User:Daeron/Critique

Critique of West Papua article by John and Wik and activity

Article and Dispute history

My name is Andrew Johnson, I have used the Network handle (which was the fashion of the day) of 'Daeron' since 1992, according to the Wikipedia database I first found Wikipedia and wrote an 'West Papua' article in Nov. 2001. For over two years it has peacefully existed under that name, been indexed by Google and from time to time I and others have updated the article.

Around 14/Apr, I decided that a major update was now possible & desirable, so I wrote some initial comments on the discussion page before-hand, both about the nature of Melanesia and later about how the word "province" as defined in Wikipedia was an inappropiate opening description for West Papua.

I can not explain why Wik and then John became so fascinated West Papua at this time; though I suspect it has more to do with having a smaller number of authors than pages like Jersulem do, and therefore easiler to 'beat' off those authors. Of course the reason there have been few authors is a combination of little awareness of the country outside its region (Melanesia, Ausraliasia, Indonesia) and the need for indeepth resource and understanding of the divergant cultures involved.

Wik ignored the discussion page and re-inserted "province" as the opening line on 18/Apr. He did a around of edits, later I observed the updates and edited in accord, days later Wik reverted the article 24/Apr, and kept reverting. I kept trying to update the article, not just 'revert' to my previous version. I don't care who wrote the article, just that it is truthfull and does not give mis-leading impressions.

On 27/Apr John arrived, and re-word the entire article, fine. But unknown to me John has a habit of moving articles to new names he deems 'official'; and soon did so with this one, after which both I and Tannin objected and John appears to have started working in cooperation with Wik to prevent Tannin or myself from further contribution.

I had in fact STOPPED editing the article on 24/Apr when both Wik's reverts made it impossible to edit, and I decided to wait until he was finished his edits. You will see my 'edit' on "12:52, 27 Apr 2004" was only an effort to write to Wik because I realised he does NOT read discussion pages, but DOES read the comments in the page history; the system did not seem to accept a null-edit so I removed a small item Tannin had written which is no longer valid.

Note, around this time John & Wik are accusing me of maintaining massive bais POV; I hadn't even been editing the article in days.

Also the fact they they continue to revert while I have been updating (ie adding new material and open to suggestions and input from anybody; including Wik & John, Wik found a newer map of provinces that's good, and John has come up with a good turn of phase I like in his Intro that I'd like to consider once this edit siege of the article stops), should speak volumes. I would much prefer to spend this time improving the articles instead of dealing with some personality or mistaken country pride issues.

Critique

For consistancy I shall refer to the version which both Wik and then John reverted to without discussion; although effectively all the text was originally written by myself, Wik and John have been editing it out of context since 18/Apr and over the past two weeks have driven myself and Tannin away from contribution.

My version which I would appreciate constructive http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Daeron/Scratch feedback on.

The version which both Wik and John have reverted to during May is: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Papua_(Indonesian_province)&oldid=3420420

