Max Lane, Perth
All of those who were involved in working for East Timorese independence are terribly saddened by the sudden death of Dr Andrew McNaughtan.
All the activists in Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor, and later Action in Solidarity with Asia and Pacific (ASAP), often worked with Andy, especially in Sydney, but also Melbourne. Andy was always willing to help with protest actions and demonstrations, even the small street corner events that sometimes seemed like actions carried out with so little support. He always spoke intelligently and with passion at all these events.
I had many discussions with him at protest actions, or in the office in Sydney, as well as in Jakarta and Portugal. He never stopped trying to gather more information in order to understand things better and to be able to present what he thought would be a more effective argument in support of the East Timorese movement.
As many others have noted, he was very energetic; one of those activists who dedicated himself almost totally to East Timor, visiting the country several times to carry out practical activities, risking his own safety, and suffering detention and deportation.
The process of building an East Timor solidarity movement in Australia was a complex and often tense process. As everybody who was involved knows, alongside the united effort to support the East Timorese win independence, there were differences in the movement as well as factionalism and sectarianism both among East Timorese and Australians.
While always having strong opinions of his own, Andy was one of those very non-sectarian activists who was determined to work as well as he could with all groups and individuals involved in the movement. He maintained his concern for East Timor after independence and also started to become interested in other issues related to struggles in the Indonesian archipelago, such as Aceh and Papua.
Andy's sudden and early death is a shock and a real loss to the movement for solidarity with the people of East Timor and other oppressed peoples in the region. I am sure he will always be remembered with respect.
[Max Lane is the national chairperson of Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific.]
From Green Left Weekly, January 14, 2004.
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