HOLANDIA NEWS: Elephant in the room: is Papua the next East Timor...

One issue, above all others, starkly differentiates the jobs of Indonesian President and Australian Prime Minister. When our Prime Minister wakes each morning, the first question she asks isn’t: “Do I still have a whole country to govern today?”

The challenge of maintaining national sovereignty and territorial integrity has beset incumbents of Jakarta’s presidential palace since the earliest days of the Indonesian republic. Not all Indonesians were as enthusiastic about a macro Indonesian state as the mostly Javanese and Sumatran nationalist leaders who declared and struggled for independence from 1945. Insurrection and separatism have been constant features of the Indonesian experience since the 1950s.

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HOLANDIA NEWS: Elephant in the room: is Papua the next East Timor...: One issue, above all others, starkly differentiates the jobs of Indonesian President and Australian Prime Minister. When our Prime Mini...