The Road: Uprising in West Papua

by John Martinkus

Chemical weapons deployed. Choppers taken out. Communications repressed. Tens of thousands of people displaced. The West Papuan independence movement has reignited, and Indonesian troops are cracking down.

In The Road, John Martinkus gives a gripping, up-to-date account of the province’s descent into armed conflict and suppression. Replete with vivid detail and new information, this revelatory work of journalism shows how and why a highlands road led to an uprising, and where this might all lead.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

128 pages, Paperback

First published May 18, 2020

Reviews

[Vannessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Martinkus has previously covered regions of Indonesia in which self determination movements were active, such as Aceh and West Papua. He also covered East Timor in the 1990s. Martinkus's earlier work shows his empathetic, sensitive and powerful writing.

In this book, Martinkus returns, albeit not by directly basing himself there, to the issue of West Papua, specifically ostensibly to highlight the Trans-Papua highway road construction and its impact on highland villages. The result vindicates the need for there to be better media coverage of West Papua, that the book would have been sharper if journalists like Martinkus are able to cover the region, despite Indonesian government reluctance to allow such access. Martinkus is driven by his sympathies for the West Papuan people, those who are critical of continuing Indonesian presence on the half island. He is concerned to stop occurrence of discrimination and human rights abuses there, but for the book to be truly powerful, it needs to be more focused, robust, systematic and detailed in documenting the incidents that he mentions, as well as to provide a more in-depth coverage of the new youth movements arising from below in West Papua and the complexity of life on the ground under regional autonomy and the involvement of large numbers of Indonesian settlers in everyday life. The book is a call to action, but it lacks the polish and complexity to transform it qualitatively into a very important and timely contribution to the West Papuan campaign for human rights. It also has not given sufficient space and voice to young Papuans who, by his own account, are those taking up the fight. Large sections of it consist of quotes of earlier press articles already published elsewhere, rather than direct interviews. This is a brave attempt to intervene in the campaign, but many changes have, indeed, occurred since his last journey to West Papua in 2003.

[David Risstrom · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short, concise book that uses the construction of a transnational road in West Papua as the background for John’s examination of the West Papuan independence movement.

A scenario replicated the world over, The Road details the failure of the international community to require international law and human rights standards to be upheld in the face of reported authoritarian subjugation of people seeking independence from their national government.

The people of West Papua were subject to increasingly firm Indonesian administration following events in the 1960s that included Papua’s incorporation into Indonesia in 1963. A less than satisfactory UN sponsored process labelled ‘Act of Free Choice’ allegedly involved 1026 citizens voting on behalf of approximately 1 million Papuans for integration into Indonesia. This, among other things has been a couch of convenience for the international community to do very little the respond to the independence claims and to respond to alleged atrocities. All of us.

Roads bring different things. For some they mean transport and freedom. For the military, they allow greater access for heavy machinery. John doesn’t explore this allegory, but may have implied it. The claim made in the book is that the 2020 Covid crisis has been used as a further shield against scrutiny of wrongdoing for all involved in the struggle.

I could have easily read more. The Road is somewhat a well researched pamphlet, opening our eyes to the obvious. But as many of us know, despite our optimistic illusion, knowing is not always enough. I recently finished reading Geoffrey Robinson’s The Killing Season about the Indonesian purge and killing of hundreds of thousands of left leaning citizens from 1965 on. For some, things haven’t changed nearly as much as they could or should have under a more open Indonesia.

Read The Road. Hitchhike with John Martinkus and then you can decide were you go next.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I confess I did not have any knowledge of the West Papuan independence movement before reading this, nor of the violence the Indonesian government and military is perpetrating upon West Papua. This book explains a great deal of both, given it is a short volume.
Activist Benny Wenda is quoted, “my peo­ple face a re­newed hu­man­i­tar­ian cri­sis in West Papua. From Pun­cak Jaya to In­tan Jaya, Nduga to Timika, over 45,000 have been dis­placed by In­done­sian mil­i­tary op­er­a­tions since De­cem­ber 2018. As you read this, the In­done­sia mil­i­tary is mo­bil­is­ing to pro­tect the world’s largest gold and third-largest cop­per mine, Gras­berg, run by US com­pany Freeport Mc­MoRan. Thou­sands, in­clud­ing en­tire vil­lages near the mine, are flee­ing.”

