Why Australian governments support dictators in Asia
By James Vassilopoulos
"Indonesia is not a perfect democracy, I know that... I just think as a matter of principle the president of that country should be welcome to visit Australia." That was Prime Minister John Howard's reply on the Sunday program on November 22 when asked if he thought President Habibie of Indonesia should be allowed to visit Australia, following the shooting of student protesters.
"Not a perfect democracy" — a rather gentle description of a murderous dictatorship that has lasted more than three decades! But the "principle" of making friends with dictators is more important to the government than human rights, a free press, the right to organise or fair, free elections.
From Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur, from Bangkok to Rangoon, Australian governments — both Coalition and ALP — have collaborated with, appeased and established military links with dictators, to guarantee the economic interests of Australian big business.
And it hasn't just been in Asia that Australian governments have propped up dictatorships. Following the 1987 coup in Fiji — a country dominated by Australian transnationals like CSR, Westpac and Western Mining — Bob Hawke, the Labor prime minister, almost immediately accepted a Fijian high commissioner to Canberra, giving the green light to the dictatorship.
Long record
Australian governments have always backed the Indonesian dictatorship, first under Suharto and now under B.J. Habibie.
Habibie needs friends at the moment because of the increasing exposure of its brutality: the killing of students shot down in the streets of Jakarta, the massacre on the West Papuan island of Biak and the torture and killing of civilians in southern East Timor in the Alas district.
Documents have also been leaked showing that reported troop withdrawals from East Timor were a hoax, further discrediting the regime.
Each time the Howard government has played down the events, continuing its diplomatic and military assistance. Typical is foreign minster Alexander Downer's November 18 comment on the 1991 Dili massacre: "But whether, as you put it rather emotively, it was a massacre, as distinct from people being killed in a more ad hoc way, I think that's very hard to judge".
This approach is nothing new. In 1965, when Suharto murdered 1 to 3 million Indonesians in his coup, Harold Holt, the Liberal prime minister, called the bloodbath a "reorientation".
ALP governments have had the same approach as the Coalition. Gough Whitlam in 1974, before the invasion, described an independent East Timor as "unviable" and a "threat".
Bob Hawke, soon after becoming prime minister, visited Indonesia in his first state visit and gave a champagne toast to Suharto: "We know your people love you". Later the ALP government gave legal recognition to the Indonesian annexation of East Timor.
It also trained Indonesia's crack military unit Kopassus, held joint military exercises like Kangaroo '95 and sold the Indonesian military $100 million worth of combat rifles. Perhaps those very rifles are now killing people in Indonesia.
The Indonesian dictatorship is not the only one which Australian governments back. Forced by a growing democratic movement to permit elections in 1990, the Burmese military refused to recognise the results and massacred protesters. For a decade, it has persecuted the election winners and anyone who supports democracy.
Yet the Australian government maintains an Austrade office in Rangoon and encourages investment. BHP, the construction firm Multiplex and the Lloyd helicopter group all have substantial interests in the country.
In 1992 when Thai troops opened fire on protesters demanding democracy, killing at least 100, the Labor government's first reaction was not to condemn the carnage, but to express "distress" and to call on both the demonstrators and military to show "restraint".
In Malaysia during the recent Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, Howard made no public statements opposing the anti-democratic acts of Mahathir Mohamad, let alone doing anything.
The Australian government does not just collaborate with dictators and repressive governments, but also arms them. In addition to arms for Indonesia, it has sold aircraft parts to Burma, fighter jets to Pakistan and aircraft to the Philippines.
These weapons frequently end up being used against their own people, like the patrol boats and Iroquois helicopters provided to the Papua New Guinea government, which were used against the people of Bougainville when they rose up against Rio Tinto, the Australian mining giant.
Business interests
Australian governments' bipartisan support for dictators in the Asian region and beyond comes from their need to protect and expand Australian big business interests in trade and investment.
Australia is an imperialist power. It has monopolistic companies which export capital to Asia. The Australian government does what is in the best interest of these immensely powerful corporations.
If the Australian government took strong action against dictators — like ending military cooperation and supporting sanctions — billions of dollars of trade and investments would be at risk.
Australian investment in 1996-97 in Asian dictatorships or regimes with major human rights and undemocratic practices was $17.8 billion. Australian exports to these same countries in 1997 totalled $29.8 billion, or 35% of total exports.
In 1997 Australia exported $3.4 billion worth of products to Indonesia, making it the eighth largest export market. Australian investment there stood at $1.4 billion in 1996-97.
Australian big business wants these investments and exports to be protected and allowed to increase.
Five years ago, only about 120 Australian companies invested in Indonesia. Today this has more than trebled to 400 companies.
Of the oil and gas fields covered by the Timor Gap treaty, only one field, Elang-Kataua, owned by BHP, Santos, Petroz and an Indonesian company, is in production. Eight other fields will be producing some time in the future — but Australian companies might not be able to exploit them if the East Timor, the proper owner, is independent.
These are the billions of reasons the Australian government supports the Habibie dictatorship and other undemocratic regimes.