Format: Pb
Extent: 144
Size: 210mm x 135mm
ISBN (10): 1921215 062
ISBN (13): 9781921215063
RRP: $22.00
Pub date: October 2006

A SCRIBE SHORT BOOK

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Reluctant Indonesians

Australia, Indonesia, and the future of West Papua

Clinton Fernandes

'Fernandes’s book is a good, succinct yet reasonably comprehensive introduction to the issues and the broad political landscape of West Papua. Importantly though, it has a message of hope.'

'West Papua's struggle for justice', Vannessa Hearman (Green Left Weekly)

'Reluctant Indonesians is a hard-hitting and well documented book which makes it a very valuable addition to the growing volume of books now available about West Papua.'

(The Indonesian Human Rights Campaign, Bulletin 185)

' ... this is a valuable tool to understanding a most difficult problem on our doorstep.'

David Costello (Courier Mail)

When 43 West Papuans claimed asylum in Australia in February 2006, it marked the beginning of yet another crisis in the fragile relationship with our closest neighbour.

Anxious to allay Indonesia’s suspicions of Australian motives in the wake of East Timorese independence, the Howard government proposed reforms to policies on asylum-seekers to preclude the arrival of more boats, and loudly proclaimed its support for Indonesian territorial integrity and sovereignty — despite the fact that a great many Australians support the right of West Papuans to determine their own future.

Clinton Fernandes traces the history of West Papua from the colonial era to its incorporation and full-scale transformation under Indonesian rule, and offers a penetrating analysis of the problems posed by the rise of the West Papuan independence movement for Australia’s relations with Indonesia.

Reluctant Indonesians issues a timely, provocative, and profound challenge to the orthodox views of the foreign policy establishment and its various supporters in the media. It is essential reading for those interested in West Papua, Australia’s relationship with Indonesia, and Australian foreign policy in general.

'Reluctant Indonesians puts the recent refugee issue in the context of the longer-term history of the West Papuan independence struggle and Australian-Indonesian relations.'

Damian Grenfell (Overland)

Clinton Fernandes

Clinton Fernandes is senior lecturer in strategic studies at University College, the University of New South Wales. He specialises in international relations and strategy with a focus on the 'national interest' in Australia's external relations. He is the author of Reluctant Saviour: Australia, Indonesia and the independence of East Timor (Scribe, 2004).