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| Theys Hiyo Eluay 03 November 1937 - 10 November 2001 |
Introduction
There was always some ambiguity in the role of Theys Hiyo
Eluay. He clearly had a background of co-operation with the Indonesians.
In his home area, Sentani, he did not have a large amount of support as
the memories were still vivid of the largew number of people killed
through his intervention with the Indonesian army. Some victims of his
role before and after the Act of Free Choice (Pepera) of 1969 are still
in hiding in PNG.
The struggle of the Papuans for freedom and independence came fully
into the open with the fall of Soeharto on 21 May 1998. Habibie had soon
after taking over as President promised East-Timor a referendum. The
Papuans were promised a “dialogue.” Theys Eluay played a minor role in
these first public efforts of political mobilization of the Papuan
people. His day came after the mass mobilization of the Papuans had
already taking place, in the form of a “dialogue” and the
“socialization” of this dialogue. In February 1999 a Team of One
Hundred, led by Thom Beanal, went to Habibie and asked for independence
for the Papuan people.
Only after the rise of Thom Beanal Theys appointed himself to Great
Leader of the Papuan People or also Great Leader of West-Papua,
Pemimpin Besar Bangsa Papua (PBBP). There was then always the suspicion
that his conversion from Red-White (Indonesian Nationalist) to a Papuan
Freedom fighter was not sincere, but that he was manipulated by the army
and by the kopassus. Up to the evening where he met his death Theys was
very close o the army, police and kopassus commanders. However, by his
violent death he clearly redeemed himself. He was now in the line of
other Papuan martyrs like Arnold Ap (killed in 1984) and Thomas Wangai
(died in prison in 1996).
Whatever the motivation of his murderers it is difficult to imagine
that they anticipated the mass mobilization after his death and at his
funeral. The worldwide media attention for his murder. The setting up of
several investigation teams and the open acknowledgement that all the
evidence pointed to the Kopassus as the murders of Theys Eluay and to
all probability also his driver.
Background
Theys Eluay was educated in the Advanced Primary School
(Jongensvervolgschool) of Yoka, Sentani, He followed then a course in
meteorology and worked as a meteorologist assistant. He is from the Sere
village and comes from a family of traditional leaders (ondoafi). He
became ondoafi, probably because of his relatively advanced education,
though he was not entitled to the responsibility as it follows a strict
order of seniority. In After 1963, when Indonesia tried to eliminate
Papua protest against its integration into Indonesia, Theys assisted the
Indonesian army in pointing out people who were pro-Dutch and/or
ant-Indonesian. These caused, in the smaal community of Sentani people
(at that time probably around 15,000) a large number of victims. Theys
was a member of the small number of Papuans selected to vote for
integration with Indonesia in 1969. He helped to conduct a campaign in
favour of a positive vote. Most of the Sentani people at that time did
not agree with what Theys was doing. In 1971 he became a member of the
“gotong royong” (co-operation) parliament. By 1980 the influence of
Theys had already declined, which made him feel frustrated. He then
joined the Lembaga Musyawarah Adat Papua, translated as the Papuan
Customary Council Assembly, first of the Sentani area, then of the
province. In 1990 he became chairman of this Council. Only in 1996 this
Council became more politicised, with its highpoint in the period
1998-2002.
The role of Theys in the freedom struggle since 1998
The rise of Theys Eluay started soon after the Team of One Hundred
had gone to Jakarta and had publicly announced, with not a single
dissenting vote, that the result of the dialogue, initiated by Habibie
was that the Papuans wanted to be free. This had not been planned. On
the contrary. The government had dome everything it could to block any
real expression of opinion. At all the regencies petitions had already
been prepared that the religious leaders, the leaders of adat
(traditional law) and the leaders of society humbly would ask Habibie to
divide the province into three parts in order to be governed more
effectively. It would also mean that for two Papuans a position as a
provincial governor would be made available. The population got the wind
of this and they demanded everywhere that this letter would not be
send, but another letter instead which demanded freedom/independence.
They demanded that the regent (bupati) or the head of police in the districts (kecamatan)
would sign the letter too and that he would stamp it with the official
government stamp. This was the first time the people came out into the
open with their opinion with disregard of the consequences for their
personal safety. They just signed these petitions with their name and
function. Not long before this, the ones signing such statements would
get dismissed, imprisoned or worse. People no longer were afraid as they
saw the offer of dialogue as their last chance to gain their freedom.
Part of this mobilization as done by an ad-hoc organization, Foreri,
which took up the offer of Habibie. Foreri, the Forum Rekonsiliasi
Rakyat Irian Jaya, was an initiative of church leaders, who were joined
by the adat leaders, and the student and women organizations. Theys
was one of the adat leaders, together with Tom Beanal and
Gaspar Sibi. Theys, it seems, was only asked to give the requests of
Foreri some legitimacy. This was the Trinity of ordebaruism: society, i.
e. women and students (tokoh masyarakat or tomas), the adat leaders (tokoh adat or todat) and religion (tokoh agama or togas)
As chairman of the Papuan Customary Council Assembly Theys’ support
was off course important to augment the legitimacy of the activities of
Foreri in mobilizing the people to express their opinion freely.
