INDONESIA'S DIPLOMACY TOWARDS FIJI IN PREVENTING THE FULLY MEMBERSHIP OF UNITED LIBERATION MOVEMENT FOR WEST PAPUA INTO MELANESIAN SPEARHEAD GROUP (2013-2016)

Abstract

Papua is the largest and easternmost province in Indonesia and the Papua secession issue has become one of the eye-catching headlines in the last years. Represent by the ULMWP, West Papua came up with the idea to hold self-determination and applied for membership in Melanesian Spearhead Group, an intergovernmental organization among Melanesian countries in the Pacific region, which aims to cooperation to improve and promote the economy of its member countries. The ULMWP in Papua is becomes a big issue that RI recently concerns because of this organization considered to threaten the sovereignty and security of RI. Meanwhile, as a sovereign country, Republic of Indonesia has the right to protect its citizens and choose the best policy for its governance. In response the human rights issue in Papua, the RI basically already implemented policy such Special Autonomy in response the issue, where the policy contains the state recognition on the speciality of Papua also includes wide authority and special authority to govern governance and development according to the aspirations and needs of the people of Papua. In 2015, RI accepted the status in MSG as the associate membership, which before as the observer, where this status give RI an important role in the bilateral relations between RI and each members of MSG, while the ULMWP also get their status as the Observer. Seen this issue, based on the Public Diplomacy, RI use public diplomacy as in counter the ULMWP and the Papuan self-determination issue, especially to the Republic of Fiji that considered as the most influential country in the MSG also in the South Pacific region. Indonesian's diplomacy to Fiji practiced through technical cooperation and south-south cooperation. This way is considered as the best way for RI in prevent as well as reduce the fully membership of ULMWP also the role of RI as a sovereign country, which cannot interference by any other countries.