Riding Shotgun for the Indonesians
by Laurie Ferguson
Zadok Perspectives Issue No. 64
Winter 1999

Introduction

Laurie Ferguson
Laurie Ferguson MHR is Co-Convenor of Parliamentarians For East Timor. He is Federal Member for Reid, Shadow Minister for Defence Science and Personnel, Shadow Minister for Forestry & Conservation

WHILE THE PRIME MINISTER John Howard exuberantly claimed (post-Bali) a "quantum shift" in the role of the Indonesian armed forces in East Timor, Indonesia was simultaneously arming, training and financing militias that wage a campaign of terror and intimidation. As people are herded into concentration camps, threatened with deprivation of food, and as independence supporters are killed or forced to flee, Australia's entire public emphasis appears to be reassurance that the Indonesians are conducting a plausible process.

As Convenor for Parliamentarians for East Timor (a bi-partisan and as inclusive a group as possible), it is ironic that membership and steady support has appeared to be guarantee of oblivion on the Coalition side. Among the wider Coalition supporters, members such as Paul Filing, John Bradford and Paul Zammit were all eventually to finish up as Independents! They provide some indicators of the diverse range of people within the various parties who have not endorsed Australia's questionable policy line.

Parliamentarians for East Timor has been careful not to be prescriptive about the constitutional outcome. Our central thrust has been exposure of the patent human rights abuses and some undefined form of self-determination. The group has operated as a loose coalition and has a record of consistent activity ranging through initiation of debates, deputations, attendance at the UN De-Colonisation Hearings, involvement in overseas and Australian conferences, speaking at demonstrations and a diverse range of petitions, including a very widely supported example presented to former US President Bush on his visit.

The treatment of Timor by successive Australian Governments has displayed a disparity between the broader electorate and the diplomatic/political establishment rarely paralleled in this country. The especially brutal ascendancy of the Suharto regime attracted many activists, with their massacre of vast numbers of PKI supporters, Chinese residents and broader dissidents, and its acknowledged corruption. In Timor, itself, the subjugation was especially brutal. The Australian Parliament's Joint Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee has unanimously confirmed earlier demographic work which points to over 200,000 deaths through direct murder and resulting from starvation.

On the ground, the separate identity, the fact that Timor had never been part of the Netherlands East Indies, transmigration, and naked expropriation of raw materials, often by military figures and leading members of the Suharto entourage, have fuelled continuing public opposition to the Indonesian control.

Portugal has been a convenient whipping boy for some Australian politicians who excuse their own performance by tiresome references to Portugal's poor colonial record. In reality, Portugal's role on Timor post-1975 has been exemplary. With its former colonies it has maintained international interest and criticisms of Indonesia's colonial exploitation. Its role in Europe has ensured that the issue has never been forgotten.

Australia's own role was always going to have an importance beyond our population and international status. Australia's traditional adherence to a liberal approach on human rights, our reasonable record in ending other colonial regimes, and our regional location, dictated that our approach on Timor would have broader significance.

My own contact with European and North American parliamentary activists convinces me that Australia's complicity regarding Timor reassured many sources that the situation could not be as dire as critics argued. It aided Indonesian propaganda in the Western world.

On many occasions Australia was rightly perceived as being an active proponent of an over-indulgence of Indonesia's interest in international forums. Our pre-eminent consideration appeared to be that Indonesia should not lose face. This was accompanied by assurances that we had a particular relationship and were exploiting our influence behind-the-scenes. Australian politicians in 1999 selectively quote Jose Ramos Horta's revelation in retrospect that Australia may have been more active for Timorese human rights' considerations than was apparent to us mere mortals. Such an argument ignores the overwhelming thrust of Horta's understandably negative analysis of our role over more than two decades. It ignores the very real aid and comfort Indonesia received in a diverse range of international activities on this crucial issue.

Realpolitik considerations of the era, whereby the Cold War became the prism to view all issues, may have seemed credible to many in 1975. However, this argument disappeared long before Indonesia's 1997 economic meltdown. The Australian response had to change. However, even when dictated by these realities, it has been grudging. Government spokesmen were at pains to hint at the dire outcomes for Australia if the Timorese chose real autonomy.

There were forebodings about the level of foreign aid we would have to supply in an attempt to decrease public support for the Timorese. There were constant assurances about how magnificent the Indonesian Government was to make such a gesture and how threatening for civil order Indonesia's deliberately precipitous withdrawal of support would be. There has been precious little in the way of pushing the envelope for a United Nations presence to ensure a democratic, participatory outcome.

Sadly, I believe that Australian Governments largely 'rode shotgun' for Indonesia regarding Timor. Australia granted de jure recognition of Timor's occupation and incorporation into Indonesia. Defenders of this action are unconvincing when assembling their lists of others who have implicitly, indirectly or accidentally done so. Australia's act was deliberate and has few real parallels.

Laurie Ferguson Laurie Ferguson MHR is Co-Convenor of Parliamentarians For East Timor. He is Federal Member for Reid, Shadow Minister for Defence Science and Personnel, Shadow Minister for Forestry & Conservation