A different view of the East Timor situation.

[Matilda]

Seems that even the ABC can't be trusted to tell the truth on East Timor. Like most Australians,
I bought into the theory that Dr Mari Alkitiri has been an incompetent prime minister, and only
his departure can prevent East Timor from sliding into civil war.

That is until I started doing a bit of online research into his background - what a different story
I've found. It begins to look as if the Australian Government, far from being a disinterested but
helpful neighbour, is actively pursuing regime change for its own corrupt purposes. Why am I not
surprised?

A few facts about Alkatiri that are not generally stated in our local media:

* He was educated in "Marxist" Mozambique, and therefore has been seen as a communist by many of his
opponents, and to make things worse, he is a Muslim;

* He has formed diplomatic ties with both China and Cuba, which has rung alarm bells in Canberra;

* He brought Cuban doctors into East Timor to work in rural medical centres, and Timorese medical
students have been offered scholarships to study in Cuba, clearly they will all come back as die-
hard communists;

* He has refused to take out loans with the World Bank and the IMF, and to date East Timor, though
dirt poor, is debt-free - an appalling situation;

* It is he - going against Ramos-Horta - who has pushed East Timor's resistance to Australia's take-
over of East Timor's oil and gas reserves.

That's just some of what I've learned this past few days. If you're interested in learning more,
you might like to visit some of these sites:

http://www.asia-pacific-action.org/news/tapol_behindthedemonisationofmari_120606.htm

http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2006/673/673p16.htm

http://samanddaniel.blogspot.com/2006/05/why-do-australians-want-mari-alkatiri.html

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/jun2006/timor-j12.shtml


I wondered why we were so quick to send troops to Dili this month, when we were so slow to respond
just a few years ago when East Timorese were being killed in their thousands by Indonesian troops.

Now I know. It's Regime Change, Stupid.

[Violet_Crumble]

1. Thanks for posting those links...

I'm going to have a read of them coz I've automatically assumed that Dr Alkitiri was the bad guy and I hadn't actually stopped and wondered about the swiftness of our response now as opposed to a few years back....

[Djinn]

2. The Australian government would definetly prefer

Alkitiri quietly went away but that doesn't preclude him being dodgy and incompetent. We didn't go in when the TNI was slaughtering it's way across East Timor because Indonesia represented a massive market for Australian exports. The only reason any nation ever does anything, "self interest".

[Matilda]

3. I'm sure Alkatiri is not a saint -

there's still the question of whether he was involved in the secret distribution of arms to Fretilin
supporters. He may have been set up, but it's equally likely that he was involved. And given
his apparent unpopularity now, I wonder whether his election was honest - I don't know whether any
international group oversaw that election.

What made me take notice was that East Timor has taken out no World Bank or IMF loans. Because
that's something the US always wants to see, with its inevitable drive to privatisation of all
government entities, and the subsequent opening up to foreign ownership. That would clearly benefit
Australia and the US, and possibly Portugal, which retains an interest in the country. It will be
very interesting to see whether the next PM takes out foreign loans, thereby giving western powers
a big financial stake in the country.

From the recent Four Corners program, it appears that the worst his detractors have to say about
him is that he's arrogant (it's not a crime), and a Marxist, which is enough to create hysteria in
the US and Australia. He also happens to be a Muslim in a predominantly Catholic country, and in
some quarters, that's enough to damn him.

All the sites I've researched for this info are left-wing, and I'm mindful of that, but that's the
only way you can get a different slant on anything. The facts all appear to check out; whether
they're relevant to the current situation I don't know, but I'm more sceptical than I was a week
ago.

[no safe haven]

4. You make a really good point, Matilda

I heard on ABC radio (AM or PM) a few days ago that Alkatiri was a Marxist and a penny dropped somewhere in the recesses of my brain. Your comment that showed Alkatiri has not taken out an IMF or World Bank loan just confirms what I had begun to suspect (*sound of piggy bank being emptied*).

I still contend to this day that the principal reason Whitlam was ousted was due to the ‘Khemlani loan affair’, not sourcing the usual IMF/WB to pay for his programs. No one goes against the WB and survives, politically at the very least. More recently, I think of Saddam’s set up in Iraq – a Marxist type Baathist Party govt, no borrowing from IMF/WB, plus sitting on top of critical strategic resources = time for regime change.

East Timor stands to inherit huge sums from a major strategic resource - natural gas. As does Australia through the Timor Gap Treaty, which, with corporate manipulation, would have bagged Australia more than the 10% of profits agreed upon. A Marxist leaning government would essentially see profits going back to the people, not corporations (e.g. Venezuela). Good enough reason for foreign and/or corporate interests to try and oust Alkatiri. This may be a bit simplistic, but the gist of it seems to fit.

As for being Muslim, Alkatiri is obviously a man who follows a secular path of government, not a religious fundamentalist one. However, in today’s climate of hysteria against Muslims, I can see this being used against him, eventually, under the guise of ‘regime change’.
Thanks for the links. Let’s see what SBS does with this, if anything.

[Generarth]

5. Paul Keating was arrogant too, remember.

I'm for Alkatiri, Ramos Horta is a wanker. (actually he's worse)

[Matilda]

6. And Keating's arrogance brought him down too.

He forgot there were battlers out there as well as the high flyers he
liked to mix with, and he stopped listening. I don't care about his
French clocks and Zegna suits, but he made that wonderful "true
believers" speech and then turned his back on those same people.

If only Keating had meant what he said, John Howard might not have won
in '96, and that would have finished him for good.

[Generarth]

7. I don't really think he was arrogant

although he was always a little too right wing for me.

I did like his performance in parliament though, far better than Beazley, Crean or even Latham. As for the 96 election, I think it was a mistake on the part of Labor party strategists. They believed the 'arrogant' bullshit of the labor hating media and put Keating on a leash. Left to his own devices he would have demolished Howard in the Ray Martin debateicle. That would have meant a closer election.

Anyway I'm sitting down to watch Syriana now.

[Matilda]

8. Oh, I think he's arrogant,

but there was a grandness to him. I liked his style, his intelligence,
and his vision, and Parliament was never dull when he was there. I
could forgive his arrogance, just as I can Gough's, because he has
something to be arrogant about. Unlike the little twerp who holds office
now, who's just a pompous prick.

But I think he did forget about the Labor heartland, and it was he and
Hawke who began the rollback of tertiary education funding and the
weakening of the union movement, both of which have always been sacred
to Labor. I think both were grave mistakes for Labor.

[Generarth]

9. Yes Howard is arrogant

I'd agree with that. We never see that in our media though do we? And I still remember when Liberal friends called him 'Honest John'.

Tertiary education is becoming a joke. Full fee paying students getting preferential entry, a 20% discount to the local rich (pay up front), $8000 a year courses (next year I think Law, medicine etc are heading to $12,000 a year), and Melbourne adopting the general degree with a specialist two years afterwards.

[Random_Australian]

10. I just saw Syriana.

What did you think?