Theys took initially a conservative viewpoint. He considered it too
extreme to ask for independence. He did not join the Team of One
Hundred. This changed, however, when the Team came back to Papua in
triumph. They were the heroes. The delegate of Serui, Yusuf Tanawani,
was carried on the shoulders of people all the way from the harbor to
the Assembly Hall, with outstretched arms as blessing the multitudes. In
the Assembly Hall he explained to the enthusiastic masses what had been
achieved. Independence was immanent. All this was completely ignored by
the only province wide daily, the Cendrawasih Pos. It is published by
Jawa Pos, but its contents are controlled by the army. In almost in
every issue there is news about some events in the army and police
complete with a number of picture of these dignitaries in uniform. There
is much reporting on events in the army and police, like transfers,
promotions or just opinions. C-Pos has hardly any any Papuans as
journalists. The focus is on the migrants. When the Team of One Hundred
had made its point to Habibie Cendrawasih Pos dared to ignore this fact,
but instead interview one Papuan, who had nothing to do with the Team
or with Foreri, who explained that he was not in favor of autonomy. This
seemed very ridiculous and the paper lost then all its credibility.
That was also the time that Theys Eluay, Don Flassy and two students
were arrested charged with organizing a meeting to discuss Papuan
independence. When Theys was freed after a week he appeared on the front
page of the Cendrawasih Pos with a picture, stating that West Papua did
not need to ask for Independence as it had been independent all the way
since 1 December 1961. Independence had illegally been usurped by
Indonesia. It had just to be given back. The contrast with the previous
editorial policy could not have been greater. This reporting definitely
increased the circulation of Cendrawasih Pos. It was now only Theys who
appeared in the paper. Other leaders in the struggle, like Tom Beanal
or Herman Awom hardly ever appeared. There were weeks that Theys
appeared almost every day with a picture on the frontpage. “Theys is
weeping”, “Theys is angry” or rather “wrathful” (murka), “Theys
is sick and has to go to Singapore,” “Straightaway friends” (after
fetching the new military commander from the airport in Sentani!). This
increased Theys’ popularity. He had the courage (or was given the
opportunity) to say things other people were afraid to say in the open.
All the time Theys remained very close to the top of the security
apparatus. He was the adat leader and now also the Leader of the Papuans
and as such he was part of the small and select group of the most
powerful in the province.
Theys was a self-appointed leader. He got much of his support because
of the publicity C-Pos gave him. He began to call himself the Great
Leader of the Papuan People and also the Great Leader of West Papua. In
February 2000 there was a large gathering of Papuans in a so-called
Musyawarah Besar to discuss the future of West Papua and to determine a
strategay of the struggle. By this time the army made overtures to the
OPM. There was to be a dialogue between the Indonesian army and the OPM.
These were from now on free to go where they wanted. The OPM was also
present at the Mubes, which took place in Sentani Indah Hotel. By that
time Theys had already formed a large group of so called Taskforce
(Satgas) Papua. These were responsible for the security at the Mubes.
Though a majority at the Mubes was in favour of Tom as chairman of the
movement, with the great number of satgas close to the place where the
meeting was held, Theys could definitely not be ignored. A compromise
was struck and both became “Great Leader of the Papuan People”. At the
follow up of this Mubes the Congress or rather the Second Papuan
Congress, as the first Papua Congress was held in 1961, Theys stood up
at the beginning of the meeting and said: “I am the chairman, isn’t it,
Tom, while you are the vice chairman?” Tom had no other choice then to
agree as he did not want a quarrel at the beginning of such a crucial
meeting where very conflicting opinions about the strategy had to be
accommodated and the unity of the movement had to preserved at all
costs.
The Congress took place in May – June 2000, just to remember the
first of May 1963 when Indonesia came in full control of West Papua,
after the UNTEA period. The PDP or Presidium Dewan Papua, elected at the
Congress of 2000, is fairly representative if we look to its
composition with people from Biak, Sentani, Paniai, Merauke, Fak Fak
and Wamena present. Also various churches, mainline protestant,
evangelical and Roman Catholic, and even the Islam is represented.
The PDP formed a group which the local and the national government
and the heads of army and police were prepared to take seriously as they
were recognized as representatives of the Papuans in general, when
dealing with issues as public security, the issue of the raising of the
Independence flag, illegal demonstrations etc. In this way the PDP was
given a considerable legitimacy. At the same time as the new government,
and especially the new president Gus Dur, was building up a
relationship of trust with the PDP, the army reacted with aggressiveness
and violence on the raising of the Morningstar flag in the various
districts and regencies. Each time there was a considerable number of
deaths. Papuans began to speak about Bloody Biak, Bloody Timika, Bloody
Sorong, Bloody Nabire etc.
As chairman of the PDP Theys was not known for consulting his fellow
PDP members. Usually they had to read in the papers what Theys was doing
on behalf of the PDP and by extension the Papuan people. For one PDP
member, Tev Benny Giay from Paniai, this became too much to stomach when
without consultation Theys honored the departing commander of the army
by elevating him to the rank of “Great Warrior of the Papuans.” Papuans
from the highlands said that they objected to raise funds and pigs for
somebody who had a reputation of killing Papuans, as in the many
incidents mentioned above. Benny Giay left the PDP saying that he was
now too busy at the college, where he worked as a lecturer. Moreover
there hardly had been any meetings of the PDP.
Whatever his shortcomings or his real motivations by his violent
death by those he at one time in his life may have considered his
friends he immediately after his death became an icon in the continuing
struggle of Papuans against an oppressive Government.
His grave with a huge monument at the football field the Eluay family owned, close to Sentani airport, remained a place of pilgrimage and a memorial for the desire of Papuans to be independent from Indonesia.
Source; https://atipenburg.nl
