Precedence: bulk AFTER NORTH KALIMANTAN AND WEST PAPUA, ANOTHER UN BLUNDER? ---------------------------------------------------------- By George J. Aditjondro WILL the United Nations seriously consider to defend the rights of the East Timorese people to self-determination, in the forthcoming referendum in the occupied territory? Without any armed peace-keeping forces, unlike the ones sent by NATO to oversee the withdrawal of Serbian troops and to protect Kosovar refugees, I have my serious doubt about the sincerity of the UN, especially Secretary General Kofi Annan. Not only by contrasting Kosovo and East Timor, but also by studying Southeast Asian history, especially the history of post-colonial liberation movements in this region, it can be firmly concluded that the UN has never been objective as far as Malay expansionism is concerned. In 1963, the UN approved the expansionism of Malaya into the North Borneoan British territories. This took place under Secretary General U Thant, a Burman, whose country has the longest history of ethno-nationalist movements in this region. Before the new Malaysia federation was declared by Tengku Abdul Rachman in Kuala Lumpur, the Secretary General had sent a so-called fact finding mission to assess whether the Dayak, Chinese, and Malay communities in North Borneo (now: Sabah) and Sarawak were willing to join the proposed Malaysia federation. A proposal by Tengku Abdul Rachman, which the British had strongly supported. And after only traveling for some weeks in the Borneo jungles and meeting some Dayak leaders in their longhouses and Chinese leaders in the towns, they concluded that "the majority of the people in Sabah & Sarawak wanted to join Malaysia". This in an area, which is certainly much larger than East Timor. U Thant had completely disregarded the supporters of Partai Rakyat Brunei (PRB) which had transformed itself into Partai Rakyat Kalimantan Utara (PARAKU = North Kalimantan People's Party), as well as other political parties in Sabah and Sarawak, who were against the Malaysia proposal and for a unification with Sabah. As most Jakarta Post readers may have forgotten, PRB had declared the independence of Brunei from the British on 8 December 1962. In a week's time the rebellion was crushed by British-led Gurkha troops sent from Singapore, flushing the rebels and their rebel army, TNKU (Tentara Nasional Kalimantan Utara) into the jungles of Sarawak and West Kalimantan. PRB, whose leader Tun Azahari had studied veterinary medicine in Bogor and had taken part in Indonesia's independence struggle, had earlier won parliamentary elections in Brunei. Inspired by Indonesia's independence struggle, PRB's party platform was to fight for independence from the British and to transform Brunei into a republic with a socialist economy, where the sultan would only have a symbolic role as is the case in most European monarchies. The sultan (father of the current sultan), realizing the threat of PRB, refused to swear in the new PRB-dominated parliament. Hence, PRB (Paraku) and TNKU were forced to take the extra-parliamentary way, which was instantly repressed by the sultan with the British support. That was what led to the Indonesian (not just Soekarno and the Indonesian Communist Party, PKI, as some pro-TNI historians would like us to believe) to confront Malaysia, by providing support -- military training and ammunition -- to the Paraku/TNKU and its sister organization, PGRS (Pasukan Gerilyawan Rakyat Sarawak = Sarawak People's Guerilla Forces), who were young Sarawak Chinese activists who supported of the PRB/PARAKU ideal. On the international diplomatic front, Indonesian diplomats at that time attacked the results of the UN fact-finding team, as it contradicted with several UN resolutions and guidelines concerning non-self-governing territories. After Sukarno was toppled and the murderous general Suharto came to power, PARAKU and PGRS guerillas became fair game for the RPKAD (now Kopassus) troops, the same troops that had trained them before. Indonesia and the newborn Malaysian Federation jointly crushed any nationalist feelings in Sarawak, which had became East Malaysia (while the Federation of nine sultanates in the Malaya Peninsula had became West Malaysia). The PGRS and Paraku guerillas who had fled into the jungles of West Kalimantan became the first "GPK" (Gerakan Pengacau Keamanan = Security Disturbance Movement) or "GPL" (Gerakan Pengacau Liar = Wild Disturbance Movement) in the history of the New Order, just as the military authorities later branded the West Papuan, East Timorese, and Achehnese freedom fighters. Speaking about West Papua, after successfully crushing the "PGRS/Paraku remnants" and turning West Kalimantan into a paradise for military-backed logging companies, Suharto than turned his attention to this easternmost outpost of the former Dutch colony. Incidentally, he had served before, under Sukarno, as commander of the Trikora Operation to "liberate" the West Papuans from the Dutch colonial yoke. His headquarters was in Makassar (now Ujungpandang), where he met and become like an old brother to the incumbent President B.J. Habibie. With the same RPKAD troops responsible for the massacre of up to two million Indonesians, mainly in Java and Bali, were 5% of the population were massacred by military-backed landlord vigilante troops, and the same RPKAD troops that had hunted down their former pupils in Kalimantan, Suharto began his attempts to crush all West Papuan freedom fighters. These unsuccessful operations have been carried out until today, regardless of whether the freedom aspirations were expressed in violent or non-violent ways. Even while West Papua was under UN temporary administration (UNTEA -1962-63), Indonesian soldiers had already moved in, to exterminate the small OPM forces, which were born out of the Papua Batallion set up by the Dutch. This took place in front of the mostly Pakistani UN peacekeeping troops. In 1969, after establishing Indonesian control over West Papua for seven years, Indonesia -- not the UN -- carried out the notorious "act of free choice". Or rather, "act of no choice". This was in front of the UN observers' eyes. And although the UNTEA chief in West Papua had submitted a critical report on how the "consultation" of 1025 tribal leaders had taken place in marathon sittings in eight West Papuan towns, the UN General Assembly approved the results of those "consultations". The result is that now West Papuan nationalists, through the Nuclear Free & Independent Pacific Forum in Suva, Fiji, have to campaign to re-list West Papua as a non self-governing territory under the UN Commission on Decolonization, popularly known as the Commission of 24. In the meantime, Sarawak natives have to fight for their cultural and ecological self-determination, as an "environment" or "indigenous rights" movement. Not anymore as an independence movement. This, unfortunately, could be the lot of the East Timorese independence fighters, if the UN is allowed to carry out its third farce in South East Asia, or its second in the South Pacific. Because for the UN, the bottom line is still the interests of the US and its allies. The bottom line for the US and its Western allies is the interests of the Western multinational companies. Azahari's independence movement in Brunei, that had its resonance in Sarawak, was a threat for Royal Dutch Shell. So, it had to be crushed, and the extension of Malay power to Sarawak and Sabah had to be supported, since the aristocratic Malays, like Tengku Abdul Rachman, and not the leftist republican Malays, such as Tun Azahari, were supportive of British and other foreign multinational corporations on their soil. In the case of West Papua, the US forced the Dutch to give up control over West Papua, because they themselves wanted to control the mineral resources of West Papua. See how close Henry Kissinger is to Freeport McMoRan, a company which was saved from collapse, after Fidel Castro nationalized their nickel mines in Cuba, by the Ertsberg copper-gold-and-silver mine in West Papua. The US, UK, and other Western powers have also assisted the Indonesian military in crushing the West Papuan independence movement, popularly known as the OPM. Now, unlike in the case of Kuwait or Kosovo, the US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, has not put the US weight behind the UN Secretary General, to demand the disarming of militias and the withdrawal of Indonesian troops from East Timor. Incidentally (?), a US company, Philips Petroleum, has now emerged as the major player in the Timor Gap, and with Mobil Oil also entering the Timor Sea, US oil companies may become the major players in the entire Timor Sea, stretching from the Ashmore Reef in the West to the Arafura Sea in the Eastern entrance to the Timor Sea. Australia, as always, is a junior partner in the US-led global capitalist system. The "Big Australian", BHP has sold its Timor Sea assets to Philips Petroleum, after moving its oil operations to the Mexican Gulf. Its US office in Houston, Texas, also houses the US representative office of Pertamina. In the meantime, BHP's Australian partners, Woodside Petroleum, Santos, and Petroz, are now operating under -- or in conjunction with -- US oil giants. Santos and Petroz in the Timor Sea under Philips Petroleum, and Woodside in the North Western Shelf with other US and Japanese partners. Woodside is now planniong to rub their elbows with the Exxon-BHP partnership in the Bass Straits between the Australian continent and Tasmania. In other words, all the maritime waters around the Australian continent is now controlled by combined US, Australian, and other Western and Japanese oil interests. Mind you, Woodside itself is half owned by Shell, which in turn is a fifty-fifty Anglo-Dutch joint venture. Let me emphasize that I do not say, "all Australian waters", but "all the maritime waters around the Australian continent". Why? Because the seas around Australia have also been robbed from their rightful owners, namely the indigenous peoples of Australia and Timor, East as well as West. This is what laid behind the late Professor Johannes' objections against the Timor Gap Treaty, because this illegal 1989 treaty was signed by then Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans, Australia's candidate for the UNESCO directorship, and his Indonesian counterpart, Ali Alatas. This 1989 illegal treaty between Australia and the East Timor's occupying force materialized after a long serious of maritime border negotiations between Indonesia and Australia, which practically robbed artisanal Sulawesian and West Timorese fisherfolks from the right to fish in their traditional waters, a tradition which extends back before James Cook laid claims for the British crown on the Australian continent and its surrounding water. At this point of time, I believe, that we need to analyze the current events in East Timor, also from a global political economy perspective. This might give us a deeper understanding of the half-hearted way of the UN in protecting the right of the Maubere people to determine their own future. It may also give the human rights activists a better understanding in targetting their campaigns, apart from the Indonesian crooks and their Timorese collaborators. Weird as it may sound, I believe that the biggest perpetrators of human rights violations are not the stupid soldiers and paramilitary men who only know how to pull a gun's trigger or to hack their machettes. The biggest perpetrators of human rights violations in East Timor live right in Darwin in the North Territory, Australia, the major supply base of the Timor Gap oil and gas operators. Others live in their regional and global headquarters far away from the blood stained soil of Timor Lorosae. >From their air-conditioned skyscrapers in the Northern hemisphere, they will benefit from a potential cancellation of the UN-supervised referendum, which was not even called a "referendum" at the first place, but just a "direct ballot", due to Indonesian opposition. The longer the stalemate takes place, the more these oil companies can rob the oil and gas resources of the Timor Sea. The border between East and West Timor, is simply a nuisance for them, since they want to integrate the wells on both sides of the border, into a grid, which is more economical to operate. A long stalemate is not a problem for the oil and gas operators. Because the Timor Sea hydrocarbon reserves, mainly consists of natural gas, which will be liquified and condensed in Darwin or at another town on the northern coast of Australia. And from the economical point of view, it is better to stockpile this natural gas and oil under the sea, until the East Asian economies -- Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China -- recover from their economic eclipse and can resume importing the Timor Sea's LNG. And the longer the stalemate lasts will enable these oil interests to benefit more from the billions of US dollars worth of oil and gas interests, which has the potential to turn the entire island -- and not only East Timor -- into another Brunei Darussalam in Southeast Asia. So, while fighting against the immediate human rights violations in East Timor, the public in Australia, the US, the UK, Netherlands, Norway, Japan and Indonesia need to be educated about the complicity of their oil companies in the East Timor tragedy. Because the Timor War is basically a proxy war carried out by the pro-statusquo forces in Indonesia, on behalf of the multinational oil giants. I sincerely hope that Megawati Sukarnoputri and her advisors will also see East Timor from this more global political economy perspective and will not embarass her late father, Bung Karno, a champion fighter against the "nekolim" forces by playing into the hand of the global oil interests. Newcastle, 20 June 1999 ------------------------ Dr. George J. Aditjondro, teaches Sociology of Post-colonial Liberation Movements at the University of Newcastle in Australia. His newest book, "Is Oil Thicker than Blood? A Study of Oil Companies Interests and Western Complicity in Indonesia's Annexation of East Timor," has just been published by Nova Science in the US. It is currently being translated into Bahasa Indonesia to be published by Solidamor in Indonesia. ---------- SiaR WEBSITE: http://apchr.murdoch.edu.au/minihub/siarlist/maillist.html
