Re: [Marxism] Re: East Timor replies (or who will intervene--corrected)

[Lajany Otum <lajany_otum@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ben Courtice wrote:
 >            Lajany wrote:
 > "Astoundingly, we are asked to believe that Australian foreign policy
 > towards the third world, like its US counterpart, can be separated from
 > its policies towards its "domestic third world." Namely, while the
 > Australian state is doing its best to incarcerate and oppress its own
 > black population and to expropriate their land and resources, it is
 > acting (inadvertently and against its own interests apparently) to
 > protect the rights and interests of the downtrodden and oppressed in the
 > rest of the South Pacific."
 >
 > I don't think you've bothered to read what the discussion is actually
 > about, have you?
 >
 > No-one here has claimed that Australia or NZ is going to "protect the
 > rights and interests of the downtrodden and oppressed in the rest of the
 > South Pacific."
 >
 > There is only one argument, now historical, relating to the tactics of
 > the 1999 events. Otherwise the Australian left opposes Australia's
 > intervention in the Solomon Islands, historically in Bougainville, in
 > PNG, and is campaigning against Australia's imperial designs in East
 > Timor (and is prepared to campaign for Australian troops to leave there
 > as soon as that becomes an issue with the East Timorese people).
 >
 > Please read the argument before you post a contribution!
 >
 >  Ben Courtice
 Ben,
 By your own admission above, your lofty position opposes Australian
 regional "imperial designs" in the region  in the abstract, but not in
 their concrete manifestations --  the case in point being the current
 invasion of Timor and the ongoing meddling by the Australian
 state-military in the small nation's political and economic internal
 affairs.

 Let us consider for a moment the statement that you are "prepared to
 campaign for Australian troops to leave there as soon as that becomes an
 issue for the East Timorese people," which raises a number of
 interesting questions. First, as a general principle, when is colonial
 occupation OK? Second, your statement suggests that imperialist power
 muscling into the affairs of Third World nations should only be opposed
 "when it becomes an issue" for the  people of the  said Third World
 nations. Exactly who's prerogative is it to decide precisely when it
 "has become an issue"?  For instance, we hear very few, if any, African
 voices speaking out against the construction of US forward bases on that
 continent. According to your "principle" above above, does this mean it
 is "not an issue for the people " there and that the American left (such
 as it is) therefore has no obligation to oppose the construction of
 these bases? Luckily we have not heard anything so indefensible from any
 of the American comrades on the list.

 In any case, the practical effect of your unprincipled and dishonest
 position on Australia's invasion of Timor is to deny the principle of
 equality between peoples and to turn a blind eye to (that is, condone in
 practice) the intervention of Australia in the affairs of a small
 neighbouring state. This is big power chauvinism at its most despicable.

 L. Otum




                
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