---------------------------------------------------------- Visit Indonesia Daily News Online HomePage: http://www.indo-news.com/ Please Visit Our Sponsor http://www.indo-news.com/cgi-bin/ads1 ---------------------------------------------------------- Sydney Morning Herald 27/07/99 Whitlam's late alibi on East Timor By HAMISH McDONALD, Foreign Editor As East Timor approaches its ballot on independence, former prime minister Mr Gough Whitlam has revealed the existence of a strange club. Mr Whitlam and the former Indonesian president, Mr Soeharto, were leading proponents, at their meetings in 1974-75, of the view that the then Portuguese Timor would be unviable as an independent state because its size and weak economy. Correspondence Mr Whitlam has obtained from the National Archives of Australia shows that both the Portuguese fascist leader, Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, and the Australian conservative prime minister Sir Robert Menzies, were of similar mind - if less happy with the notion of Indonesian rule replacing Portuguese. Over 1961-64, the two leaders corresponded: Menzies urging Salazar to express some intention of allowing the Timorese a choice about their status; Salazar, with elegant courtesy, dismissing the Afro-Asian chorus. In his submission to the inquiry on Australia's policies on Timor by the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, Mr Whitlam said the letters show that Portugal would take no steps towards self determination in East Timor. "Nevertheless, the Menzies, Holt, Gorton and McMahon governments continued to condone culpable neglect of the people of East Timor by the Portuguese State and the Catholic Church," he wrote. Mr Whitlam, who was in Parliament from 1952, forgets to include any instances of his attempt to alert the Menzies or subsequent governments to the plight of the Timorese. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 26 Jul 1999 jam 19:41:23 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
