Rumbiak's advice from within West Papua to not attend the Congress for security reasons was vindicated in the crack-down which led to six deaths, hundreds of arrests and the sentencing of five of the principal figures to three years gaol each for treason.
Jacob became increasingly politicised, and committed to a non-violent campaign of resistance based on universal concepts like 'justice, peace and love' he began educating student activists.
He then spent two and a half years in isolation at the top of a stone tower in Tangerang Prison (West Java); Jacob attests that his survival was only by God's grace.
After intervention by the International Committee of the Red Cross, he was moved to Cipinang Penitentiary Institution, which he described in the foreword of Xanana Gusmão's autobiography as a 'first-class Indonesian jail'.
The next year he managed to fly to East Timor as a UN-accredited electoral observer for the referendum, and escaped on a RAAF Hercules plane to Darwin.
In 2004 he wrote a briefing paper for the British Government, and represented the West Papua National Authority at the Japanese Foreign Affairs Department in Tokyo.
In 2005, he organized the West Papua National Authority delegation to the Melanesian Spearhead Group meeting in PNG, and in 2006 met the United Decolonization Committee in Fiji.
On 14 July 2016 at a MSG Special Leader's Summit in Honiara, the ULMWP was admitted with Observer status, the decision on full membership being deferred for technical reasons.