt, Sr, and his son, Van Hasselt, Jr, who became a guest of the King of Salawatti in 1894.

Raja Ampat Islands

Serious missionary attention was given to Raja Ampat after two requests for propagating the Gospel came from Waigeo and Salawatti, two main islands of the archipelago, in 1912. Van Hasselt, Sr in Manokwari then sent two teachers to have  a closer look at the possibility of establishing a new mission post there: Rumbekwan, a Papuan teacher from Biak, and Tatengken, another mission teacher from Sangir (North Sulawesi).

In 1913, the first official mission work began in Raja Ampat. On December 25, 1913, M.E. Tamtelahitu, a mission teacher from the Moluccas working for the Dutch Reformed Church Mission in Western New Guinea, conducted the first service in Sorong. After the New Year, a Christian elementary school was opened which, however, had Muslim children as its pupils. 

Three other mission posts were later opened in Meos Su, Salawatti, and Waigeo in Raja Ampat. Two Muslim kings lived in Salawatti and Waigeo. 

In 1928, Dutch missionaries began to visit these remote posts more often. They included Van Hasselt, F.J. Jens, and Grondel. Acting on the behalf of the Dutch mission in Manokwari, M.E. Tamtelahitu was appointed as a “Guru Besar (Chief Teacher).”

On Januari 1933, F.C. Kamma, one of the prominent Dutch missionaries in Western New Guinea (and his family) started his work in Sorong. This Dutch missionary, anthropologist, sociologist, and church historian is one of the “giants” in scientific research on the Papuans (particularly, those of the northern coasts)  in Dutch New Guinea. At the time he began his work in Sorong, there were twelve teacher posts: four were established in the mainland and the rest on several islands in Raja Ampat. 

The possibility of disseminating the Gospel beyond those posts was wide. The Word could be propagated by a lot of Christian Biak immigrants whose pagan ancestors had lived on several islands in Raja Ampat for centuries before the Gospel reached them. For centuries, they had established business contacts as traveling blacksmiths with hinterland Papuans in the mainland; after they became Christians, they made sure that the Gospel they had come to believe in was also spread to their fellow-Papuans in the hinterland.

Traditional Values in the Story

The Christmas story from Raja Ampat implies the lores, mores, and ethos of the islanders living in Raja Ampat. They are typically of Biak’s influence and, therefore, suggest that the characters involved in the story were Biakkers living in Raja Ampat. 

The lores

Their oral knowledge handed down by their ancestors included their belief in the sea spirit living in coral reefs  in the sea where a nearby coastal village had more rights than another far away to fish there. A fisherman with no fishing rights who unwittingly fished there would prompt the wrath of the sea spirit on him, which made him mysteriously sick. Once he was punished this way, he would have a slim chance of getting better. If he died and the cause of his death was identified through divination, then his fellow-villagers could take revenge on a person in the village whose sea spirit had caused the death of their fellow-villager. The village they attacked would also take another revenge on their attackers. In such a way, a vicious circle of revenge could happen between two villages, a circle that also developed into mutual  mistrust, hatred, and hostility that could last for years. 

An edible fish lying on a coral reef  of an island in Raja Ampat

In the Christmas story, however, the vicious circle was broken by the impact of the King of Peace, Jesus, on the two coastal villages which for perhaps many years had been victims of the vicious circle they had created. The fate of Yenkate the village identified through divination as the culprit of the death of Yamuni (pronounced as “yaMUnee”) was then prevented from this non-Christian spiritual influence. As a result, both villages lived in peace.

The mores

In addition to the lores, the story also implies some mores of the villagers. They include the exercise of authority of older or married women on family members and betel-nut chewing.

The true Christmas story opened with the description of women not only taking care of the sick Yamuni who was also visited by Kaneri (pronounced as “kaNEree”). It also revealed the exercise of authority they (particularly, Yamuni’s mother) had on younger men as noticed from Kaneri’s reaction or response to the insistent or commanding voices (a typically Biak character) of several married women; in addition, their tendency to be temperamental, assertive, and aggressive implies other character traits of the Biakkers. Some time later in the story, the authority of the women on their family members turned into decision making when one of the old women said: “We will seek the offenders.”

A Raja Ampat stilted house

Is the traditional Biak family maternal, then? No, it  is paternal. The authority of married women  is limited to internal family matters. Married men  are heads of their families, defenders against threats, and providers of  their daily needs, such as food.

Another established custom was betel-nut chewing. It had various roles, individual and social,  for traditional coastal villagers in Western New Guinea. In modern-day life, chewing betel nuts (a custom still practiced today, particularly, in the Papuan rural areas) is comparable to smoking cigarettes, a custom practiced for various reasons, such as stress alleviation and mood elicitation for an individual. In addition, chewing betel nuts had a social role; it could serve as a means for strengthening human bonds, including matchmaking rituals in which the host of the gathering offered his guests betel nuts and strong chewing tobacco called prompi (pronounced as “PROMpee”). 

In the story, betel-nut chewing (and probably strong-tobacco chewing) was practiced by the old women. Actually, this custom was, and still is,  practiced by both  men and women, young and old. The individual and social roles of both customs could be implied from the women chewing betel nuts in the story.

The ethos

What about the ethos of the community? Some of the shared fundamental traits suggested in the story include the attitude of an old woman toward the guru (pronounced as “GOOroo”). Its general meaning is “teacher”. He introduced new community “laws” that contradicted the old ones she revered and defended. To her, the guru was a stranger and a new inhabitant among them, one who did not know the traditional community ethos. “What does the guru know to tell us about?” she said scornfully. “He is a stranger in our village. He has just come and lived among us. And since then, our young men have no longer  known what the ancestors have taught us. They neglect the old laws: they dishonor everything, what was formerly sacred for them.”

What the old woman said indicate the transition from the old community she represented  to the new one, represented by the guru and his pupils. The guru can be viewed as an agent of social change.

Raja Ampat natives in their traditional attire

In the story, however, the guru was more than what the word generally means. He was both a Christian three-year elementary school teacher and a guru jemaat (a “parish teacher”). As a parish teacher, he preached, kept records of the development and problems of his parish, conducted the children's or church choir and bamboo-flute orchestra, led funeral rituals, baptized children, led the Holy Communion, advised them on matters not closely related to his main jobs (such as informing them about health problems), and some other related duties. Playing such diverse but virtually related roles enabled the guru to win the respect of the community and to guide them to the new Papuan community he and the Dutch Reformed Church Mission that employed him had envisioned.

Another shared fundamental trait of the old community was its belief in the sea spirit. This belief has already been explained.

