APPALLING TIMOR DEBACLE

by Jeremy Lee
Thinking Australians can only be appalled at the slaughter in Timor. Many are shocked at the apparent inaction by the Commonwealth Government. Only a few would know that an obsequious foreign policy over 25 years has made a rod for our own backs - and for the backs of the Timorese.

Unlike the other 17,000 islands in the archipelago, East Timor was never under Dutch colonialism, but Portugese. When, after the tumultuous events in 1974 and 1975, Portugal not only lost its colonies of Angola, Mozambique and Timor, but suffered a 'coup' in Portugal itself, there was a period where East Timor could have achieved independence with the firm support of Australia and the rest of the international community.

After waiting to see whether such 'firm support' would be forthcoming Indonesia, reassured by Australia's silence, invaded and annexed East Timor. Australia's Whitlam Government was one of the first to give its official blessing to Indonesia's illegal act. Some 200,000 East Timorese have been slaughtered between that time and the recent referendum. Australia's attitude to Indonesia since then has been nothing short of servile.

We have run down our own defence system while actively training Indonesian troops. We have self-righteously lectured Indonesia on its 'duty' to accept the financial restrictions of the International Monetary Fund during the meltdown, when the country was struggling with rioting and starvation. The IMF conditions had stripped Australia of its home-based industries, and worsened conditions throughout Asia.
A former PM, Paul Keating, had astonished Asian leaders during his visits by denigrating his own country's flag and constitutional system.

Without an adequate defence force in Australia, he sought through APEC a regional defence pact" with Indonesia, which is certainly much better armed than Australia. With a four-month build up to the recent referendum, Australia assumed, despite the evidence that the Indonesian military was conniving with the militia, that a successful pro-independence vote by the Timorese would result in Indonesia quietly releasing East Timor. Now that it is obvious Indonesia is not going to abandon East Timor, we withdraw our own people and wring our hands at the genocide taking place - much of it because of our own refusal to "call a spade a spade" over the last 25 years.

The East Timorese are being slaughtered or resettled in other parts of Indonesia, and their land razed in a deliberate 'scorched earth' programme. And we talk glibly of using the IMF and World Bank as instruments to 'pressure' Indonesia! "He who sups with the Devil needs a long spoon!"

Any worsening of the economic situation in Indonesia - which, until recent events was showing tentative signs of recovery - will produce a holocaust through the whole archipelago. This will not leave Australia unscathed, but, at the very least, the recipient of a large, uncontrollable flood of refugees. There is a mood of defiance throughout SE Asia against the IMF, now obviously a Wall Street vassal. Any threat to use it as a weapon will consolidate regional support round Indonesia - not least from China, which has always had its eyes on the South.

At the recent APEC meeting in Auckland, Asian leaders refused to even discuss the Timor crisis, despite the anxiety of Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. Australia, very late in the day, must look to its own. The 26,000 Indonesian soldiers currently in East Timor alone is greater than the whole active Australian defence force. Indonesia has 240,000 men in uniform. If we imagine for a moment that Indonesia is going to allow an international peace keeping force to displace it from East Timor, we have another think coming. It would require a declaration of war, and would result in another Vietnam or Kosovo. The United States will never commit its troops unless an air-blitz of the dimensions of 'Desert Storm or Kosovo first eliminates the possibility of subsequent ground-resistance. This is hardly possible in the Timor situation and, in any event, would solve nothing.

The most Australia can now do is to strengthen our own defence forces and our resolve as speedily as we can. We should consider the reintroduction of national service for all able-bodied young Australians, and think seriously about the future of our own country, while doing everything possible to sustain the remnants of the poor people of East Timor, whose interests we have disregarded for so long. We are about to discover we are not - and never have been - part of Asia.

DEBT-DRIVEN FOREIGN POLICY

Coinciding with the Timor crisis, Chinese President Jiang Zemin officially visited Australia. China's long-term preoccupation is with the status of Taiwan. Australia's exports in 1997-98 were as follows: China, $3.9 billion; Taiwan, $1.4 billion; Indonesia, $2.7 billion. In the escalation of tensions between China and Taiwan, the current US position is the defence of Taiwan against any Chinese aggression. In terms of oppression there is no comparison; Taiwan is streets ahead of the centralised, tyrannical China.

The Australian (9/9/99) reported: "...Australia's refusal to accede to US requests to 'look beyond Indonesia' and openly commit to supporting the US over Taiwan, while seeking US peacekeepers in East Timor, is creating friction in the Australian-US relationship. Mr. Jiang said yesterday he was 'delighted' with Australia's 'very explicit' policy on Taiwan, and the conclusion of bilateral agreements should China enter the World Trade Organisation ...."

How on earth can Australia justify such an attitude, which appears to give the 'green light' to China's bullying? What, after all, is the difference between Indonesia's attitude to East Timor, and that of China to Tibet and Taiwan? Should hostilities break out between China and Taiwan - a distinct possibility - and the US get drawn into protecting Taiwan, what would Australia's position be? Would we simply make a judgment on the size of our exports? With lack of any evidence to the contrary, this appears to be the basis on which we decide foreign policy.

