Papuans Must Go Swadeshi

Written by a West Papuan citizen

Political freedom is not enough. The struggle of the West Papuan will only reach its success if all the Papuan people unite. And they will only unite if they share a common burden and fate. They must have a common interest and perspective about the goal of their struggle.

My appeal - that the leaders and intellectual figures of West Papua learn from Mahatma Gandhi about the basic principles of Non-Violent Resistance. Then they have to pass them on to the grassroots level. Nelson Mandela (fighting against apartheid in South Africa) and Martin Luther King Jr. (fighting against racial discrimination in the USA), both learned a lot from Gandhi.

Mahatma Gandhi started SWADESHI with a vow. He burned all his imported clothes and began wearing clothes woven by Indian women. From clothes, then salt, then to other small things. All these seemed unimportant or trivial. But because Indians had applied them with full commitment, finally the British gave up.

India reached independence non-violently. There were only a few thousand victims from both India and Britain (mainly due to those who ignored the non-violent principles suggested by Gandhi). Algeria and France lost 900,000 people. Algeria used violent ways in their struggle. Nowadays, India and Britain are close friends (due to the success in reconciliation) whereas the relation between Algeria and France continues to experience problems.

SWADESHI can be started from the strength at Papuan hands now:

SWADESHI in Staple Food:
Let's abandon rice and return to sago or tuberous root. There will be hundreds of billions of rupiahs that we can save so that it will not flow to Java. This huge amount of money can be used by Papuans to support the education and health sectors for their children. So, sago is not only a matter of eating habits; it has to be used as a means of struggle (please read my other article entitled RASKIN at www.westpapua.ca). The dependency on rice equals to dependency on transmigrants. After getting free from rice, we can climb higher to another step towards self-determination.

SWADESHI in Kitchen Needs:
Every year Papuans consume hundreds of metric tons of salt imported from Madura island (the adjacent island north-east of Java). If you sail along the Madura strait, you will see the water looks blackish-brown, full of industrial waste. Thousands of kilometers of Papuan beach has pure sea water free from polution. Unfortunately, not even a span of the hand has been used to produce salt. Papuan people must produce their own salt, palm sugar, coffee, and other small things.

SWADESHI on bags:
Throw away your leather and plastics bags made in Bandung and Tanggulangin (the city and village are the production center of textile and leather goods in Java). Papuans must return to use NOKEN again. Noken is a traditional Papuan bag. If hundreds of thousands of students, workers, civil servants and intellectuals use NOKEN again or bags weaved from pandanus leaves and made by 100% Papuan mothers, there will be hundreds of rupiahs or even billions of rupiahs that the Papuan can save from flowing to Java. It can be used to support the daily needs of the Papuan people.

SWADESHI in textile:
When the Dutch were still in Papua, efforts had been made to enable Papuans to produce their own textiles. Catholic sisters introduced thread spinning from wool in the central mountainous region. The Catholic church, in the Bird's Head region, used to send Papuan mothers to Timor island to study weaving. As a result, they could weave and produce cloth by themselves. This only occurred until the late of 1980s. Now such skills have been forgotten. Papuan people must wake up again to producing their own textiles. It is not easy to apply Swadeshi in textiles; but if there is a will, there will be a way.

SWADESHI in Human Resources (HR):
We are wrong if HR is understood as simply Papuans with university degrees or professional qualifications. A tailor is HR, a noodle vendor is HR, a barber = HR, a tire repairman is HR, Father Yohanes who is extracting starch from sago trees in Babo forest is HR, Ms. Bonay who is hoeing land and planting caladium in Arso village is HR, student Jakobus Mandacan who is working as a taxi driver is also HR, and so on.

There are many other various sectors of Papuan life that need the application of Swadeshi.

How to start SWADESHI?
- Start from yourself
- Start from little things
- Start now

Don't look down at this emaciated man, Mr. Mahatma Gandhi. Although only skin covered his bones (due to his fasting and prayer activities), his Swadeshi still survives in India. Goldman Sach, a well-known global research institution, reported that India's economy will overtake the United States by 2050. Thanks to Indian commitment in applying Swadeshi. How about Papua?

Written by a concerned citizen living in West Papua.