Still another type of ethos of the traditional community is the habit of what might be called participatory or empathic criticism. This simply means expressing criticism as a participatory or empathic experience, another Biak character also practiced by some other tribes in Dutch New Guinea. In order to criticize members of his congregation who planned to take revenge on another young man in Yenkate to justify the death of Yamuni (this always involved men), the guru who was not involved but wanted to persuade the plotters to abandon their scheme spoke to them as if he had been one of them. Such a type of criticism is considered not only judicious but  also effective in achieving its aim. Participatory or empathic criticism for the Biakkers and other Papuan tribes is a traditional means of persuasion.

As noticed by Dr. F.C. Kamma, the Biak-Numforese people are also known for their communication skills and mastery of the "art of listening". Generally being extroverted, they can easily establish relations with other Papuans; they are also capable of understanding correctly things "said between the lines" and of responding correctly to the real message. Both character traits seem to have been well understood by the guru who tried to persuade them, particularly, the men who wanted to take revenge.

The guru forwarded his traditional persuasion in three ways. First, he imagined  himself to be one of the potential raiders, he put himself in their “shoes”, through his frequent  use  of the inclusive subject pronoun “we”. Addressing his congregation in Makebon, the name of the village where he lived and worked for,  he cautiously used the general word “people” that would not offend the men he wanted to criticize: “People of Makebon.” He then switched to the inclusive “we”: “We have already celebrated Christmas. … the feast of the Child who will bring peace among  peoples. … We have buried a young man. … We gather in the twilight … to draw up a war strategy because … soon after this, we will pull our canoes to the sea and prepare our machetes; we will murder somebody because of our fear for the wrath of our ancestors on the death of one of our young men.” Second, having presented the facts that he knew the men would accept as being true and judicious, he then continued with his rhetoric questions that hit  their belief and revengeful nature and led them to the new "rules” or noble values of Christianity: “Aren’t we Christians? Why don’t we harass … the [sea] spirits; isn’t Lord Jesus on our side?” Third, he continued his persuasion by using negations, suggestive actions, and actions. Having posed his rhetoric questions, he continued by saying, “No, people of Makebon. We will blow off our candles; we will finish the Christmas because tomorrow, we will sail to Yenkate and celebrate another Christmas with the people of Yenkate. This will be our revenge.” When the people of both villagers met and celebrated Christmas together, the Makebon people, who still remembered the old rules, were first hesisant to eat the food prepared by the Yenkate people: the food could be mixed with poison that could kill them. The guru who understood their hesitance set a persuasive example: he and his pupils ate the food offered. The Makebon villagers were convinced by this type of persuasion through action and joined the meal.

Peace

What happened after this Christmas? Since then, both villages have lived in peace. This ideal was one of their deepest desires they and their ancestors had been searching for throughout the ages but had missed. That peace was then discovered in and through the power of the King of Peace. 

Copyright © 2010. All rights reserved. Published with written permission from the author.

19. The God-Like Tigomang

A Retold Myth from the Anggi Lakes, Manokwari, West Papua

By CELLY AKWAN

Anggi Gita Lake

A long, long time ago, a married couple who lived in the Arfak Mountain Range  was turned, for some unknown reason, by the gods into two beautiful lakes. The woman who became one of the lakes was called Lake Anggi Gita, the Anggi female lake. Her husband who became another lake was called Lake Anggi Giji, the Anggi male lake. The gods then made a high mountain that separated the lakes and put both in the Arfak Mountain Range, around 2.000 meters above the sea level. Anggi Gita Lake

They then painted each lake with different, beautiful colors, shaped curvy hills around them, made the place cool with temperatures from 8 to 20 degrees Centigrade, and planted the lower slopes of the hills and mountain with colorful plants. They also made the sky and the sun, moon, and stars; the days, nights, and seasons; the clouds, wind,  and rains. They often made the lakes, hills, and mountains bask abundantly in peaceful quietness. Even white sands were made to cover some edges of both lakes. Colorful butterflies and birds, other insects and animals made  the forest lively.  What a wonderful creation!

Not only did the gods make such out-of-this-world beauty. They also showed their wonderful power and strength by making  a 2.000 –meter-deep cave, probably the deepest in the world, in Lina Mountain Range. All they had made became an unspoiled paradise displaying splendor, wonder, and majesty of the gods. Had humans not been made for living in this paradise and spoiled it later, its power, strength,  glory, and beauty might have been kept for eternity.

 A butterfly from the area

Then Tigomang, the first ancestor of the Sough Arfak tribe, was made by the gods. He had children, but it was not known whether he got a wife or not. To this day, he has left some traces of himself to his kin. Take a walk around the Anggi Lakes and you will sight bare spots; they are the footprints of Tigomang. His children were made from his footprints.

His children and their descendants then came and settled  around the Anggi Lakes. They retold wonderful stories from their ancestors; one of them was that their ancestors possessed the secret of eternal life. That secret, however, was later gone through the folly of their ancestors, their thoughtless behavior that brought the wrath and curses of  the gods on them. For the first time, they and their descendants spoiled that paradise when they  built their houses and families, made their gardens,  fished in the lakes, hunted in the forest – and committed crimes against one another and waged wars against other tribes. 

For untold numbers of years, the Sough Arfakkers  and other tribes living around the lakes grew from a few families into families with hundreds then thousands of members and even more. To sustain their lives, they cultivated the land and hunted more and more until Mother Nature could no longer provide enough for everyone’s needs. The abundant fertile soil of the old days became barren, vegetables and fruits that were just gifts of Mother Nature  in the past were  later scarcely provided, fish and games that old people said they could kill very easily became harder to catch. The scarcity of fertile soil and foods then drove the people into various crimes and tribal wars for their survival. Gone was the original paradise; it later became a heavenly story either of the past or of the future, a story that only lived in the memories and dreams of the people. 

Few sages of the Sough had foreseen impending calamity if no action was taken to prevent this from happening. Hunger and starvation and ensuing crimes and wars could lead to more sufferings. Crops such as cassava, yams, potatoes, and sugar canes that had been abundant in the past were scarce later. Mother Nature who used to spoil her children around the lakes with her lavish love by providing them with very abundant food seemed to be very frugal later. Something had to be done quickly to regain the life of abundance, peace, and eternity. Who had to take the first step to prevent the tragedy from happening?

Tigomang. Not only was he the primeval ancestor of the Sough people. He was also a god-like man, one endowed with some god-like power. 

He had the ability to simply speak and call into existence all different kinds of foods his folks had lacked for a long time and badly needed. To demonstrate his supernatural power, he would stand at a place and call, “Cassava, yams, potatoes, pawpaws, sugar canes,” and, from nowhere, the food would appear instantly at that place. A lot of people who witnessed the demonstration of his power were amazed at the miracles he performed. Sometimes, the fruit he made was so big that his children could not eat it at all.

One day, Tigomang told his children, “I am going to bathe in the Un River. Do not follow me there or watch me bathe.”

His curious children, however, ignored his cryptic forewarning. Just as he was about to bathe in the water, they came.