Churchill once said of Communism: "Everybody is feeding the crocodile in the hope it eats us last!" There are currently a few crocodiles to Australia's north, in what is fast becoming one of the most volatile regions in the world.

INCREDIBLE STATEMENTS IN SUPPORT OF A REPUBLIC

by Philip Butler
Former Lord Mayor and Melbourne businessman, Ivan Devson, like other former and current politicians has 'come out' of the closet in support of Australia selling its heritage for a mess of republic pottage. In some cases their reasoning is incredible to say the least. Mr. Deveson believes we should become a republic because if we don't we will lose our economic face in Asia and it will restrict our economic future. Really Mr. Deveson!

He was reported in the Herald Sun (27/8/99) as saying: "Over 40 percent of our exports and imports are within this area, and while we are not Asian (not yet Mr. Deveson, but the way our immigration policies are slanted it is only a matter of time P.B.) we must strengthen our position of being a major player in the region...we cannot achieve this without cutting the umbilical cord of British Colonialism, anachronistic traditions such as a toast to the Queen of Australia at international political and business functions....our connections with the Monarchy create confusion and bewilderment among our trading partners."

Perhaps Mr. Deveson has forgotten that some of our major trading 'partners' are either monarchies or principalities, i.e., Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Brunei. I haven't noticed the Australian Monarchy has stopped Asian multi-national companies snapping up Australian real estate and businesses. I haven't noticed that Asian illegal immigrants have stopped landing on our shores because we are a Monarchy. What I have noticed is that Mr. Deveson and his fellow republicans have a very shallow concept of what it means to be Australian.

It is they who have lost their sense of identity as they seek to identify themselves with the rootless, globalist elite. The only measures they have to guide them are those of the cut throat, ruthless world of economic rationalism. They would not understand kin(g)ship, personal loyalty, personal allegiance, community spirit, mateship, etc., etc.

They would not understand the idea that our commonwealth is made up of a number of small kingdoms - of which Mum and Dad are the King and Queen, and in which they exercise a reasonable authority, subject to the common sense of the commonwealth, until those under their care grow up to found similar kingdoms and exercise similar authority. This is the social structure of mankind, far older than all its records and more universal than any of its religions.

The domestic division of human society is not perfect - being human - but it does put a larger number of people in supreme control of something of their own and allows them to shape it to their personal liking. Outside of the home they are but part of vast organisations that control and direct their lives. It is in Kingship that these truths are embodied.

Further reading: "The Brave New Family" by G.K Chesterton -$22.00 posted all League Book Services.

EAST TIMORESE POPULATION MASSACRED WHILE HOWARD DITHERS

by Tom Fielder
This was a tragedy just waiting to happen and can be sheeted back directly to the 'Whitlam-Fraser' period when Global Finance forced the European colonial power of Portugal out of Asia. That was the time when that small island population of mainly homogeneous people should have been helped through the difficult process of independence and not handed over to Indonesia.
The Timorese people and Australians have been continually betrayed by the party political hack traitors in Canberra and we, as electors, have put them there!

This betrayal has extended to the cut back in the Australian defence forces - to a total of only 50,000 personnel of whom 23,000 are combat troops. Of this 23,000, "only 3,000 can be deployed at a time and even that number could not be sustained for more than a few months" (The Australian, 8/9/99). John Howard has said that we could deploy a force of 2,000 troops immediately. Using reserve forces of another 1,000 trained personnel, our entire military force would probably be wiped out by an opposing force of an estimated 240,000 should we decide to enter Timor as part of a UN 'peace-keeping force'.

The Timor tragedy obscures the continuing betrayal by Canberra in the present visit of the Chinese President Mr. Jiang Zemin to Australia. The now orthodox view on China from the Department of Defence at Russell Hill is that China is not a threat. China and Australia have developed an increasingly comfortable relationship at the highest level with a shared commitment to a substantive bilateral defence relationship.

Most members of China's Politburo Standing Committee have been to Australia as have been the following Military Delegations:
"On 29 May1999, a delegation led by Major General XuXinde, Deputy Chief of the PLA Airforce, arrived in Darwin on a PLA Boeing 737 for a nine day visit to key RAAF bases. This was the first PLA airforce visit to Australia. Zu's delegation of over 40 senior serving PLA airforce officers included seven Major Generals and commanders from Chinese airbases at Guilin, Beijing, Dalian, Zian, and Urumqi. The PLA had a meeting with Defence Executive Committee, a visit to the Australian Defence College, and briefings at Russell Hill and at Headquarters Air Command in Glenbrook. "They also made familiarisation visits to the RAAF's Maritime Patrol Wing in Edinburgh, an F/A-18 squadron at RAAF Base Williamstown, RAAF Base Townsville and the F-111 Strike Reconnaissance Group Headquarters at RAAF Base Amberley. The Chinese delegation was interested in everything offered by the RAAF, including briefings on policy and planning, acquisitions, personnel training, logistics, operations, static displays, discussions with pilots, the layout of airbases, the readiness of the ADF, the function of Australia's northern bases and the capabilities of the F/A-18 and the F-111." (Asia-Pacific Defence Report Aug/Sept. 99)

In the light of the threatening noises China is making towards the independent Republic of Taiwan, what further betrayal does Canberra have planned for Australia? We have been informed by West Australian contacts that a planeload of 200 Indonesian soldiers landed in Perth sometime during the last week for further training by our military experts. All concerned Australians should take this up with their Member of Parliament!