1. In accord with my discussion at Manual_of_Style I believe it is inappropiate to liable the political sovergnty in the opening sentence.
2. In according with Wikipedia popular policy the article name should be returned to its original 'West Papua' name
3. "Like inhabitants of other Pacific islands, Papuans are Melanesian" , John & Wik may be unfamiliar with Pacific cultures; Hawaiians and Maori are polynesian, for example.
4. Papuans are Melanesian, and share similarities - see Melanesia article, they share more than 'similarities'.
5. "253 known languages" which I did originally write but later found the Indonesians admit there are 312 different languages, just that they did not consider 59 of them to be big enough tribes for Indonesian to count. So Indonesia is not going to object to the correct figure of 312 being used in its correct context.
6. "It is believed the first Europeans to sight New Guinea were the Portuguese" - If Wik or John had an honest interest in this subject they would have, like I, updated this line with the information which they keep reverting out on the Papua_(disambiguation) page contributed by Pm67nz.
7. The Dutch half of New Guinea became part of the colony of Dutch East Indies.
   1. I don't know about you, but that term reminds me of the Dutch East Indies Company, and makes me think West Papua must have been administrated by that company for a while? This is not true. Unlike Maluku where I exlain the trade problems which the companu caused for the Melanesians there; West Papua never came under the trade restriction of that company, as a result West Papuans and the Dutch retained a peacefull co-existance from 1898-1962.
   2. I have avoided the term "colony" with reguards to the Dutch because at no time did they ever undertake any of the colonization activies in West Papua. They did not settle their own population into the country, only a small number of people people moved there; they did not exploit the country with disregard to the native rights; and so forth. THey did in fact assist the Papuans for ten years so that they could form a united national government of their own in 1961. As happen with East Timor 14 years later, Indonesia invaded within days of their independance being claimed.
8. Next paragraph: "The 1930s saw the first stirrings of a West New Guinean nationalist movement, which grew out of Dutch missionary schools, notably through Rev. Izaak Samuel Kijne who taught Pan-Papuan nationalism and composed the anthem Hai Tanahku Papua-"Oh My Land Papua"."
   1. This is NOT Hollywood, the Rev. Kijne did not lead dumb Papuans into a separatist movement with a sing-song. Back in context, it was a teachers college teaching a full range of subjects including Dutch history and politics; it was the graduate teachers who then started discussing a need for a 'Pan-Papuan nationalism' with other Papuans. Please refer to my article Section : Government - Papuan Representatives in Exile - Background.
9. Next paragraph: "In 1942 the northern coast of New Guinea and the nearby islands were occupied by the Japanese Empire. The war years introduced many Papuans to the reality of an outside world"
   1. A reader would be forgiven for imagining that Papuans suffering under Japanese occupation, with images of treatment like that dished out to the POW Allies by the Japanese. The truth is that within weeks of meeting these Japanese trained to be brutal, the Papuans simply avoided them.
   2. "reality of an outside world" ?. What on earth do they imagine? Melanesians have been sailing and trading for tens of thousands of years; the reason the Portuguese & Dutch went searching for the 'Spice Islands' was to find the source of these rare and unique spices, see article Maluku. I submit a person could probably support a statement that the Melanesians knew that there was an 'outside world' well before caucasians or asians. Papuans certainly knew there was an outside world. The only thing the Japanese 'introduced' as a practical demonstration of the automatic weapons Papuans had already heard of from the Dutch.
10. Hollywood paragraph: "Allied forces, mainly Australian and American and significantly aided by the native people, gradually expelled the Japanese through" - Where to begin. He must have though the bit about Australians would make it sound authentic and acceptable to Tannin and myself as well? What a joke.
    1. The main Australian push was in the east, PNG not West Papua. The eviction of the Japanese in West Papua absolutely predominantly an US operation. While Papuans were vital for the Australians, that was because the Australians were coming over-land and only the Papuans were accustomed to the climate, the Papuans carried the Australians equipment hundreds of kilometers so that the Australians could fight the Japanese from the north coast of PNG; the Japanese aparantly also found the climate difficult, and having spent a month in one of the Tokyo cities during summer that's saying something.;-)
    2. The Americans were interested in West Papua as a means to take back the Phillipines. The Americans landed by sea; I have maps showing those troop movements if you like.
    3. in my article, after the Allies take West Papua, the Papuans helped the Allies build the base at Hollandia. The reason I said that is to reflect that the Papuans a) permitted it, and b) welcome and often gave a hand in the physical construction. Because the Americans were well behaved, the Papuans welcome them; when Americans found some of the highland tablelands the Papuans there found the Americans to be amusing and entertaining. If for example one of these funny visitors to the highlands asked the tribe for help erecting some tall poles for the passing aircraft, these Papuans too saw no problem with giving them a hand.