Tigomang was very upset and said, “Get away from here. I told you not to follow me. Get away now.”

Alas, the presence of his children prevented him from gaining a secret of eternity, a blessing that his children and their descendants would inherit forever.  It was eternal life. Had he not been spotted by his children, he would have followed some strict rules to gain and possess that supernatural power.  First, he would have submerged himself in the water, then he would have come up and changed his skin. Finally, he would not have died.

His children, however, prevented him from gaining that divine secret. So, he was very angry.

“You have made me lose eternal life for all of us and our descendants,” he divulged with a sigh. “Now, you and your children and their descendants must die. If you die, you will not be able to come back to life. Your skin will rot.”

Despite his curse on his children and their descendants, he still had the power of resurrection. After that incident, Nginding, a person, died on the other side of the Un River. Standing on Anan, the name for the other side of the river, Tigomang called, “Nginding! Come to the other side of the river.”

Anggita Gita Lake

The people who heard him, however, kept crying over the dead body of Nginding. They would not listen to him when he called again.

“Do not put the dead person on the water,” they warned Nginding’s family. “Tigomang does not have the power to let him drift off to him on the other side. He will instantly sink to the bottom of the river.”

Sadly, Tigomang heard their lack of faith in him and prepared a specific curse on those unbelievers. He took a piece of dried wood and threw it down.

In a loud voice, he said to them, “Look at that dried wood, folks. It stands for the dead. Because you will not listen to me, you all will die and never come back to life again. If you have listened to me and submerged the body in the water, it will have come to life again. Alas, all of you did not listen to me or did what I had asked you to do. Because of that, you all will die and never come back to life.”

Tigomang then entered a cave deep below a mountain and went to sleep. He has not returned yet or come out of his cave.

Copyright © 2010. All rights reserved. Published with written permission from the author.

18. A Papuan Separatist Leader Returns Home (3)

By CELLY AKWAN

Breaking News: Viktor Kaisiepo (1949-2010), son of the highly influential Papuan separatist leader the late Markus W. Kaisiepo, passed away at his home in Amersfoorts, Holland, on Sunday January 31,  2010. He was an internationally famous fighter for the rights on the self-determination of the Papuans in both Papua and West Papua, a split of the former Dutch New Guinea, the land where he was born in. According to what his wife said on Sunday, her husband had been sick for some time.

Viktor Kaisiepo in Holland

Viktor Kaisiepo was a member of the Papuan Council on Traditional Customs. He served as a representative of the council for international relations and for Eurupe. The council strives for the independence of Papua and West Papua from Indonesia through peaceful means.

Kaisiepo was born in Korido, a village in Biak, in 1949. Before the sovereignty transfer of Dutch New Guinea to Indonesia in 1963, he moved with his parents to Holland where he struggled for the freedom of his country.

****

Attending the Round Table Conference

Together with J.P.K. Van Eechoud, Nilolaas Youwe, Markus Kaisiepo, and Johan Ariks left Hollandia for Holland end October 1949. Van Eechoud would have his first holiday after having worked and lived in Dutch Indies and later in Dutch New Guinea since 1929.  The three Papuan social and political figures would attend the Round Table Conference in the Hague.

Ariks’ role as a political backdrop

Ariks, born in Manokwari in 1898 and died in prison also in Manokwari late 1960s, was a teacher for the Dutch Protestant Mission in Mansinam, a small island near Manokwari, in 1913 and later at the Christian Teacher Training Institute established by Rev. I.S. Kijne (1899-1970), one of the most prominent missionaries of the Dutch Reformed Church,  in Miei, an important village in Wondama, in 1931. He was trained as a teacher at a Christian seminary in Depok, West Java, in 1907. Ariks was prisoned by the Indonesian government because he was accused of having been involved in the Free Papua Organization that was established and started its activity in Manokwari in 1965.

His father, Jonathan Ariks, came from Kebar, west of Manokwari. As a boy, he was sold as a slave and was emancipated in Manokwari in 1872 by a Dutch missionary. Jonathan was then baptized by Rev. Van Hasselt, Sr. and  became his advisor and friend for the rest of his life. He accompanied the Dutch missionary during his journey in New Guinea, the Moluccas, Java, and Sumatra.

In the eyes of the coastal Papuans living in Geelvink Bay, however, slaves or former slaves were not highly looked upon. This lack of respect was shown by Papuans who were not slaves. It disappeared through the influence of Christianity on the Papuans.

Something needs to be said about Johan Ariks, a prominent Papuan leader. Like Nicolaas Youwe and Markus Kaisiepo, Ariks also played an important role in advocating the rights of the Papuans for development toward their independence under Dutch governance. It was he who demanded to Van Eechoud that Papuan representatives attend, just like Indonesian representatives,  the Round Table Conference in the Hague.

The region or the Papuans?

What was the political backdrop in Dutch New Guinea of the Round Table Conference?  The region, not its inhabitants, the Papuans, as digested from the polemics by the Dutch and Indonesian leaders and political figures, was the political setting for the coming conference.

The Eurasians from Dutch Indies, the so-called “Indo-Dutch” or “Indo-Europeans”,  saw Dutch New Guinea as an alternative settlement for them after Indonesia got its independence. In August 1949, J. Thiessen, a managing member of the association of Eurasians in Java, made a plea to Queen Wilhelmina of Holland through the resident agent Van Eechoud in Hollandia. He implored Her Majesty to give the Eurasians in Java New Guinea as a place where “we can rear our children according to western ideas”. Van Eechoud was first shocked at the plea but later wrote to Thiessen on August 13 that he could ask his fellow-members to live in Dutch New Guinea without turning it into a “whiteman’s land” because the Papuans had the strongest rights on the region.

However, the Indonesian delegation at the RTC had a different idea that affected the political attitudes of the Dutch delegation and Van Eechoud concerning Dutch New Guinea. If Holland held firmly to Dutch New Guinea, it would not be given priority in economics in an independent Indonesia. This condition cast doubt on the Dutch delegation and even on the Dutch cabinet of Dress and Van Schaik in Holland. In Dutch New Guinea, Van Eechoud who was informed about the Indonesian position understood what it meant for  his development plans for the disputed region between Holland and Indonesia: they could be doomed to failure. So, he hurriedly wrote a note about the colonization of Dutch New Guinea and sent it to the Dutch cabinet leaders. A Catholic, he appealed in it for the internalization of “western-christian culture” and the substitution of Malay for Dutch to widen the gap between Indonesia and New Guinea. He also envisioned the colonization of the region, partiuclarly, by the Eurasians through land cultivations so that they could soon be made productive.

In the fall of 1949, the Dutch politicians who wanted to keep New Guinea under Dutch control gave various reasons.