Further information: Audiotape - "The Technology of Illegitimate Power" by Ivor Benson. $7.00 posted from MEA Tapes, Box 184, The Basin, Vic. 3154
Election comment authorised by B. Luks, 145 Russell Street, Melbourne, 3000.

TRY ANOTHER REPUBLIC

by Philip Butler
Another former politician, Malcolm Fraser, who betrayed our national sovereignty by locking us into international treaties with the UN, and betrayed our kith and kin in former Rhodesia now Zimbabwe - has never apologised for the untold misery he helped inflict on those people (both black and white). He must now shoulder some of the responsibility for what is happening in South Africa. But, as an 'eminent person' he continues to strut the world stage, quite oblivious, it would seem, to the harm he has done.

He has certainly 'come out' of the closet on the republican issue, and it seems is arrogant enough to think that because of his 'eminent status' he could be a future president of Australia. Under the title at the head of this piece, one of Australia's most fearless defenders of Australia's sovereignty, Victorian RSL President Bruce Ruxton wrote the following letter to the Herald Sun, 3/9/99:

"It was with dismay and sadness that I read the article concerning Malcolm Fraser and the republic, 'History help in push for republic' (Herald Sun, 30/8/99). "His outbursts over the past weeks have been very painful. Now he says that the president would be in a stronger situation because power given to the prime minister to dismiss the president would give the new head of state more protection than the governor general enjoys now.
Mr. Fraser should know that the Queen has important reserve powers that could delay a decision to sack the governor general. Here we have a former prime minister who, when leader of the Opposition, took on the Whitlam government with nerves of steel and subsequently won a federal election with a 55-seat majority, thus confirming the actions of the governor general. How he has slipped down the greasy pole since 1975. His old friend Sir Robert Menzies would turn over in his grave.
His role as leader of the eminent persons group in Africa was a joke. Mr. Fraser may have been eminent, but the other members of the group were far from eminent, and his friendship with Robert Mugabe questionable. His lauding of communist China is hard to follow considering his past vehement hatred of communism. Remember that he stopped our athletes from competing in the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
I suggest Mr. Fraser go abroad and live in one of his friendly republics, in Africa, China or anywhere. He could then make a comparison of the freedom he now enjoys in Australia.
Malcolm if you do go to a republic to live, please take Ivan Deveson with you."

GLOBALISM'S FIRST VICTIM

The Canadian Intelligence Service, quoting David Orchard, National Post, 23/6, sheds some light on why America, through NATO, bombed Yugoslavia to 'liberate the Kosovars' but wouldn't lift a hand to help the betrayed and butchered East Timorese people.

"In March, the most powerful military force in history attacked tiny Yugoslavia and after 79 days of flagrantly illegal bombing, forced an occupation of Kosovo. Admitting its intention was to break Yugoslavia's spirit, NATO targeted civilian structures, dropping over 23,000 bombs and cruise missiles in a campaign of terror, described recently by Aleksander Solzhenitsyn: "I don't see any difference in the behaviour of NATO and Hitler. NATO wants to erect its own order in the world and it needs Yugoslavia simply as an example: We'll punish Yugoslavia and the whole rest of the planet will tremble."

In an all-out effort to convince public opinion that Yugoslavia deserved the onslaught, Western politicians and media [churned] out endless accusations of Serb atrocities, while the proven and infinitely greater atrocities of NATO - launching an aggressive war, using internationally outlawed cluster bombs and firing depleted uranium ammunition into Yugoslavia - are buried.

During the war, Bill Clinton elaborated: "If we're going to have strong economic relationship that includes our ability to sell around the world, Europe has got to be the key; that's what this Kosovo thing is all about...It's globalism versus tribalism."

Tribalism' was the word used by 19th century free-trade liberals to describe nationalism ... Yugoslavia had a domestically controlled economy, a strong publicly-owned sector, a good (and free) healthcare system and its own defence industry. It had many employee-owned factories - its population was resisting wholesale 'privatisation'. It produced its own pharmaceuticals, aircraft and automobiles. It refused to allow US military bases on its soil.

In a March New York Times article, Thomas Friedman wrote: "For globalisation to work, America can't be afraid to act like the almighty superpower that it is...The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist... McDonald's cannot flourish without McDonnell Douglas, the designer of the F-15. And the hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valley's technologies is called the United States Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps."

After months of being told Slobodan Milosevic was the problem, we heard Washington Balkans expert, Daniel Serwer, explain as follows: "It's not a single person that's at issue, there's a regime in place in Belgrade that is incompatible with the kind of economy that the World Bank has to insist on."

Globalisation undermines both democracy and national sovereignty, the only guarantors of human rights. Unfortunately for Messrs. Clinton, Crietien et al, that message was not lost on millions around the world watching NATO bombs pulverise Yugoslavia.