Durham, NC; London: Duke University Press, 2012. xvii, 305 pp. (Maps, B&W illus.) US$24.95, paper. ISBN 978- 0-8223-5134-4.
In this extensively researched study, based on hundreds of interviews and years of on-site observation, Eben Kirksey examines the dynamics of politics and resource exploitation in the long-contested western half of the island of New Guinea. As the title suggests, his focus is on exploring the complex and entangled recent history of West Papua and its relationships with other political and business entities. Unraveling the strangling tendrils of a central government whose primary political party Golkar used the banyan tree as a symbol is a daunting task, but one which Kirksey has pursued with care, and writes about with an ear for nuance and irony.
Following an insightful introduction which summarizes the colonial history of West Papua and introduces us to key figures in his own journeys within the country, Kirksey organizes the book chronologically by the three stages he perceives should inform our understanding of the merdeka (freedom) movement and its ramifications. Covering the years 1998-2000, in chapters 1 and 2, he examines the changes in Indonesian politics when Suharto was forced from power, the short-lived flag-raisings in Jayapura and Biak when supporters of independence for West Papua came out of the woodwork to celebrate, and which were followed by immediate, forceful reprisals by the central government. In the chapter “From the Rhizome to the Banyan,” he gives a tightly argued analysis of political dynamics in West Papua, and especially highlights the entanglements of noted independence figures including Theys Eluay, shown in his home next to a photograph of John F. Kennedy meeting with Sukarno in 1961 (67). Eluay, he shows, collaborated with the government and with corporations, accepting gifts and political attention, even as he maintained an identity as a nationalist figure. Kirksey notes that “as leaders like Eluay enjoyed personal freedoms, as their imaginations were captured by the promises of capitalism, they nonetheless secured limited rights and justice for the West Papuan people” (76).
The second stage, covering 2000-2002, involves an examination of the various warring factions within the independence movement and the larger world of Indonesian politics, using as one focus the development of a BP project to extract natural gas from the Bintuni Bay area. This is also the section where we learn of the deaths of Theys Eluay and of Wellam Korwam. Chapter 4 helps us see more of Kirksey’s complex relationship to his own research, and we learn of an epiphanic moment that tips him toward a more activist form of ethnographic study. One of his sources challenges him: “Don’t use your data as a pillow and go to sleep when you get to America … Don’t just use this as a bridge to your own professional opportunities” (127). This charge seems to shape this book profoundly, in that Kirksey does not try to distance himself from his observations. In the third section, for example, which looks ahead from 2002 and speculates on the future of the politics and entanglements of West Papua, while examining some of the recent attempts to bring West Papua’s situation to a higher priority among Western governments, Kirksey describes some of his own activism among government leaders in the West.
With its accounts of subversion, treachery, gruesome atrocities and terrifying betrayals, as well as its sometimes chilling photographs, this book is not bedtime reading, but it will be welcomed by scholars and historians seeking to understand the many entanglements of this part of New Guinea. It raises important questions about the collusions between corporations and governments, and can help us read between the lines of news articles and annual reports.
Larry M. Lake
Messiah College, Mechanicsburg, USA
p. 701