1. It was  an “escape country” for the Indo-Europeans who seemed not to be welcomed by the Indonesians. 
2. It would  serve as an investment warranty for Indonesia, insurance against debts.
3. It would serve as  a Dutch military base in Southeast Asia where the military could play a limited role.
4. The Papuans were not Indonesians, more akin to Europeans in their character traits, less developed than the Indonesians and, therefore, needed a protective status.

For a lot of Dutch, the last reason was the most important for them to keep their last colony in Southeast Asia under their leadership. Yet, during crucial decisions made by Dutch politicians and other figures, the territory seemed to be more important than its people.

Like the Dutch, Indonesian political figures also showed the indications that they were more interested in the region than in its native inhabitants. During a preparatory meeting for the independence of Indonesia on July 11, 1945, Muhammad Hatta who would become the first Vice President of Indonesia said he would let the Papua region be ruled by others and would not demand that it had to be a part of an independent Indonesia. However, Sukarno, later the first President of Indonesia, said in 1949 that he was a “New Guinea fanatic”. His resoluteness for annexing the region became a complex to him. For Sukarno, Hatta, and other Indonesian politicians and figures, Dutch New Guinea remained a central issue, their inalienable right which could not be questioned nor debated. It had been a part of Dutch Indies; therefore, it had to be a part of an independent Indonesia. The jurisdictional basis for this claim was never clear, but the region had an emotional meaning for them: it was historically a part of their newly independent country. The main issue behind the dispute between the Indonesians and Dutch was not about the Papuans but about their region.

Johan Ariks, a Papuan spokesman

It was Johan Ariks who had foreseen this neglect and its future consequences for the Papuans. Concerned by both, he became a spokesman for the Papuans.

Defended the Papuan cause

Im May 1949, he traveled to Jakarta to defend the Papuan cause. In a letter he sent to the chairperson of the United Nations Commission for Indonesia (UNCI) on June 15, 1949, he said Indonesia did not have any rights to meddle with the political future of New Guinea. He considered this involvement as an interference in the self-determination of the Papuans. He agreed with the Dutch stance that his people were not ready yet for their independence. He requested the UNCI to allow Papuan representatives to attend the coming negotiations between Holland and Indonesia and other conferences in the future about New Guinea.

Sent a letter to US President Harry Truman

Johan Ariks went even further. On August 28, 1949, he wrote a letter to Harry Truman, President of the United States. In it, he worried that the fate of Western New Guinea would exclusively be decided by Holland and Indonesia without involving the most important party: the Papuans. He emphasized that Indonesians and Papuans were culturally different and the increasing contacts in the past accentuated these differences more than diminishing them. He made a strong defense of the Dutch colonial politics in New Guinea that started at the beginning of the 2oth century. He hoped that the Dutch government, Catholic, and Protestant missionaries could accomplish the process of increasing the intellectual, social, and economic standards of the Papuans.

What the Dutch and Indonesians were less interested in had already been the focus of Ariks’ letters: the Papuans.  His worries about the fate of the Papuans in the future have been self-fulfilling prophecies. Since Dutch New Guinea became a part of Indonesia in 1963, the issue of having less interest in the Papuans and more interest in their region (thinly populated with some fertile soil and rich in natural resources – another “Promised Land” for Indonesians from outside the region) has been a problem not satisfactorily solved yet.

Van Eechoud’s reports about Johan Ariks

Van Eechoud sent reports to the Dutch government in Batavia (now Jakarta) about the political activities of Johan Ariks. The reports revealed a tone of  slight indifference. He criticized Ariks: he considered him a loyal follower of Holland and a former slave who probably did not get enough local supports. Van Eechoud also criticized his plea for a Papuan delegation at the RTC because it would undermine the efforts of the Dutch government to isolate New Guinea. Van Eechoud also saw at the outset a danger in the way the Indo-European lobby tried to to take advantage of Ariks.

A Pyrrhic Victory

However, nothing was mentioned about the role Ariks played at the RTC he also attended, whether it undermined the Dutch efforts or not. What did happen was that the Round Table Conference concerning the New Guinea case ended with a Pyrrhic victory for Holland and for the resident agent of Dutch New Guinea. Both the Netherlands and Indonesia came to an agreement on November 2, 1949 that it appeared to be impossible for both parties to reach a consensus concerning New Guinea – in short, an agreement to disagree. New Guinea would remain an autonomous part of the Dutch kingdom.

Criticism and Defense of Van Eechoud

Van Eechoud who went to Holland for a holiday was very convinced that he would be the first governor of Dutch New Guinea. He would not. The group of old Dutch government officials who had considered this police officer as “incompetent” added another reason for their disapproval: he was a Catholic. The Dutch Protestant politicians in New Guinea held to their (baseless) belief that, as a resident agent, he profited the Roman Catholic Mission in the region. Their prejudice was accentuated by the long-held tradition in the Hague, center of the Dutch government: since the (religious) Reformation in West Europe, the governors’ posts in the “West” had been for the Catholics and those in the “East”had been for the Protestants.

Like Johan Ariks,  Youwe and Kaisiepo  were Papuan Protestants of Calvinistic background. Nevertheless, they had never experienced the religious schism of the 16th-century West Europe in the 2oth-century New Guinea. Even if Youwe and Kaisiepo had been informed about this division in religious denomination, they could not leave behind their indigenous culture of showing sincere, deep, and unforgettable gratitude to an amberi such as Van Eechoud  who had done so much for their goodness and that of other Papuans. The honorary title of “Bapak Papua” endowed to him was  even more binding to the Papuan code of honor both adhered to. Concerning his Catholic background, Youwe pointed to a self-evident spiritual focus that made both identical: both believed in the same Jesus. So, when Youwe and Kaisiepo knew about the disapproving attitude of the Dutch government officials towards their highly respected boss, they came to his rescue. They made a moving plea to appoint Van Eechoud as the first governor of Dutch New Guinea but it was of no avail.

Seldom had a Dutch government official been the target at which so many conflicting emotions were expressed as Van Eechoud. His colleagues in Hollandia, both Dutch and Papuans, held him in high esteem. Old Dutch government officials from Batavia who later worked in Dutch New Guinea and the Calvinisitc Protestant Dutch Mission regarded him, in the words of Rev. Kijne, “defender of Protestantism in the North”, as a “politically wild man and dilettante”. Dr. J. Van Baal, a cultural anthropologist who had been a government official in Dutch Indies and then in Dutch New Guinea before he was appointed as a governor in the region, had a critical but realistic view on Van Eechoud. Any view on him had to be related to the work milieus in which he had to carry out the government policies. He missed the people he needed to carry them out. Though he had a lot of plans, he could not count on Batavia for help. The horrible consequences of the war that involved him as a policeman and explorer tempted him to act too quickly.

Netherlands New Guinea would then be still a part of the Dutch kingdom – without involving the “Father of the Papuans”. He would be substituted for by the first Dutch governor of Netherlands New Guinea.

