Day: December 26, 2018

As we’ve reported before, hundreds of people rallied in front the Chinese Consulate in Medan, and the Chinese Embassy in South Jakarta on Friday (Dec. 21) last week. They protested against the Chinese Government’s treatment of the Uyghur Islamic Minority in Xinjiang. CNN Indonesia reported that they could hear the masses attending the protest in Jakarta chanting “change the President”. This isn’t surprising, but what we need to discuss is the Uyghur issue being used to advance a certain domestic political interest. Vicious minds—they don’t necessarily have to be associated with the groups staging the aforementioned protests—can turn a defend-Uyghur campaign into a violent, sinophobic assault. It’s a possibility that we must consider.

After news broke earlier this month that employees of PT Istaka Karya, one of the contractors working on the Trans Papua road, had been killed by an armed group in Nduga, Papua, the Nation was stunned. Of the 25 employees of PT Istaka Karya working on the construction site, 19 were found dead, four managed to escape, and two were missing. It’s a massacre that brought to fore the name that many Indonesians know but have not heard of in recent days: the Free Papua Movement (OPM).