But the most hopeful writing was “On 25 Jan­u­ary 2019, Benny Wenda, ex­iled leader of the po­lit­i­cal arm of the West Papuan in­de­pen­dence move­ment, handed a pe­ti­tion signed by 1.8 mil­lion West Papuans to the United Na­tions hu­man rights chief Michelle Bachelet in Geneva. The ac­tual hand-signed doc­u­ment, weigh­ing more than 40 kilo­grams, had been col­lated and smug­gled across the bor­der to Papua New Guinea over a pe­riod of months in 2017. Rep­re­sent­ing more than 70 per cent of the West Papua and Papua provinces’ pop­u­la­tion of 2.5 mil­lion, it re­quested the relist­ing of West Papua on the UN com­mit­tee for de­coloni­sa­tion, from which it had been re­moved in 1963, and a UN-su­per­vised in­de­pen­dence vote.”
The fact that a petition, a physical petition, was tracked across West Papua for signatures is remarkable and shows the passion for independence. However, “if the In­done­sians and the Aus­tralians and the UN con­tinue their cur­rent poli­cies in Papua, there will never be peace.”

[Dennis · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you don't know much about Papua nationalism and its struggles like I do, then 'The Road' by John Martinkus is a good place to start. Martinkus is very engaged with his subject both in an emotional and journalistic sense. The stories he tells are often from his own long experience, and are a must-read if you want to understand recent Papuan history and their bloody engagement with modernity, which is coming to them in the form of the Indonesian state.

Although understandable, emotional attachment does limit the intellectual value of the book. In the main, he focuses on how the Papuan movement grew in potential. Only sporadically does Martinkus touch upon how Papuan nationalism would have a fighting chance in the wider geopolitical arena. In addition to the Indonesian state and its internal stability, this arena would contain other regional powers, and China.

[Rizki Febriani · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book by John Martinkus that I read. This is also the first book on West Papua issue that I have read. As an Indonesian, it was hard to find a book that explain the situation, we are only able to get government approved information in regards to West Papua situation.

2019 racism incident to West Papuan students in East Java picked my curiousity to understand the situation better, what is actually happening? What do my country and government do to the West Papuan people?

John Martinkus explain it well to me, because I thought at first West Papuan refer to only one province in Papua Island. I was wrong, turn out West Papua refer to half of the island that is under Indonesia. Now, I better try to educate myself. This is the least I can do considering what my country has done to West Papua.

[Mandy Partridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Martinkus is a journalist who has covered conflicts around the world. He covered the East Timorese war for Independence from Indonesia. The Indonesians expelled foreigners and committed massacres in East Timor in the 1990s, just as they are doing right now in West Papua. Martinkus bravely traveled "The Road", President Sukarno's boast of a road "from Sabang to Merauke", all the way to Merauke on the border with Papua New Guinea. He witnessed first hand the Indonesian army's killing of Independence activists, priests and nuns, journalists and freedom fighters. It is thanks to writers like John Martinkus that the rest of the world can read about present day Colonialism, the land theft and genocide of Indigenous people, and anyone who might stand up for them. An important read.

[Adam Ashton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Completely ignorant of what is going on in this part of the world. Had heard nothing about this, but hope I hear a lot more about this situation in the middle this to come, because it will mean that word is spreading #FreeWestPapua

[Glen Cowan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very illuminating for me. I had a very piecemeal understanding of the unrest in West Papua but this has given me a good base to learn more about it Considering the role Australia, the country of my birth, continues to play in playing deaf and dumb, that is something I very much want to do.

[Elsie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essential reading for Australians.

[Bassem El Borni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative and helpful to understand the conflict.

[Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book, well written introduction to the Issue, but the start was not great.

[Erin Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is interesting to read so soon after Martinkus' untimely death. About Papua, but very much about him too.

[John Barckley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading this as part of research for a core credit in college. I was expecting to sleepwalk my way into a couple of affable quotes. I reached the back cover. I had finished the book by accident.