The  Secession of Dutch New Guinea

On December 27, 1949, the Republic of the United States of Indonesia was officially declared in Yogyakarta, Central Java. The Dutch flag was pulled down and the Indonesian red and white flag was hoisted.

The next morning, the following proclamation was issued in Hollandia:

“Residents of New Guinea!

“In accordance with the decisions made at the Round Table Conference, the sovereignty of Indonesia shall be transferred to the Republic of the United Indonesia today, with the exception of the former territory of New Guinea. Beginning today, all of you are the residents of the Government of New Guinea, where the public administration will be exercised by the Governor on behalf of our honorable Queen. We beseech the Almighty to give  His blessing to this land and we pray that He under the guidance of H.M. Queen Juliana may lead us to prosperity and peace.

“The acting Governor of New Guinea,

“J.P.K. van Eechoud”

Mos Papuans, however,  missed the proclamation. They either did not read it or did not hear about it because they had never seen a Dutch person.

Copyright © 2010. All rights reserved. Published with written permission from the author.

17. A Papuan Separatist Leader Returns Home (2)

By CELLY AKWAN

J.P.K. Van Eechoud (1904-1958)

Youwe’s political awareness was also the awareness, first of other coastal Papuans and then of Papuans in other parts of Dutch New Guinea. A Dutch government figure who had influenced him very much was J.P.K. Van Eechoud.

Police Officer and Sonica Officer

Van Eechoud was an experienced Dutch police officer, assigned at the Field Police Office in Manokwari, North Dutch New Guinea in 1936. In 1944, as recognition of his accomplishments as intelligence officer for the allied troops, he was appointed as Commanding Officer of the Netherlands-Indies Civil Administration (Conica) in Hollandia.

The NICA (Netherlands-Indies Civil Administration) was born from a secret talk between General Douglas MacArthur and Dr. Huib van Mook, leader of the Dutch colonial government in Netherlands-Indies in exile, in Brisbane (Australia) on March 4, 1944. They came to an agreement that small teams of NICA would follow the invasion military; the teams were responsible for running the civilian government in areas liberated by the allied troops. The highest authority of the NICA was a Senior Officer NICA (Sonica); regional administrators under Sonica included Van Eechoud.

When the allied troops left Netherlands New Guinea, landed and attacked the Japanese on Morotai, an island in North Moluccas, on September 15, 1944 before they moved to the Philippines, they returned the first parts of Netherlands-Indies – Hollandia and Sarmi – to the Dutch. The Nica which lacked police, communication means, and was limited to the occupation areas left by the American military was not able to enforce its authority in other parts of Dutch New Guinea. There was anarchy in these areas. There were still Japanese soldiers roaming in the jungle and elsewhere. The absence of police made the Papuans take the law into their own hands: they hunted the Japanese, killed them, and took their swords. Occasionally, the “Japanese hunting” took the form of the old head-hunting raids.

Papua battalion, police school, and government school

To get the Papuans involved more or less regularly in the war activity, Van Eechoud, who had been promoted to Army Major, established the Papua Battalion in December 1944. Meant as a police corps during war time, they got some basic military training and served as reserve troops of the Royal Dutch-Indies Army. The battalion was assigned with the tasks of clearing liberated areas in Dutch New Guinea and was under the command of Van Eechoud. Early 1946 the Papua Battalion had its “barrack” near Lake Sentani, Hollandia. In April 1953, it totaled 397 soldiers. Shortly after his promotion as an army major, Van Eechoud established in Merauke, a town in the southern coast of Dutch New Guinea which during WW II was not occupied by the Japanese but by the American and later Australian military, a police school for training Papuans as police. The school was later moved to Hollandia in 1945.

Late 1944, Conica Van Eechoud decided to establish a dormitory for young Papuans in Kota Nica, Hollandia, at the north edge of Lake Sentani. The students at the dormitory were a combination of the last years of elementary schools and one year “crash training of government assistants”. The crash training included six months of theoretical lessons and six other months for practice at government posts. Before the war started in Netherlands New Guinea, there was only one Papuan government assistant.

The first course attendants included Nicolaas Youwe from Kayu Pulau. The school had more than 150 students, half of them later worked in the government and the rest found their jobs in business companies, health care, and education. The school angered the South Moluccans in Dutch New Guinea because they had always supplied their cadres for government services. Van Eechoud then made a breakthrough of this practice. At the inauguration of the school, he said about things that were unforgettable to the Papuan students. “In 1828 we came here,” he said, “and we have told you since then how things work. Nowadays you are called to take the government of this land in your own hands; on this day, the new Papua is born.” Then, the oldest course attendant (his name was not mentioned) came forward and said: “We give you the honorary title of Bapak Papua, father of this new Papua.”

What Van Eechoud was

J.P.K. Van Eechoud handing out a present to a Papuan

No other Dutch government officials were given such a honor by the Papuans. J.P.K. Van Eechoud from Limburg, Holland, was a man of outstanding caliber. Though trained as a police officer, he was well known, after arriving in Netherlands New Guinea in 1936, as an energetic explorer, talented leader, and as a man with imaginative power. The last can be noticed from his numerous reports, notes, and books that contain his reminiscences. Though not educated in government administration at the university like other Dutch government officials in Netherlands-Indies and Dutch New Guinea, he felt that his talent in the administration was not inferior to the expertise in governance of his colleagues who got special academic titles in this field. After the surrender of the Japanese in Batavia (now Jakarta), however, the pre-war Dutch officials who resumed their work at the Department of Domestic Affairs had never considered Van Eechoud as one belonging to their group.

Van Eechoud was a hard worker with high standards set for himself and his colleagues. He was a non-conformist, did not like bureaucratic procedures, and was very much involved in the affairs of the Papuans and their land. These characteristics made him a controversial figure. Dr. J. Van Baal, a cultural anthropologist and one of the Dutch governors of Dutch New Guinea, said Van Eechoud was “a person too obsessed to keep a distance for gaining objectivity one needs”. Dr. Victor de Bruyn, an academically educated government official at Leiden University in Holland who also did a lot of explorations in the highlands of Dutch New Guinea before the war, expressed his great appreciation of Van Eechoud: “He considered contact with the natives as primary interest for the government work. Between 1945 and 1950, his stimulating leadership developed a corps of Dutch and Papuan government officials showing a team spirit New Guinea has never known since then.”

Dutch Control on Netherlands New Guinea

In 1945, Dutch New Guinea, as it had been from 1920 to 1924, was separated from Tidore and became a separate residency, a territory that was administered by the resident agent of Holland as its protecting state. In the past, the Tidore sultanate in North Moluccas had its control on the northern and north-western coasts of Dutch New Guinea for around four centuries. In such a way, Holland supported its control on the future of the new residency.

