#PapuanLivesMatter: A Question of Honesty

West Papuan Lives Matter, Papuan Lives Matter

Hashtag #blacklivesmatter has been gone viral in social media. social media have become a common way for political groups and social movements to organize their causes. Social media expert Monica Anderson said two of the top three hashtag were directly related to issues of race. #BlackLivesMatter was the third most used social-issue hashtag in the 10-year history of twitter.

#PapuanLivesMatter occured around the end of May 2020 pointing at the case of Obby Kogoya in 2017. The picture of Obby Kogoya being arrested was seen as similar to what happened to George Floyd. The only different is that Indonesian police did not kill Obby Kogoya. The case itself presented contradicting evidences as follow (Jakarta Post):

1. According to Obby Kogoya defendant, Obby did not perform any kind of violence resistance to the police personel.
2. According to the police, Obby’s action of using brick in threatening the police personnel are evidence.

#BlackLivesMatter is correct, #PapuanLivesMatter is correct, #IndonesianLivesMatter is correct, #HumanLivesMatter is correct. We should respect human lives, we should respect human rights. It is a question of our honesty. Are we fighting for our lives, our basic right to live in this world? Or, are we fighting for something else?

We should differentiate between honest campaign in support to #BlackLivesMatter and #PapuanLIvesMatter and separatist campaign that provoke violent and disobedience to law. Why this is very important? I see an immature effort by West Papua separatist campaigners to use the case of George Floyd in the US and racism in West Papua and Papua provinces.

#BlackLivesMatter #PapuanLivesMatter

West Papuan Lives Matter