The rainbow never sets

Towards the end of the meeting it appeared to me, that the delegates from Irian Jaya were not given sufficient time to raise some of their concerns. They had asked in one of the plenary sessions for some time to talk to the Australians and Papua New Guineans (I interpreted it as meaning: without the other Indonesians). However, Dr. Nababan from the Indonesian delegation, who chaired that particular session, declared categorically that there was no time on the agenda for that type of meeting. Subsequently, some of the Australians, including myself, and Papua New Guineans were called together by the Rev.Phil Erari from Irian Jaya for an unofficial meeting to hear their concerns, which were: closer relationship with the ACC and MCC on a direct basis, without involvement of the DGI. This showed me that the church in Irian Jaya not only mistrusted the military regime in Indonesia, but also the church leaders represented in the DGI.

When I raised this with the other Australian delegates who had not attended the unofficial meeting, they were completely baffled. They had failed to perceive that the Irian Jayans were unhappy about Dr. Nababan and the way he chaired the meetings. I knew that an Indonesian would not, as a rule, oppose or criticise another person openly, whether it is in the church or in politics. This was simply a matter of etiquette. But as I had witnessed through the unofficial meeting, they have other ways to express their discontent. Eventually, the official meeting agreed to let the GKI deal directly with the Australian and Melanesian churches, 'as long as they would let the Indonesian church know what they were doing'. I realised that it isn't easy to understand people of a different culture, and many mistakes are made because of that.

I was reminded of another event involving Dr. Nababan, then Gen. Secretary of the DGI. I heard about it from someone I could trust, giving a good reason for the Irian Jayans not to trust him. It happened at the Seoul Assembly of the Christian Conference of Asia. The Indonesian delegation had walked out of a meeting, ostensibly in protest of the street demonstrations in Soul against Indonesian atrocities in East Timor. However, a member of the Indonesian delegation told me that Nababan was angry that he was not elected to become the Secretary of CCA and he had persuaded all the delegates to walk out of the Assembly and subsequently withdraw totally from all CCA activities for some time.

Inspite of some of these disagreements, the meeting had achieved to create a better relationship between the two council of churches and a standing committee met subsequently in February 1986 at Port Moresby, again in July 1986 in Sydney, in October 1987 in Jaya Pura, and in October 1988 in Bali. Another meeting between the GKI and the MSS and ACC was held in Port Moresby in December 1986.

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