You can’t preach the moral high ground and walk in the gutter: Australia and West Papua | Blak and Black

19.10.11

You can’t preach the moral high ground and walk in the gutter: Australia and West Papua | Blak and Black: Post-Suharto Indonesia has been trying to build an international reputation as a nascent democracy, with its efforts being recognised by the international community via the nation’s re-election in 2007 and again in 2010 to the United Nations Human Rights Council, carrying through until 2014. However continuing Indonesian oppression in West Papua[ii] seems to make a mockery of this democratic reform success story and highlights the need to subject Indonesia’s human rights record and credibility to the utmost rigors of critical examination. Such a critical examination is made more difficult by the fact that Indonesia keeps the troubled province of West Papua off limits to foreign journalists and human rights investigators.