The reason behind this change of attitude is not certain. It was speculated that two important Dutch government officials in exile in Australia, Dr. Van Mook and Van der Plas, kept Dutch control on Netherlands New Guinea because of their sympathy for the Papuans who played a role in World War II in their region. In addition, both amassed knowledge of the negative sentiments of the Papuans for Indonesia in general and Tidore in particular. Whatever the reasons are, the seeds for the “New Guinea question” were planted in this secession.

On July 15, 1946, Van Eechoud was appointed by the lieutenant-governor-general of the Dutch-Indies in exile, Dr. H. Van Mook, as a “temporary acting resident agent” of Dutch New Guinea. During the war, Van Mook had good experience with Van Eechoud, the army captain and a political ally of him who he respected for his non-conformist government style. Van Eechoud then exercised the authority given to him well.

Political turmoil

One of the problems Van Eechoud had to face and solve was the social tensions among the people. There were strong anti-foreigner (amberi of non-white or Indonesian descents) sentiments among the Papuans and, in turn, the Indonesian amberi who supported the independence of Indonesia in 1945 were against the Dutch. The non-white foreigner hate among the Papuans and the nationalistic spirit of the Indonesians formed an explosive mixture resulting sporadically in alarming turmoil.

The amberi sentiments were the strongest in the Geelvink Bay, Central North New Guinea, especially, in Biak-Numfor. The bloody oppression (by the Japanese) of the Koreri movements awaiting the return of the mythical Lord of the Utopia as believed by the Biak-Numfor people in particular and, in other versions, by the Papuans in general and the collaboration of the Indonesian teachers and low-level government officials with the Japanese to carry out that oppression were still fresh in the memories of those Papuan islanders. Aside from incidental revenge actions, these sentiments led to political initiatives. Markus W. Kaisiepo (1913-2000) from Biak, a former elementary-school teacher for the Dutch Reformed Church Mission in Dutch New Guinea who later graduated from the government school in Kota Nica and became a government assistant, sent an article that was published by Penyuluh (Light Bearer or Caster), a newspaper in Malay circulated among Indonesians in Australia, and was published on September 8, 1945. It was published after Indonesia was proclaimed as an independent country by Sukarno and Hatta on August 17, 1945. In that article, Kaisiepo appealed to the Dutch government to change its attitude, to provide the Papuans with more education and job opportunities in the government and business companies. To the “Indonesian brothers and sisters”, he called on them to break off their pre-war past when they “monopolized” the teaching, government, and business jobs in Dutch New Guinea. He ended his letter: “The era for freedom, for change is dawning. In this era, the sons and daughters of our people no longer wish themselves to be called ‘Papuans’ because, by that name, the Dutch and Indonesian brothers exclude us from school and church. Along this road, we appeal that from now on the only name to be used which suits our climate is “Irian”, which means “warm land”, and no longer “Papua”.

The increasingly self-conscious Biak people were fed up with Papua bodoh (stupid Papuans) stigmatized by the amberi and proposed a name for New Guinea. Markus Kaisiepo, a government official at the Department of Information in Hollandia in the 1950s, would turn out to be a fierce opponent of the inclusion of Dutch New Guinea to Indonesia. Nevertheless, the Indonesians eventually accepted his proposal, as an alternative to the “pro-Dutch” and – later – the “separatist” choice of “Papua”. It is a joke of history.

As soon as Van Mook returned to Batavia, he developed the idea of an “Indonesian Federation” in which states formed from regions outside Java and Sumatra would provide a counter-balance to the rebellious Republic of Indonesia which controlled parts of Java and Sumatra. To realize this idea, the lieutenant-governor-general held a conference in Malino, a mountain village above Makassar (South Sulawesi) on July 6, 1946. Representatives of all parts of Indonesia, except parts of Java and Sumatra that formed the new republic, attended the conference. The meeting aimed at winning the representatives for some autonomous rules within each region of the sovereign federation. Van Mook’s idea was attractive to local leaders, such as the Moluccan sultans, Buginese kings, and Balinese kings.

This first conference was also attended by a representative from Dutch New Guinea, who traveled outside the newly established residency for the first time. He was Frans Kaisiepo (1921-1979), a relative of Markus W. Kaisiepo, who was sent by Van Eechoud. Like his relative, Frans Kaisiepo also graduated from the school for government assistants established by Van Eechoud in Kota Nica; he then worked as a government assistant aide. He was accompanied by Dr. V. de Bruyn as his consultant.

Frans Kaisiepo, wearing his government uniform

When Frans Kaisiepo was given the opportunity to speak in the conference, he raged against the Moluccan sultanate of Tidore, whose name was associated with slaves annually delivered as tributes to the sultan. He concluded his speech by repeating what his clan member Markus Kaisiepo said earlier: he no longer wanted to be called a “Papuan”. In New Guinea, that name was identical with being “stupid, lazy, and dirty”. New Guinea would be called “Irian” and the Papuans were “the Nation of Irian”.

Van Eechoud was not happy with Kaisiepo’s suggestion. Serving as Van Eechoud’s mouthpiece, Nicolaas Youwe whose first wife was from Kei, Southeast Moluccas, told Kaisiepo that iri in the Kei language means “slave”. During the Dutch period in New Guinea, however, the name proposed by both Kaisiepos were never used. One reason for this was that “Irian” was used by pro-Indonesian Papuans and non-white foreigners to mean Ikut Republik Indonesia Anti Nederland (IRIAN), Follow/Pro the Republic of Indonesia Anti the Netherlands.

KRI Frans Kaisiepo 368

Markus W. Kaisiepo and Frans Kaisiepo later became prominent social and political figures. The first was anti Indonesia and strived for the independence of Western (Dutch) New Guinea. The second becomes a national hero for Indonesia.

Before this region became a part of Indonesia in 1963, Markus Kaisiepo left for Holland, lived, and passed away there as an uncompromising Papuan separatist leader. Viktor Kaisiepo, his son who also lives in Holland, continues the struggles of his father.

The second became one of the governors of the Indonesian newly gained province of West Irian that later became Irian Jaya (1964-1973). In honor of his pro-Indonesian attitude that made him a national hero, his name was given to the international airport constructed during WW II in Biak: Frans Kaisiepo Airport. In 2009, the Indonesian Navy added a state-of-the-art battle ship of the corvette type made in Holland and named KRI Frans Kaisiepo 368, another honor to him.

Manuel Kaisiepo (born in 1953), his son, became a senior journalist for Kompas, the Catholic-owned newspaper – the New York Times of Indonesia – with the widest circulation in Indonesia. He served twice in two Indonesian cabinets. From 2000 to 2001, he became the Vice-Minister for the Development Acceleration of Eastern Indonesia Regions that included Irian Jaya. From 2001 to 2004, he served as State Minister for the Development Acceleration of Eastern Indonesia Regions.

