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.