Is an apology in order?

Is an apology in order?

One can but blanch at the poor quality of the intelligence
occasionally proffered to august members of regional
administrations in certain parts of this archipelagic nation.

The recent information claiming that there might have been a
remote link between the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and the
funding of the PRD (Democratic People's Party), recent or
otherwise, was a case in point.

It might be best if the socialist credentials of the ALP were
first examined. The ALP has operated within the constitutional
confines of Australia's bourgeois democracy since 1901. During
that time it espoused nebulous, and at times ill-considered,
quasi-socialist policies but when in office it implemented
policies acceptable to capitalists and the middle class. Indeed,
the only real difference between the ALP and the Australia's
conservative parties is that the ALP has probably paid greater
attention to matters of social welfare.

In its latest tenure of office, the ALP engineered arguably
the greatest weakening of the trade union movement since the
1920s. In this time the ALP also oversaw the greatest transfer of
wealth to the economic elite witnessed in Australia this century.
This was done when record and sustained levels of unemployment
were being inflicted upon the workforce.

Paul Keating oversaw the dismantling of much of Australia's
protectionist economy and opened up the economy to world market
forces. Much of this may well have been necessary, yet what it
proves is that any attempt to brand the ALP with the sobriquet
"socialist" or even "worker-friendly" is completely ludicrous.

Paul Keating and Gareth Evans promoted deeper and more
meaningful relations between Australia and Indonesia, a process
that seemingly had the full approval of President Soeharto and
Ali Alatas. In the 1980s the Indonesian and Australian armed
forces, the latter under the aegis of an ALP government,
undertook a wide range of cooperative ventures and joint
exercises. During the tenure of the last ALP government,
Australia-Indonesia trade ties burgeoned. The two countries,
Australia under an ALP Government, signed the historic Timor Gap
treaty, which will undoubtedly benefit both countries.

In truth, is it at all likely that the ALP would have
jeopardized its relations with Indonesia by funding a hitherto
obscure, non-official Indonesian group? If the answer is "Yes,"
then the reply must be, "Get real." The fact that such funding,
if it had been forthcoming, would have precipitated a political
crisis of immense proportions within Australia seems to have
evaded the notice of the political advisers who came up with this
intelligence. Such funding by the Federal ALP, and certainly by
the Australian government, is of course illegal.

Although the charge was proven false, one can understand how a
representative from a group in a foreign country might have met
with members of a social-democratic party which has members at
regional, state and federal levels in Australia. Such a meeting
would only have been a phone call away, and could have garnered
some sympathy with ordinary members in the party hierarchy.

However, what one fails to understand is how such a meeting
might have led an observer to conclude that the funding of a
revolutionary overthrow of a neighboring and friendly government
by officials of Australia's largest political party was the
outcome.

One can but hope that the dangerously wild actions of certain
non-official groups in the last few weeks will be met with wise
and considered policy. To accuse a foreign and friendly political
party of funding a revolution within Indonesia is surely neither
wise nor considered. The bearers of such poor advice to regional
governmental heads should perhaps be given short training courses
in diplomacy and foreign politics.

GARRY J. SINCLAIR

Jakarta