Exporting violence

Has the average Indonesian good reason to be grateful to British Foreign Minister, Ben Bradshaw, for his recent announcement that the United Kingdom is once again deigning to resume arms sales to this country, providing, of course, that the Indonesian military (TNI) honors its assurances? Mr. Bradshaw conveniently forgot to tell us how Indonesians are going to benefit from this great privilege he is once again granting.

No neighbor of Indonesia is doing any saber rattling, so external threats cannot be the justification. In fact, Indonesia's ASEAN partners' all-too-amicable relations with each other are enticing the media to, instead, serve us up the questionable conviction of "experts" and the British and U.S. embassies that international terrorists pose a growing threat.

Incredibly, we are also being told, by American columnists writing in East Asian newspapers, that Indonesia needs to avail itself of American military help if it is to survive intact.

The U.S. is, of course, the world's biggest arms manufacturer and companies such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrop Grumman make enormous profits out of exporting violence. As a result of the oppression that is facilitated by these U.S. arms, other U.S. companies gain lucrative access to oil and minerals in various places around the world.

Since more countries will soon be vying with each other to jump onto this weapons bandwagon, Indonesians might like to take a moment to ask the old chicken and egg question. Which came first: the massacres, oppression and expansionism of Indonesia or Western military arms, training and funds? In fact, by 1963 the U.S. had equipped 43 battalions of the Indonesian army, trained hundreds of officers and provided funding to the tune of US$60.9 million to Soeharto's right-wing military faction. Furthermore, while Sukarno had toyed with military expansionism, it was the Quisling-dictator, Soeharto, who invaded East Timor only twenty- four hours after a visit by U.S. President Ford and Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger. It must, therefore, be seriously questioned whether the 1965-66 massacre and the invasion of East Timor would have taken place without the Western-sponsored military build-up.

So crucial are arms sales to some Western countries that both the U.S. and the British governments have, for instance, been willing to violate their own laws on supplying arms to erstwhile- friendly tyrants like, for example, Saddam Hussein of Iraq. Both these countries also courted the now disgraced, General Prabowo, and played a critical role in training the elite Indonesian force, Kopassus, which is heavily implicated in the East Timor debacle. Britain, a major supplier of arms to Indonesia, not only went out of its way to provide financial guarantees for the sale of Hawk jets to Indonesia; but also trained Indonesian pilots in simulators to strafe villages. Such a skill is obviously essential for the external defense of Indonesia!

In short, therefore, Mr. Bradshaw would be doing Indonesians a great favor if he were to collect up his deadly manufactures and return to Britain without conferring any more of his unwanted indulgences.

FRANK RICHARDSON

Tangerang, West Java