The FRWP Open Day on 19 September 2021 featured Greg Poulgrain talking about his new book JFK vs Allen Dulles : Battleground Indonesia; First Nations Elder Herb Patten playing John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ on a Eucalyptus gum leaf; and Prime Minister Edison Waromi from the West Papua Transitional Government interviewed by Peter Woods in a live zoom-cross from Jayapura. The launch was dedicated to Dag Hammarskjöld’s Decolonisation Program for West Papua. Below are zoom-video-recordings of the presentations, notes and reviews of JFK vs Allen Dulles : Battleground Indonesia, and links to media interviews with Greg Poulgrain.
DR GREG POULGRAIN on ‘JFK vs Allen Dulles : Battleground Indonesia’
JFK vs Allen Dulles: Battleground Indonesia (Simon&Schuster, 2020) is the culmination of forty years of intense research, with a foreword by Oliver Stone—whose JFK revisited: through the looking glass premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival—and comprehensive afterword by the indefatigable Kennedy researcher James DiEugenio. American scholar George Kahin, one of the most recognised on modern Indonesia, believed the ground-breaking account ‘changes our historical perspective on this region’.
In Greg’s presentation, CAST A COLD EYE: Allen Dulles’ interest in Indonesia (formerly Netherlands East Indies) he outlined why and how the CIA Director orchestrated and executed such a list of monstrous crimes—including the assassination of UN Sec-General Dag Hammarskjöld and consequent denial of West Papua’s Decolonisation Program; Indonesia’s usurpation of the Non-Self-Governing Territory of Netherlands Nieuw Guinea; the overthrow of Indonesian President Sukarno by CIA-approved General Suharto; the massacre of more than a million Indonesian ‘communists’ (rice farmers) that drove a wedge between the two rival communist powers (China and the USSR); Freeport’s illegal acquisition of mining rights in West Papua to the world’s richest gold-and-copper field in the world.
Zoom-video-recording of Greg Poulgrain’s presentation
Greg Poulgrain’s presentation for viewing and download
(i) PDF, Cast a Cold Eye: Allen Dulles’ interest in Indonesia (formerly Netherlands East Indies)
Cast a Cold Eye, Greg Poulgrain
(ii) P-POINT, Cast a Cold Eye: Dulles’ interest in Indonesia (formerly Netherlands East Indies)
Cast a Cold Eye, Greg Poulgrain
Two reviews of ‘JFK vs Allen Dulles:Battleground Indonesia’
i) From West Papua perspective by Louise Byrne, FRWP Womens Office, Docklands (1xA4)
JFK vs Allen Dulles, Review, Louise Byrne
ii) Comprehensive review by Ed Curtin, Sociology Department, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts; Author of Seeking truth in a country of lies (5xA4)
Ed Curtin, Review, Poulgrain 2020
Greg Poulgrain’s notes on Allen Dulles and Dag Hammarskjöld
Greg Poulgrain, Hammarskjold and Dulles
Two media Interviews with Greg Poulgrain
i) With Joe Toscano, Radical Australia, 3CR Radio, 1 September 2021
https://audio.3cr.org.au/3cr/radical-australia/2021/09/01/0600/202109010600_radical-australia_64.mp3
ii) With Philip Adams, ABC Radio National, Latenight Live, 23 September 2021
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/jfk,-sukarno-and-dulles-and-socially-engaged-art/13555086
PRIME MINISTER EDISON WAROMI, WP TRANSITIONAL GOVERNMENT
With translation by Rev. Peter Woods, Edison Waromi, Prime Minister of the West Papua Transitional Government, updated the current political situation. In summary he said:
On 15 July 2021 Jakarta passed its 3rd Autonomy Bill for West Papua. The first was in 1969, the second in 2001, this one is for 2021—41. Jakarta says Autonomy is the way to reduce conflict, but LIPI—the government’s research centre—has investigated West Papua four times: on the history of Integration, on the marginalisation of West Papuans, the third about Failed Development, the fourth on Human Rights Violations. Each report advises Jakarta to negotiate with West Papuan political leaders, but Jakarta claims it can’t because “too many tribes, too many leaders, and too many organisations”.
The WP Transitional Government is now well supported (even by early Papuan critics), with the right leaders and a clear agenda to negotiate with Indonesia—about the core of the problem, which is political—under a third party like the United Nations. It is developing green policies and socialising its constitution. It is recognised by the Pacific Islands Forum and the African Caribbean Pacific Group, with the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Poland now part of the 85 UN member-states pushing Indonesia to allow the UN Fact-Finding Mission it agreed in 2017 but has denied entry to ever since.
Meantime in West Papua the Indonesian government ignores the needs of its medical clinics in Jayapura, Manokwari and Timika that have no oxygen and no more beds, with very sick people dying of COVID-19 in tents. Indeed, two generals arrived last week to talk about the Indonesian National Games (PON) in West Papua in October 2021 and the Para-Indonesian National Games in November.
There is no solution to be found in Integration, or Development, or Human Rights. The problem is political, which began with the New York Agreement of 1962 when Indonesia and the United Nations misjudged the West Papuans. They thought we would become Indonesian. They never expected that sixty years later we would still be fighting to uphold and defend our Melanesian dignity, sovereignty, liberty, based on international law and legal rights.
Zoom-video-recording of Prime Minister Waromi’s presentation
Biography of Edison Waromi (for viewing and download)
Edison Waromi, Biography, PDF, 19 Sept 2021
AUDIENCE Q&A, led by Chris Lynch (FRWP Office-Docklands)
UNCLE HERB PATTEN, FIRST NATIONS ELDER AND GUM-LEAF VIRTUOSO
Uncle Herb, introduced by Desti Rumbiak, is of the Ganaikurnai tribe (traditional owners of Gippsland), the Yorta Yorta Nation (Murray River, Shepparton) and the Wiradjuri (of the lands between the Macquarie, Lachlan and Murrumbidgee rivers). His gum leaf compositions, whether of birdsong or jazz or country, in artistic venues or on the steps of the Flinders St Railway Station, are heralded by kids, mums and dads, and professional musicians. Mr Patten is also an accomplished visual artist, with five permanent works in the Art Gallery of Victoria.
Zoom-video-recording: Uncle Herb Patten playing ‘Imagine’ on gum-leaf
DR JOE TOSCANO, WEST PAPUA RENT COLLECTIVE
Dr Joe Toscano, introduced by Oneal Waromi, outlined how Australians’ support of the Federal Republic of West Papua office in Docklands is a most radical
and innovative form of activism in the short- and the long-term for our nearest neighbour.
Zoom-video-recording of Dr Toscano’s presentation
DAG HAMMARSKJÖLD’S DECOLONISATION PROGRAM FOR WEST PAPUA
