Indonesia annexed West Irian last week. Between intimidation and persuasion, the Indonesians managed to win a unanimous vote in favor of annexation.

Indonesia, once a bastion of noisy self-righteous anticolonialism, last week formally took over a remote, primitive piece of real estate that can hardly be considered anything but a colony. By means of a blatantly rigged referendum, the Indonesians annexed West Irian, the western half of the rugged South Pacific island…