11. " After the war ended, the Dutch regained possession of the territory " - I think 'regained' is a liitle strong under the circumstances being that no-one including the Papuans disputed the Dutch claim at that time. Matter ofjudgement that one.
12. "In 1949, the rest of the Dutch East Indies gained independence as the Republic of Indonesia." - back into the land of fantasy. He must have found out that Dutch-Borneo came under Indonesian control about that time; but he's got his facts wrong again.
    1. triva item: first name used in 1945 claim was "United States of Indonesia". A tid bit of trivia that John would no doubt rush in if he knew of it; just not germane in the West PApua article I thought.
    2. The Indonesian claim in 1949 upon Dutch-Borneo was also rejected by Holland. But as the natives of Borneo were Malay like the Javanese were; and some of them were Muslim, and the cultures were not that different; the Dutch did not fight that issue too much. BUT it is totally untrue to claim Indonesia consisted of the 'rest' of the Dutch East Indies when it made its claim on 'West Papua' 4000Km away.
    3. The people of Borneo did not gain independance; they gained a new master, whom they have fought since then to this day. Why do you think they be-headed an Indonesian settlement village to scare the Indonesians away. Even these CNN reports should reveil that for him.
13. "The Indonesian government immediately demanded possession of Dutch New Guinea, but it was retained by the Dutch as the separate colony of" - This smacks of bias to the informed reader, definitely infers a colony/colonization relationship and paints Holland as un-reasonable to a 'government' demand. I also doubt very much that the Indonesian (a zenophobic culture) public shared a desire that a race of black Christians who had no cultural or other connection to them, should be indicted into their nation. Afterwards, when they are earning big monies from the world's largest gold mine and the clear felling of rainforests, I have no doubt most Indonesian s now insist West Papua remain a part of their nation; but not when the claim was made. I've known Indonesian people, wonderful and nice and wouldn't have bar of this non-sense; but the Indonesian culture is another matter and is also subject to strong control by its military (not visa versa as in western societies where governments control their military) which also owns most Indonesian business interests in West Papua.
14. "The date for independence of Netherlands New Guinea was set for 1970." - - This is much less than honest, during the 1950's from around 1957 I believe Holland and Australia had been talking and in agreement on a desire for the whole of Papua (east & west halves) to become independant, preferably as one nation, and come up with 1970 as the latest date for that. -- One could probably write an interesting book on the reasons for this, but it appears in short that West Papua was much more prepared for forming a national government and having that authority supported by the vast majority of its population; where as PNG to this day is probably still more probamatic than West Papua was then (I have some theories on that subject). In any event Holland aids Papuans wish to form a national congress, but instead of years it took only months for agreement on a range of issues; by the end of 1961 Holland has dropped the 1970 plan and wishing an independant UN assisted transition to a fully self sufficent independant state to occure (just as was done with East Timor 2000/2001). Instead, as the State Dept. doc. and letter from JFK to the Dutch PM now both confirm, the US interceded to have West Papua transferred as payment to Indonesia not to invite the Soviets into S.E.Asia.
15. Removed in document links to both the US Dept. of State summary of Foreign Policies S.E.Asia 1962 and the letter from JFK to the Dutch PM in Apr 1962; without those two referrences the validity of the entire article would be destroyed as far as many American would be concerned - I doubt very much that many are aware of what the US thought it had to do at that point in history.

Should be more than enough to point out significant flaws in what they have put up on Wikipedia; I would very much appreciate if something more like my current update was allowed onto Wikipedia so that it can be cleaned up and improved where ever possible. I would hope to have finished the Geography, Ecology, Demographics, and be into the first part of a Cultures section by now if not for the above activity. Plenty of subjects for everyone to contribute; I don't want to cut anybody out, just stop awful mis-information; there's been enough of that for forty years, time someone created a decent encyclopedia article for others to consider. - - As for the 'Regions' section (needs better name) I hope to reduce its size a little and have it point to a separate article that could accommodate info on the twelve Regencies. Much like the 'genocide' related stuff, I did not want to deny it, but did not want the West Papua article to suffer on account of it so I decided to give it it's own article.

Conclusion

1. I submit; the past two weeks reverting, non-productive use of the discussion page, and statements to the effect of preventing Tannin and I assume myself from contributing to the subject; constitutes a requirement for page protection at this time.
2. As should be increasingly clear, a considerable amount of background knowledge is required to understand the subject in question.

I trust that 'protection' would mean interested persons can still have unfretted use of the discussion pages, and that would-be contributors such as myself and others can submit updates for the page.