Manuel Kaisiepo, journalist, vice minister, and state minister of Indonesia

In 1949, Holland and Indonesia unanimously came to the decision that consultation of the Papuans concerning the new status of New Guinea was not possible. This did not prevent both parties from running intensive campaigns for the inclusion of the new residency to Indonesia or its exclusion from Indonesia.

Political polarity and its control

To cope with this political polarity, the Dutch government planned to hold a conference called Round Table Conference (RTC) in the Hague, Holland, on August 23, 1949. Just before the RTC started in Holland, fierce struggles concerning the rights of the Papuans exploded among the Papuans and amberi siding with Indonesia and those, especially Papuans, opposing it in the Geelvink Bay. The struggles indicate political awareness, particularly among the Geelvink Bay Papuans, who for decennia had been educated by the Calvinistic Dutch missionaries.

Mid 1949, Nicolaas Youwe who had already been a government assistant in Hollandia approached Van Eechoud. He asked for permission to run a campaign to “strengthen the sense of nationality” among the Papuans. Van Eechoud turned down his request because Youwe was a civil servant who had to be neutral in political activities. Meanwhile, the political temperature increased. Seemingly ignoring Frans Kaisiepo’s rage against the atrocities of the Tidore sultanate in the past at the Malino conference, the Sultan of Tidore asked for a government boat in July 1949 for an “information tour” along the villages in the Geelvink Bay; before the war, he was a government assistant in the area. Van Eechoud honored this request. Reacting to this request, Nicolaas Youwe met the resident agent again, repeated his proposal, but his proposal was again turned down. Then, Youwe made a decision to use his authority to run campaigns in the villages around the Humboldt Bay and Lake Sentani. After returning from the campaigns, he piled a stack of letters on the bureau of the resident agent; in those letters, village elders demanded that, in making choices for the future, the voices of the Papuans be listened to.

Then, Nicolaas Youwe and Markus Kaisiepo were allowed to be on tour. In Manokwari and the Geelvink Bay, they gathered numerous written requests for the Netherlands to guide the Papuans toward their independence. Despite the generous cooperation with Dr. V. de Bruyn, they were less successful on the island of Yappen. Rev. H.J. Teutscher, a Dutch missionary in Serui, the main town of Yappen, did not agree that both men were provided with a government boat whereas Silas Papare, a pro-Indonesian political figure from Serui, and he were not allowed. “That is not democratic,” he said to Kaisiepo, “everybody should have equal rights.” De Bruyn who accompanied both civil servants was a bit pleased with Kaisiepo’s response: “Oh, in the church, things are not always democratic. You proclaim God’s words. If you want to be democratic, you should also give the devil the opportunity to stand at the pulpit.”

The underlying political struggles for power was stated by the resident agent, government officials sharing the same view with him, and Papuan friends as a very important issue. The management of Dutch New Guinea required “information” to morally equip the Papuans against “propagandas” and some expertise to contain the competing struggles for power. On August 8, 1949, the Dutch government in Holland came to a decision to keep Western New Guinea as a part of the Dutch kingdom. Van Eechoud then set his neutrality aside and gave an order to V. de Bruyn to prevent Silas Papare from expressing his pro-Indonesian stance in Java. “Keep him away from the airplane,” said Van Eechoud.

Copyright © 2010. All rights reserved. Published with written permission from the author.

16.A Papuan Separatist Leader Returns Home(1)

By CELLY AKWAN

  The old Nicolaas Youwe

Nicolaas Youwe, 85, who lived in exile in Delft, Holland, from 1962 to 2009 was dubbed “King Without a Country”. Not only does this oxymoron imply comic irony for one of the prominent leaders of the Free Papua Organization. It also suggests a tragedy and, for the Papuan separatists, a disturbing betrayal of their cause to which they react with mixed feelings.

Irony and Tragedy

During his exile in Holland, he had held firmly to his ideal for an independent Irian Jaya, later divided into the provinces of Papua where Kayu Pulau, a village in Hollandia (now Jayapura) he was born in is located, and West Papua. Last year (2009), he changed his mind about this ideal he had held on firmly for almost fifty years: going back home, admitting that Papua and West Papua belong to Indonesia, participating legally in the development of both provinces, and spending the rest of his life in his hometown after getting the news in Delft that his small house he and his family had lived in since 1962 would be leveled. Such an inner reorientation is ironic. For years, Nicolaas Youwe, the designer of the Papuan flag, the Morning Star, that has been proudly flown in and outside West Papua, West Irian, Irian Jaya, Papua and West Papua since the early 1960s, that has often been flown within Indonesia by Papuan daredevils, has been looked upon by Papuan separatists as a true fighter for Papuan independence, a person who is supposed to hold on firmly to his ideal. Suddenly, their belief in him was shaken by his surprising decision to cooperate with Indonesia, their enemy.

The descriptive nickname “King without a Country” also suggests the existence of a country (the present-day Papua and West Papua and their former names) whose king has to live abroad without being able to return and restore the sovereignty of his country. His people have suffered for decades without the ability of their king living far away in Holland (Nicolaas Youwe) to free them and lead them (back) to independence. Whether Youwe likes this label or not, it indicates a social tragedy that might not end soon and that he probably would not be able to also end soon.

Disturbing Betrayal and Mixed Feelings

For the Papuan separatists who still believe they will have an independent country in the future, the decision of Nicolaas Youwe to choose side with Indonesia as their enemy is a kiss of Judas. Unless he does something within Indonesia that supports their ideal, he will be looked down upon as another Papuan stabbing them in the backs. Certainly, no statues will be carved nor streets be named as marks of honor to him if the Papuans get their independence in their own country.

Around 10.000 Papuans in exile in Holland, including the younger ones, have mixed feelings about Youwe’s decision to return to Indonesia. His old age and desire to spend the rest of his life in Papua is a reason they can understand and accept. But his other reason, getting wiser at such an age and suddenly siding with Indonesia for reasons he had told them, is something they might find hard to swallow.

Controversy in Perspective

The emerging controversy about Nicolaas Youwe has to be kept in perspective if the opposing parties want to have realistic understanding about him and his surprising decision. So, who and what is Nicolaas Youwe? Why did he come to that decision? Will his decision weaken or end the long struggles of the Papuan separatists for independence? Will it help solve the development problems in Papua and West Papua through his active involvement in the governments of both provinces? Will it not have any effects on the future struggles of the separatists?

The Emergence of Youwe’s Political Awareness

A series of articles focusing on him will answer these questions. The first begins with his experience of World War II in Hollandia. It has three bays: Imbi Bay, Humboldt Bay (now Yos Sudarso Bay), and Youtefa Bay. The largest is the Humboldt Bay.

Son of a tribal chief

There are five villages around Hollandia – Kayu Batu, Kayu Pulau, Tobati, Enggros, and Nafri. Kayu Batu is located in Imbi Bay, Kayu Pulau is located closest to Jayapura and faces the Humboldt Bay; Tobati, Enggros, and Nafri are surrounded by Youtefa Bay.

