Act of Free Choice or Papua's Fair and Just Referendum

The Act of Free Choice in Indonesian language is also know as Penentuan Pendapat Rakyat (Pepera). As a fair and just referendum for Papuan people, it was an important post-independence event for Papua and generally Indonesia where the inhabitants of West Papua was given freedom to choose whether they wanted to return to Indonesia or not. The result of the Act of Free Choice possesses a very significant meaning for Indonesia because the voters unanimously chose to return to Indonesia. One of Papuan leaders Mr. Freddy Numbery said: Papua from the beginning is part of Indonesia.

Events Leading to the Act of Free Choice

After several futile negotiation and confrontational attempts, the Netherlands finally agreed to transfer West Papua to Indonesia by signing New York Agreement on August 15th 1962. Even though Indonesia would not assume authority for West Papua right away and a special UN body (UNTEA) was in charge of the territory temporarily, New York Agreement was still a huge diplomatic win for Indonesia since the result was very clear. West Papua got international recognition as a legitimate territory of Indonesia.

The New York agreement consisted of several important points. Firstly, the Netherlands would officially transfer authority to UN by October 1, 1962. Furthermore, from December 31, 1962, Indonesian flag were to be hoisted along with UN flag in West Papua until UN finally handed over the authority to West Papua to Indonesia by May 1, 1963.

But the most important point of New York Agreement was the Act of Free Choice. As what the representative of Indonesia had signed in the agreement, West Papua would not be automatically transferred to Indonesia. Indonesia had to give the inhabitants freedom to choose whether they want to join Indonesia or not. It was called the Act of Free Choice orPenentuan Pendapat Rakyat (Pepera) which had to be done by 1969 under UN supervision.

The Implementation of the Act of Free Choice

To implement the Act of Free Choice, the United Nations gave Indonesia freedom to make the arrangements. However, the process will still be supervised be UN representative, a Bolivian ambassador Fernando Ortiz-Sanz. The arrangements that had to be done include discussion (musyawarah) on the best methods for the West Papuan to use their freedom of choice, the date and period, the questions that would be ask to the inhabitants and who would be eligible to execute their freedom of choice.

Based on the discussion, Pepera would be held from July to August 1969. Furthermore, adult men and women who are not of foreign nationality would be eligible to choose.  Even though the population was estimated to be around 800,000 and more than half were adults, only 1,025 adult men and women voted as the representative of the whole inhabitants.

Representation system in an election is very common in Papua. As a matter of fact, there is a name for that system. It is called Noken. The representation system was not a common international practice so it first the UN representative stated his disagreement. However, Noken was in accordance with Indonesian practice. People were very opened about their political opinion and they even discussed it publicly. Once everybody had known who or what they want to choose, a representative would be sent to make the vote.

During the Act of Free Choice, the people who had come to vote simply need to raise their hand to make their choice. All the people who voted unanimously chose to relinquish their sovereignty and became the citizens of Indonesia.

The Significance of the Act of Free Choice for Indonesia

Indonesia’s journey to get back its own territory from the colonials was long and difficult. This is why Pepera holds a deep meaning for the country, especially because the people themselves made the decisions to join Indonesia. It was a sign that becoming a part of Indonesia was what the inhabitants of West Papua wanted and Indonesia didn’t seize the territory by force like what the colonials did.

Even though the result of Pepera was clear, there were many parties trying to dispute it. The fact that the voting was done with Noken system raised some eyebrows and some international parties questioned the legitimacy and fairness of the result.

At that time, there were around 800,000 people in West Papua but only 1,025 people showed up and voted as representative of the population that had voting rights. According to some international bodies and foreigners, that act harmed democracy and Indonesia should have done everything in its power to ensure everybody could vote. The fact that Indonesia let the voting process to proceed with traditional representation system was even speculated to be intentional because the result might be different if the country let everybody who had voting rights to use their voice.

But despite of those accusations, the fact that Noken is a part of West Papuan local wisdom certainly cannot be ignored. Noken is a culture of the people in West Papua and denying its legitimacy only to entertain some people who didn’t understand the local wisdom in the area is definitely unwise as well. The people had made their decisions and the UN, through its diplomat, respected the decisions. After the implementation of Pepera in 1969, West Papua officially became the territory of Indonesia.

Read also: Statement from the Government of Indonesia regarding the Act of Free Choice.