G'day all,
I have to rant.
Australia still hasn't
a - withdrawn recognition of Indonesian sovereignty of East Timor
b - expressed open support for Habibie against Wiranto
c - withdrawn aid
d - withdrawn our embassy staff from Djakarta and expel the Indonesian staff
from Canberra
e - stopped training and cooperating with members of the Indonesian military
f - loudly proclaimed to the world that all should do the same
g - done a single fucking thing
Now, I admit these things might not all fit well together - but the fact of
the matter is we've done nothing. I think Canberra expects Wiranto to enter
the presidential race (directly or indeirectly) soon, and wants good terms
with the anticipated junta. That's the way we did it in '75 and the way
we've done it ever since. If we were a horse, that's where you'd have to
put your money.
The USA is similarly playing it just as it's always played it. Indonesia is
at the heart of its regional policy, and the US has reamed the Australian
lap-dog at every turn for decades. Mass slaughters not only don't worry
Washington, but Washington happily supports them wherever a 'friendly'
government seems a possible consequence. There, too, nothing has changed.
The Indonesian military are slaughtering the men and removing the women and
kids to other islands. That's what they've done for decades. No surprises
there. Based on the media consensus that 40000 women and children have been
forcibly removed, we're talking about the deaths of about 15000 men right
there. This is already so much bigger than Kosovo, the latter doesn't even
deserve to be in the same sentence. We have to keep in mind just how *big*
this is.
Wiranto is doing the same thing the 'new order' did in 1965, when last a
decisive section of the military didn't like the direction the government
was taking. A million people were killed then and I reckon a number of the
same order is not to be rejected as beyond possibility now. Oz and the US
stood by (indeed actively helped) then, and, based on the above
consistencies, are no less likely to do so now.
The media are a bit more active now than they were in '75-'78, and certainly
the Oz population is engaged, but the fact of the matter is that it's all
too late. The need of editors to have punchy vision rather than
talking-head incremental analyses (of even inevitable didasters) is such
that it always was going to be too late.
And thus to my second theme: just because the vast majority of people
strongly hold a view on something, our institutional context is such that
this sentiment has no hope of affecting anything. We are impotent in our
own country and our own world. More than ever, what Washington decides, and
what Canberra might expect it to decide, determines who lives and who dies.
Because we ignore history, we are caught by surprise at every turn. Because
we never think to look at the ideas that constitute us socially (like the
sovereignty of 'the individual' and concomitant notions of 'democracy'), we
have become helpless.
Like rabbits caught in the headlights of an approaching truck.
The extermination of a people is a lot more than the tolling of a bell, but
it is that, too. If we can but sit by and watch such an obscenity, in full
ghastly knowledge of what's happening, and if we find ourselves in an order
that reproduces these nightmares relentlessly, then we should at least
realise what it means. Someone will be next, and someone after that. And
there'll be nothing we'll be able to do about it unless we go back to
basics, learn the lessons of our history, and reject the sway of our
institutions. Or one day, it'll be our turn.
We're better than our institutions.
Here endeth the rant.
Rob.
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