The people of these villagers would be among the first witnesses of two Japanese war ships that entered the bay on April 19, 1942. The Japanese military soon took control of Hollandia, now Jayapura.

Before the first Japanese war ships entered the bay, the Youwe clan, the largest in Kayu Pulau, sent their four young men for further study in Manokwari, a main town in Central North New Guinea and the capital of Dutch New Guinea before the war. Two were trained as policemen, another became a Protestant minister of Calvinistic background, and the fourth would become a civil servant after the Dutch returned to Hollandia and Western (Dutch) New Guinea after WW II.

The Youwe clan is subdivided into two sub-clans: Youwe 1 and Youwe 2. The Youwe-1 sub-clan provides the adat (customary, sacred laws) heads by inheriting the traditional title of chrei. The oldest son of chrei Fache Youwe got from his parents the name Coara Youwe and the baptist name Nicolaas.

Nicolaas Youwe had lived in Delft, Holland, from 1962 to 2009 and then made a decision to return to his “home” – Papua in Indonesia. This January 2010, he did return to Indonesia.

In Manokwari, Nicolaas attended fishery training. After returning from Manokwari, he was assigned by the Japanese to manage an organization for tuna catch in the Humboldt Bay.

Shocking encounter with the American “sea beast”

In September 1943, Nicolaas, 20, and his friend from the same village, Simon Sibi, were fishing around the bay when they were shocked one day by what they had never seen before. Recounted Nicolaas: “… suddenly a very big fish emerged from the sea. At the upper part of the beast, a window opened up and somebody shouted at us. It seemed to be a submarine which was searching for missing American pilots. For the first time in my life I saw an American.” Because both young men spotted the submarine and could alarm the Japanese if they returned home, they were urged to get on board.

The relatively young Nicolaas Youwe

The submarine took them to Finschhafen in Australian New Guinea where they gave detailed stories about the strength of the Japanese army in Hollandia and its vicinity. The man who listened to them was a Dutch army captain, J.P.K. Van Eechoud.

Nicolaas and Simon established contacts between the allied troops and the Papuans in Hollandia who were forced to help the Japanese. They then passed on in secrecy information to the Americans in Finschhafen. Marthen Indey from Depapre, Tanah Merah Bay, west of Hollandia, who was a policeman before the war also passed on other valuable information about the strength of the Japanese military in Hollandia by radio to the allied troops in Australian New Guinea.

The allied troops in Hollandia and its vicinity

The allied troops led by the American lieutenant-general Robert Eichelberger began their attacks in Hollandia on April 22, 1944. His troops, code-named “Reckless” and formed from the combined 24^th and 41^st Infantry divisions reinforced with tanks, artilleries, and other equipments, totaled 37.500 combatants and 18.000 non-combatants who included various professionals. The allied troops bombed the Japanese airfields in Sentani and destroyed 245 airplanes in two days.

During the landings and ensuing fights against the Japanese, 152 Americans were killed and 1.057 wounded. The Japanese military lost 3.300 soldiers. General Inada, the Japanese commander, tried with the surviving 7.200 manpower to escape by land from Lake Sentani to Sarmi. Around 6.000 of them did not make it; they died of diseases and rounding up by Papuans. Between August and October 1944, 2.119 Japanese on the north coast of Dutch New Guinea were killed by the Papuans and 249 were taken prisoners. The killings were part revenge part hunting for a premium of 50 cents (Dutch guilder), the price of a Japanese killed. As proofs, “hunters” cut off either the left or right ears of their victims.

The awesome Americans and the Utopia they brought along

The Americans who destroyed a large part of Hollandia that before the war was just a “small post” not only rebuilt it but also expanded it with new infrastructure. They built one of the largest military bases in the Pacific Ocean because the Humboldt Bay had deep waters that enabled a complete fleet to put down their anchors. Ship harbors, hangars, storehouses, roads longer than 100 kilometers, dry docks, reparation buildings, canteens, and offices were also built. Thousands of cars carried people and abundance of cargoes on the roads and seventy open-air movie theaters played the latest American movies, chosen from ten to twelve movies, every day. In total, there were half a million people of the allied troops who stayed in the wonderfully rebuilt Hollandia, a population number that for more than sixty years (1944-2009) has not been surpassed yet by the current number of population in Jayapura.

The arrival of the Americans and their allies in Hollandia, their involvement in conjuring up Hollandia, and their wonderful life styles were awesome to the Papuans. Within a few weeks, they underwent a culture shock never heard before. The landing and presence of the allied troops in Hollandia and Depapre were for the fishermen from the Humboldt Bay, the Tanah Merah Bay, and Lake Sentani, a few kilometers off Hollandia, “almost an eschatological experience for them,” said Silas Chaay, a boy of ten at that time and also comes from Kayu Pulau, years later. The villagers in these areas could not go out fishing because they were afraid their small wooden canoes could be destroyed by the gigantic propellers of the war-time ships “swarming” the Humboldt Bay. They had to live from American food: canned fish and vegetables. All the men in the villages only played cards. The women did not have to work hard because there was abundance of meals, bread, and coffee. The American military found it best that the villagers enjoyed their supplies. Years later, Silas Chaay reminisced about this utopian-evoking impact: “The people of Kayu Pulau no longer worked and imagined themselves to be in heaven. When the older people saw the black American soldiers, they thought their ancestors had returned.” Silas later became a Protestant minister of Calvinistic background for the Evangelical Christian Church, a main-stream Protestant church which has so far been the largest church in both Papua and West Papua since its foundation in 1956 in the former Dutch New Guinea.

Youwe’s political awareness inspired by the black American soldiers

The presence of the black American soldiers in Hollandia and its vicinity also brought new awareness for the young Nicolaas Youwe. His father, a tribal chief in his village, went out with men from his village to see what were going on in Hollandia. They saw the black Americans, black like themselves, who constructed roads, sat behind the wheels of heavy army trucks, and did various things like the white soldiers. They saw black pilots, blacks as sailors, blacks in beautiful uniforms, and bottles of Coca-Cola. Said Nicolaas in retrospect about his father and fellow-villagers, “Of course, they did not know anything about racial discrimination in the United States, but what they saw opened their eyes.” What opened their eyes? Their lowest status among the amberi (foreigners) in Hollandia and Dutch New Guinea lagged behind that of the black Americans. The Papuans “were always looked down upon, treated as wilds.” Not so much by the Dutch, but by the lower civil servants, particularly, the hated South Moluccans (“the black Dutch”). The Papuans “had always stood below the ladder: at the top were the Dutch, then the Chinese followed by the hated South Moluccans . . ., then the Javanese, and finally the Papuans. So has the encounter between the coastal people and the American military in 1944 laid the basis for later political awareness.”

Copyright © 2010. All rights reserved. Published with written permission from the author.