"Nowhere else can one find a fuller or more creditable account."
An Act of Free Choice
Decolonisation and the Right to Self-Determination in West Papua
Pieter DroogleverThis important study introduces the history and people of West Papua, tracing the origins of the international conflict surrounding their struggle for self-determination following the Second World War. Based on three decades of exhaustive research and focusing particular attention on the sham referendum of 1969 – which Indonesia dubbed ‘The Act of Free Choice’, an election rigged to legitimize Indonesian control over West Papua – Droogleever highlights the continuing impact of this injustice on Indonesia’s most underdeveloped and poverty-stricken province.
Reviews
International Institute for Asian Studies Newsletter
"it is a book for politicians, historians, legal experts and, above all, for those who want to know about the weight of the weak in the events of the modern world. "
Inside Indonesia
“There is always merit in setting the record straight, no matter how much time has passed. For the Indonesian province of Papua, it has been a long and bloody 36-year wait. The Papuans have refused to accept the ‘Act of Free Choice’ by which they supposedly voted to join Indonesia in 1969. [This book], commissioned by the Dutch government, the former colonial ruler in Indonesia, unequivocally vindicates their stance.”
The Sydney Morning Herald
