This book reviews the long guerilla struggle of the 'Organisasi Papua Merdeka' (OPM) for a Free Papua, and traces the rise of a non-violent independence movement alongside it, the Papua Council, following the fall from power of Indonesia’s military dictator, General Suharto, in 1998.
Clinton Fernandes traces the history of West Papua from the colonial era to its incorporation and full-scale transformation under Indonesian rule, and offers a penetrating analysis of the problems posed by the rise of the West Papuan independence movement for Australia's relations with Indonesia. Reluctant Indonesians issues a timely, provocative, and profound chattenge to the orthodox views o…
The political implacations of this theory are important. As lenin eventually realized and made clear in his closely related theories of imperialism and nationalism, third world nationalist struggles againts colonial rule or neo-colonial domination can have significant progressive political potential.