Re: A daring assumption (was Re: East Timor and all that.)

[Greg Schofield <gschofield@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 01:08  22/05/01 -0400, you wrote:
>We are in the most absolute of agreements. All of my line of
>argumentation runs along the idea that the Australian Left should be
>seriously reconsidering not the support itself, which is absolutely
>out of any questioning, but the KIND of support they gave to
>Indonesians. As I dive deeper into these waters it becomes ever more
>clear for me that the Indonesian question may be, for a succesful
>Australian Left, as essential an issue as the Irish question for an
>English left.

Nestor I think this is very much on the right track - East Timor does have
a lot of connections (many not so very straight forward - for instance the
sections of the conservative RSL returned servicemen's League are very
pro-East Timor because of the aid given to Australian soldiers in WWII -
many many Timorese died because of this).

As for Indonesia, I don't expect things will ever be simple but your are
right, Australia has a peculiar relationship not just here but around the
South Pacific. And I would qualify anything that happens by a similar
question What KIND of help are we actually giving (this will never be a
simple thing either) in conditions which can change very swiftly and in
unexpected directions.

I don't think you are diving in at all but rather found the mark. Given
Australia's geographical position and a whole range of other historical
factors everything is intertwined. My position is that the only thing for
sure is that simple solutions are wrong solutions, there is simply too much
going on at too many different levels. On the ground communication has to
be developed, we need more real contact between political forces and we
need fresh ideas (most of ours are caught-up in past perceptions).

On thing that can never be forgotten, the real reason for Australia's
colonisation - and the main reason why Australia is still important
strategically for imperialism - Australia is the lock on Asia.

To explain - the all important sea routes to all bar the North Pacific are
dominated by MacArthur's "largest aircraft carrier in the world" that is
Australia. What happened in WWII still holds today - this is especially
true for South East Asia, but also effects India and China (Japan and Korea
as well). Add this to the mix with everything else and things really start
to compound.

The left in Australia is no-where sorted itself out, what I want it to do
is approach everything much more seriously and be aware more of the
implications of what happens or does not happen here. For instance there is
a strengthening independence movement in Iran Jaya, plus the communal
frictions breakout all over Indonesia (the legacy of 1965 lives on and
still takes causalities). I have not read or heard of anything that has
attempted to analyse this thoroughly from a Marxist perspective yet
everything said and done in Australia has effects which need to be understood.

The left treats all these things as separate entities (which they are not).
Nestor most of all I do not have any solutions other than believing that if
Australia got its act together we are in a position to be a good fraternal
friend to millions of people, rather than act as one more burden.

Distant perspectives such as yours are in fact a help, as I often feel we
are too close to things to sort the wood from the trees.

Greg Schofield
Perth Australia