[Marxism] Re: Australian Troops Are Back in Timor

[clintonf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

How much of the Timor Sea oil did Australia have before the 1999 liberation of 
East Timor, and how much did it have after? How much money is in East Timor's 
Petroleum Fund? How much was there prior to the 1999 liberation? Revealingly, 
the article avoids these points. 

As for this article: 
The "left" cheer squad for Australian imperialism *Ben Hillier* *Issue 104, 
June 06* 
My comments are interspersed below.

1999 MARKED AN historic defeat. The vast majority of the political left in 
Australia (the left unions, the left of the Labor Party, the Greens, most of 
the socialist left) campaigned for the Australian government to invade another 
country. This military action was justified as a "humanitarian intervention"; 
but it was nonetheless an invasion. 
 
CF: Actually, there was an invasion - Indonesia's invasion of East Timor. 
Australia was not invading Indonesia (a sovereign state) but liberating East 
Timor at the request of its people, who had never been 
part of Indonesia. The ADF has also been deployed to deliver relief in Aceh at 
the request of the Indonesian government. And to build sanitation facilities 
and houses among Aboriginal communities in northern Australia at the request of 
some Aboriginal leaders. No invasions there, surely.
 
Socialist Alternative argued against sending troops. 
 
CF: Great courage indeed to do so from the comfort of Sydney and Melbourne. 
Perhaps a more accurate name would be "Alternative to Socialism"? 
 
Three months before the intervention, Tom Bramble (SA#35, June 1999) argued 
that an "occupation of East Timor by UN forces would make Australia the 
king-maker in deciding who should rule East Timor on the UN's departure" and 
would result in East Timor becoming "an Australian neo-colony". We also argued 
that such an intervention would provide a pretext for increasing the Australian 
military budget, and make it easier for Australian forces to be deployed 
against the peoples of the region in the future. 
 
CF: Actually, an internationally supervised political process resulted in 
Xanana Gusmao beocming president. He doesn't have a track record as an 
Australian puppet. 
 
On this point we were not alone. 
 
CF: Correct. The Spartacists were there too.
 
After so many capitulated to the idea that the military of Australia, the major 
imperialist power in the region, could play a progressive role, the Australian 
Financial Review clearly saw the opportunity being handed to the ruling class: 
"This call to arms has? given broad legitimacy to the proposition that 
Australia should be able to intervene militarily outside its territory. This 
raises the possibility of building a domestic consensus? in favour of increased 
defence spending." 
 
CF: The article also said "After Jakarta's grudging acceptance of a UN 
peacekeeping force, demands for Australia to intervene unilaterally in or 
effectively invade East Timor, have died away. This is fortunate because 
Australia probably could not have done so anyway. Australia's air force and 
navy are considerably more advanced than Indonesia's. But the presence in East 
Timor of some 25,000 Indonesian security personnel ruled out intervention by 
the Cinderella of the Australian Defence Forces, the under-equipped and 
under-strength army." Whatever the editorial might say about political 
opportunism by the Fin Review, this puts a different spin on the idea of 
invading, doesn't it? Interesting that the cut-and-paste mob leave it out. 
 
On both points ? the fate of East Timor as a nation, and the subsequent 
Australian military drive ? those arguments have been proven correct. Sections 
of the ruling class had been pushing for Australia to become a more prominent 
military power for decades. The problem had always been how to sell the killing 
machine. From 1999, the sales pitch needed just two words: East Timor. 
 
CF: Bullshit takes only one word...
 
Less than a year after the invasion, the government released the now notorious 
Defence White Paper which explained how "in all, defence spending over the 
decade is expected to increase by a total of $23.5 billion in real terms." John 
Howard was positively gushing at the official launch about the "heightened 
public interest [in the military] in the wake of the East Timor deployment and 
the natural pride that Australians felt in the professionalism and success of 
that operation". 
 
CF: What?! A politician taking credit for something? Is there gambling going on 
the casino?
 
Today, the interest may have waned somewhat, 
 
CF: Until recent events drew the predictable parasites. 
 
but the money keeps on flowing. This year's budget has a hefty set of steak 
knives included: "This is the sixth successive budget in which the Government 
has met or exceeded its Defence White Paper funding commitment... All up, the 
Defence budget will increase to $19.6 billion in 2006-07 or 9 per cent of 
Commonwealth outlays." Left-wing support for imperialist invasion in 
"humanitarian" guise has helped Howard to ensure that ample resources are 
available for the Australian military to continue its historic task of bringing 
"peace and democracy" to places such as Afghanistan, Iraq, the Solomon Islands 
and again today, East Timor. 
 
CF: Yes, Australia had been a pacifist state with no history of military 
deployments until 1999.
 
As for East Timor itself, Ben Moxham, then a researcher for Focus on the Global 
South, last year reported how "hunger is so common that November to March is 
referred to as the 'hungry season'". The United Nations Development Report of 
March this year referred to "chronic poverty deepening in Timor-Leste". 
 
CF: Good grief! The dreaded UN which authorised the deployment of peacekeepers 
in 1999? And I had forgotten about East Timor's high living standards under 
Indonesian rule.
 
This is the "help" the Australian government and the "international community" 
have provided. Meanwhile, vast amounts of oil and gas resources in the Timor 
Sea have been effectively stolen by the Australian government.
 
CF: Australia already had control over those resources. It was forced to 
concede some of this to an independent East Timor. As a result, the East 
Timorese government has created a Petroleum Fund which now holds $508 million, 
deposited outside the country and requiring broad democratic approval before 
withdrawals are made. The government has established transparency initiatives 
and resisted pressure from international financial institutions. It has no 
foreign debt, unlike Indonesia. 
 
Are these just unfortunate hiccups for the new nation? No. This is the logical 
outcome of calling for a military solution to the 1999 crisis. 
 
CF: Perhaps it is a logical outcome of not joining Alternative to Socialism? 
Seems to me this is more about market share in Australia's far left than about 
East Timor's well-being. 
 
The tragedy began with the deployment of Australian troops. The Australian 
ruling class was given the opportunity to get its hands on the resources of the 
country, to shape the character of the economy and boost the profile of the 
military in the process. 
 
CF: Yes, the Anzac tradition began at Dili in 1999.
 
It took the opportunity, and much of the left egged it on. And nothing has been 
learnt from this gain for the Australian ruling class. Far from recognising the 
imperialist nature of the invasion, the Democratic Socialist Party (who produce 
Green Left Weekly) still proudly proclaims "the left's leadership of the 
movement" which campaigned for Australian troops to go in to East Timor in 
1999. 
 
CF: Ahhh... the cat is finally out of the bag.
 
East Timor contains a clear lesson: politics matters. 
 
CF: Profound indeed.
 
To take a clear and principled anti-imperialist position is vital to 
recognising our enemies.
 
CF: Methinks they're recruiting on campus next to you guys. 
 
 CF  
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