Mine thy neighbour

(II no.65, January-March 2001)

It was somewhat ironic that Jeff Atkinson's article on Australian mining companies was preceded by a news item on the takeover of an Australian gold mine by small scale miners. This has resulted in mercury contamination of water courses and threatens the reefs. While I do not condone some of the more rapacious acts of Australian companies, I am not so sanguine about local small scale operators either. The neo-romantic idyll of locals busy taking over from evil foreign empires usually has a scorpion sting of environmental devastation, endemic corruption complete with stand-over tactics on behalf of the military, and long-lasting occupational and public health effects. Transnational corporations with some exceptions do better than their Indonesian counterparts at clean and relatively safe technologies, and the cost to the environment and workers' health of large companies is much less than of those owned by Indonesian or small scale interests. There is a huge need to educate small scale operators, and to revise the contract of work system to foster responsible mine management. With the Indonesian government this week throwing Java and Bali open for mining exploration, some creative thinking needs to be done now.

Melody Kemp (musi@magma.ca), Brisbane, Australia, 9 February 2001.

Aceh

('A different freedom', II no.64, October-December 2000)

Jacqueline Siapno's piece, and her thesis, are a good analysis. But she does not sufficiently consider the heterogeneity of Acehnese society, so it looks as if Aceh is all together on one side and the Indonesian government on the other and facing one another. Aceh is by nature heterogeneous. The links between Aceh and other parts of Indonesia have been intensive since the early twentieth century, through religious, economic and social networks. One reason why the 1953-62 Darul Islam rebellion failed was this heterogeneity. The same holds true of today's Free Aceh rebellion. I am planning to research Indonesian literature and social change in Aceh 1927-62, a period of modernisation and political upheaval. But it will take a long time, as I have no funds for this project.

Isa Sulaiman, Banda Aceh, 10 November 2000

Australia-Indonesia

('No longer so special', II no.63, July-Sept 2000)

Scott Burchill raises some crucial issues. The politicians, business interests and journalists that were part of the Indonesian lobby in Australia did use racial stereotyping. They wanted to appease Suharto and his cronies, and to make human rights activists think nothing could be done about the regime. Former foreign minister, Gareth Evans, put down those who criticised his Indonesia/ East Timor policy by saying they did not understand Indonesian culture. The argument was not only foolish, it was racist. At an international union meeting in Manila in 1990, two Indonesian delegates courageous enough to attend asked me why the Australian Hawke government did not do more to assist East Timor's struggle. 'Does your foreign minister think that all Indonesians are fascist? Because that is what we think the Suharto dictatorship is', they said.

I have to differ with Scott Burchill on one issue, however. I do not see the Howard government as being morally superior on the East Timor question to the Keating or Hawke governments, even though it did finally send peacekeepers there in 1999. His government kept the lid on the fact that the TNI was recruiting, arming, training and leading the militias in East Timor before the referendum, and did little about it until thousands had been slaughtered.

Andy Alcock (andyalcock@bigpond.com), Campaign for an Independent East Timor (South Australia) Inc, 17 January 2001