Papua at this point has half the population as indonesian, and half melanesian. The latter, while indigenous, is a tribal society. Guns beat spears. There is more government money going into Papua, but there is still a need for progress beyond a military solution. At least the new government is more flexible.

Megawati’s term was bad on Aceh, but good in some other ways: for example, the end of army seats in Parliament. As I say, each change of government has been for the better on balance

There’s still plenty of contradiction on Aceh, and some of the news around the time of the tsunami was bad, but the general trend since then has been towards peace.

West Papua is still a big problem: it’s an intermediate case between Aceh and ET in historical terms, and Indonesian rule has been brutal. It would have been far better if West Papua had gone in with PNG straight after WWII, but of course colonial boundaries prevented that.

At this point, I suspect the best solution is autonomy within a more loosely federal Indonesia.

Make that “since Megawati lost the election,” at least in this case; she was as determined as Suharto to crush the Aceh uprising, and as unwilling to concede autonomy.

But yes, this is definitely good news.

Now, it’s hard to know which reports to credit. News is fragmentary, sometimes manipulated by governments, and difficult to follow up on. But it is difficult for me to believe that the trust necessary for a lasting peace has been established, especially given the long and violent history of the Indonesian government. It is possible that this is a truce of convenience.

But if it’s for real, wonderful!

It seems to me that Indonesia could solve a lot of its problems by letting various rebellious provinces go. It clearly worked for East Timor, for example, even though the Indonesian government did everything it could to destroy as much of East Timor as possible before the handover.

So, good came from bad, I guess.