Editorial:
What sort of foreign policy?

Last week's slanging match between Paul Keating and Prime Minister Howard 
shows, yet again, the depths to which Australian parliamentary politics have sunk. It 
is also designed to cover up and divert attention from the disastrous policies towards 
Indonesia which both political parties have implemented since the Suharto 
dictatorship came to power in 1965.

Keating asserted that East Timor was the "greatest foreign policy disaster since the 
Vietnam War". That's true, but Keating is part of the disaster having played a leading 
part in determining foreign policy questions during the period of the Hawke 
Government and then his own. It was Keating who took this policy to its highest (or 
was it its lowest point) when he secretly negotiated a so-called "security treaty" with 
Suharto in December 1995.

All Australian Prime Ministers in recent years — Keating, Howard, Whitlam, 
Hawke, and Fraser were at one in supporting the Suharto Government.

Only when this policy had totally collapsed as a result of the overthrow of Suharto 
by the Indonesian people, the heroic struggle of the East Timorese people and the 
massive support for an independent East Timor in Australia and other countries, 
have the Coalition and the Labor Party been forced to change policies. Theirs is an 
eleventh hour conversion to East Timor's independence and concern for the East 
Timorese people.

Neither Keating nor Howard admit their culpability for the failed policies. Neither are 
prepared to accept any responsibility for the killings in East Timor.

But there are more fundamental aspects of the foreign policies pursued by Australian 
Governments which have fallen to the ground.

The game was all about building up Indonesia as an advance anti-communist base in 
the Asian region. Suharto was a key man in this project. He had come to power in 
1965 in an unparalleled blood-bath in which at least half a million of Suharto's fellow 
citizens were murdered following his military coup. This was supported by the 
Australian and US Governments. They turned a blind eye. 

What the Australian people must start looking at are the principles on which 
Australian foreign policy is based.

At the moment the Australian Government supports every reactionary politician in 
the region and gives abject support for almost every foreign policy move of the 
United States.

This "deputy sheriff" status is again confirmed in the article published last week in 
The Bulletin. There was consultation between the Australian Government 
and the US at every stage of the crisis in Indonesia. It was all about searching for 
ways to compel the Indonesian Government to do as it was told. Economic 
blackmail and military threats were the main weapons used.

It is these methods which could have a much longer term consequence in Australia's 
relations with Indonesia than even disagreement over East Timor. There is a 
consistent disregard for the sovereignty and independence of Indonesia and this is 
certain to provoke resentment in the minds of a people who suffered and resisted 
centuries of Dutch colonial domination.

Instead of military and economic pressure and blackmail Australia's foreign policy 
principles have to be changed to include respect for the sovereignty and 
independence of countries, non-aggression, non-interference in the internal affairs of 
other countries, equality between all nations whether big or small and mutual benefit 
in affairs of trade. These principles are all incorporated in the Charter of the United 
Nations but they are never talked about in the speeches of Australian Government 
leaders.

They have an immediate application in East Timor. Are the UN force and UN 
political representatives there going to respect the right of the East Timorese to 
establish a government without interference? Recent statements by the commander 
of the UN forces, Major-General Peter Cosgrove, who said that Falintil "may" be 
permitted to participate in the future, indicate that the UN is going to attempt to 
determine what sort of a government an independent East Timor should have. The 
demand that the East Timorese have the exclusive right to determine their own form 
of government should now become a foremost demand of those who support East 
Timorese independence.
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