Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Whitlam's East Timor elephant in the room

By Peter Job - posted Friday, 5 December 2014


The Indonesian invasion was not inevitable and it is very much within the bounds if possibility that a different approach by Australia, particularly support for an orderly transition as Fretilin had been requesting, would have produced a different outcome. As it is, the evidence is strong that Whitlam's urgings to the Suharto regime to annex the territory were an important determining factor in its decision to do so.

Whitlam's defenders have argued that before the invasion Whitlam could not have known the extent of the atrocities and suffering that would be inflicted on the Timorese people. The Suharto regime's record in having killed upwards of half a million of its own citizens ten years earlier, as well as the murderous behaviour of Indonesian forces during their early incursions in the territory would appear to have provided at least some indications. In any case it is not an argument which can apply to his actions afterwards.

The Indonesian invasion starting on 7 December 1975, after Whitlam's dismissal, met strong resistance from the Timorese people, with Fretilin in the early years holding a large amount of territory and organising a functioning society in the mountains. The Indonesian military responded with a deliberate campaign of destroying crops and livestock. Civilian populations were forced to surrender, and were detained in transit and resettlement camps, both short of food, shelter and medical care. The result was a major famine. It was in this period, the late 1970s, in which human rights abuses were at their height and in which the greatest number of Timorese fatalities occurred. Timorese resistance continued during the 1980s, as did the suffering of the Timorese people, with Timorese military resistance met with indiscriminate revenge attacks on the civilian population.

Advertisement

While Indonesia kept East Timor closed to the outside world, there was more than sufficient evidence of what was happening to those who wanted to know. From 1975 to 1978 a clandestine radio link between Fretilin and Australian supporters brought news of the territory to the wider world. Sources such as Community Aid Abroad, The Red Cross and elements of the Catholic Church funnelled information. In 1977 the Dunn Report, based on interviews with East Timorese refugees in Portugal by former Australian consul to East Timor James Dunn, documented the nature of the deprivations faced by the Timorese people.

It was in this context that former Prime Minister Whitlam chose to use his considerable status and influence as a centre left former leader of a western nation to become one the most forthright advocates for the Suharto regime and the occupation. On the invitation of Suharto he visited the then closed territory in March 1982, publically praising its "new schools...new and reconstructed hospitals…more kilometres of asphalt road and…increasing amounts of food". He denounced Catholic cleric Monsignor do Costa Lopes, who had attempted to bring what was happening to the world's attention, accusing him of being "a liar", "a mendacious and malicious correspondent" and of "suffering from a crisis of identity". In November 1982 Whitlam appeared before the UN Special Committee on Decolonisation, stating that, "It is high time that the question of East Timor was voted off the United Nations agenda and cease to preoccupy and distract the nations of South-east Asia and the Pacific." He belittled and campaigned against those raising human rights concerns about the territory both in Australia and abroad. Years later he bitterly criticised then Labor spokesperson on foreign affairs, Laurie Brereton when he orientated Labor's East Timor policy in a different direction. At no time did Whitlam express any regret for his actions, nor credible concern for the welfare of the people of East Timor.

Whitlam's success or otherwise in keeping the issue off the international agenda and prolonging the occupation will continue to be a matter of historical debate. But a different position by someone of Whitlam's standing and gravitas may well have had at least a mitigating effect on the undeniable and atrocious abuses happening in East Timor had he chosen to use his considerable influence and talents to bring them to the attention of the world.

The contrast between Whitlam's profound insight and achievement in other areas, his humanity, his grasp of policy, his understanding of and respect for human rights, and his willed blindness and inhumanity in regard to his greatest human rights failure is nothing short of astonishing. But leaders, particularly those who aspire to greatness, as Whitlam certainly did, are responsible for all of their actions not only some of them.

Were it not for East Timor the most enduring and representative image of Whitlam's legacy would probably be that of him trickling the soil of the land of the Gurindji people into the hands of Vincent Lingiari. But that is counterfactual history, and as it is in the long term view of posterity the enormous and unnecessary suffering of the people of East Timor will inevitably weigh strongly on the other side of the ledger. It is part of Whitlam's legacy which cannot be erased and that should not be ignored.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. Page 2
  4. All


Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

7 posts so far.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Author

Peter Job was an activist campaigning for an independent East Timor in the 1970s and 80s.

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Photo of Peter Job
Article Tools
Comment 7 comments
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy