The great and wonderful Pat Walsh passed away on December 29.
Pat was one of Australia’s great human rights defenders and promoters. His many contributions to the Diplomacy Training Program (DTP) as former DTP board member, DTP Advisory Council and DTP Trainer were but a small part of his larger life’s contributions to human rights in our world.
Humble, tireless and indefatigable, a gifted writer and thoughtful chronicler of history, lives and stories, Pat was a true internationalist. The principal focus of his human rights’ advocacy from 1975 was the peoples of Indonesia and Timor Leste — and their aspirations for human rights and democracy.
His work in support of the Timorese right to self-determination led him to become an exemplar of “peoples’ diplomacy” — engaging everyone who could do something for the Timorese — from foreign ministers to Indonesian generals to Timorese refugees, Australian aid organisations, trade unionists and politicians — across the spectrum and world.
In the 1970s, Pat co-founded the magazine Inside Indonesia, that continues to build knowledge and understanding of Indonesia’s rich history, peoples and politics.
President Suharto banned Pat from entering Indonesia, but when the democracy movement ended the general’s rule, President Habibie welcomed Pat into the Presidential Palace in Jakarta. It was a lesson in history that, unlike principles, dictators don’t last forever.
Pat probably had more friends in Indonesia’s new democracy, including future President Gus Dur, than did the Australian government so closely tied with its former dictator.
Pat quietly built solidarity and rich friendships stretching the world and generations. His great friendship with Timor’s President José Ramos-Horta spanned decades.
As the first Director of the Human Rights Office of the Australian Council for Overseas Aid, he mobilised with others in the Asia-Pacific to ensure governments upheld the universality and indivisibility of all human rights at the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights. He then helped establish the first Asia-Pacific network on human rights.
For decades, Pat worked against all odds for Timor Leste’s freedom to ensure that, in the words of Irish poet Seamus Heaney, “Hope and history rhymed” for the Timorese.
When it did, in the 1999 vote for independence, Pat was there to help the Timorese build their new democracy on a foundation of respect for human rights. Working from a cell in a former prison in Dili, he helped build the Chega! institution (Centro Nacional Chega!). The Centre for truth, reception and reconciliation tells the extraordinary story of the Timorese and the victory of right over might through the voices of the victims and survivors.
The Centro Nacional Chega! is a lovingly curated history honouring the truth of the words of Czech writer Milan Kundera: “The struggle of man [sic] against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting”.
Pat saw the work of Chega! as a critical part of human rights education; how can make the future different to the past, how can peace be built after conflict? He spent a year living in Jakarta helping to oversee the translation of the Chega! report into Bahasa. The story is told in one of his lovely books Stormy With a Chance of Fried Rice.
Pat received honours from both the Timorese and Australian governments for his extraordinary contributions to human rights, peace and reconciliation. The focus of Pat’s work in recent decades was on ensuring that Timor, Indonesia – and Australia all know their shared history. He maintained a hope that the lessons from this history could be applied to the West Papuan aspirations for self-determination and to Australia’s reckoning with its past.
Pat also documented his own family’s history — from Ireland to his own start in life on a dairy farm in Western Victoria. His books were tributes to the joys and humour to be found in the lives of ordinary people, in Dili and Jakarta, as well as his own suburb of Northcote during COVID-19.
The pages of Pat’s books are full of his empathy, humour, wisdom and delight in the everyday. He has motivated many to take up the cause for human rights. He leaves an inspiring legacy and will be long missed and well-remembered.
DTP and Green Left extend our sympathies and condolences to Annie and the family.