Comments on: Howard and Kelly rewrite history on East Timor

By: John Roberts

John Roberts — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:51:32 +0000

Once a lying rat, always a lying rat. Thanks Damien. Howard never had another other intention but to remain uninvolved…until public opinion rose….and he’d have known all along what was starting to mount….if he didn’t, he should have. He did, and he chose to be a Weapon of Mass Avoidance. Look at how many people were slaughtered because of his avoidance. I know, I saw, I was in a uniform there.

By: Fernando de Freitas

Fernando de Freitas — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 11:16:33 +0000

Thank God for your article Damien. That front page nonesense on The Australian absolutely turned my stomach … me thinks perhaps it’s time Mr Kelly learn from Howard’s failure to choose his own departure ? What extraodinary fiction. They say winners write history, so let the East Timorese document what they really think of our successive governments’ complicit role in those long brutal 24 years. And Howard and Downer’s absolute failure during their many prior years in parliament to so much as utter a word in support of East Timorese aspirations.

My recollection of that period (1998-99) is that they limped to line most reluctantly, kicking and screaming, only after events changed on the Indonesian side and only as a result of overwhelming public outcry by fair-minded Australians.

As Damien accurately states, the populist Howard government had no option in the end and then moved strategically to capitalise and transform the event into a major coup for his government. And now, 10 years on we have this disgraceful attempt to completely rewrite history.

The only truth I know from this whole sordid affair - including Downer’s bullying and grubby attempts to steal the devastated third world country’s oil & gas reserves - is that the events of a decade ago were a victory for the East Timorese people, and a victory for the descency of Australians. It was a truly proud moment, cathartic, and I’m glad I lived to see it. Long live the Timorese people! And long live that better side of our character, the qualities that make this country truly great!

By: AR

AR — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 09:37:39 +0000

As usual with the Rodent & Bunter, the only question is whether they were core, or non-core, lies.

By: Hist

Hist — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 08:39:48 +0000

Good work Damien. The puff piece is stenography masquerading as journalism. Heavy reliance on their current claims, no reliance on leaked materials showing what the actual position was, and avoidance of pretty much every other issue such as the suicide of Merv Jenkins (Kelly’s account can’t explain it), the Roth-Calvert meeting (ditto), Labor’s policy change (same), etc. I might read the book and its footnotes in order to see what proportion of them are based on the protagonists’ own claims.

Here’s my take on the road to InterFET:

http://www.securitychallenges.org.au/ArticlePages/vol4no3Fernandes.html

By: bakerboy

bakerboy — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 07:57:58 +0000

Kinsbury is probably right. Howard would have known exactly what the Indons were planning. Our Defence Signals Directorate had and has the capability to intercept nearly every telephone call, email and telex message sent across Indonesia, so the Australian governemnt would have been fully aware of the true situation. Howard and Downer panicked at the last moment when their duplicitous actions came undone and they decided to intervene militarily. The ADF were quite unprepared (not their fault) and it was a close run thing. If the TNI had decided to resist our occupation, it would have been quite bloody. Alex

By: Colin Jones

Colin Jones — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 04:43:54 +0000

Having read this article I can only empathise with the West Papuans who have a snowflake in hell’s chance of ever getting their country back from the illegal occupiers. With perfidious Australia involved and it’s craven attitude towards Indonesia they can only despair of ever having independence.

By: John Newton

John Newton — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 04:25:23 +0000

You would have thought that if Fearless Leader Howard and Great Diplomat Downer had been the architects of East Timor’s independence they would have been invited for the 10th Anniversary celebrations. Quite pointedly, they were not

By: Durutticolumn

Durutticolumn — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 03:57:29 +0000

Tks Damien this has been getting up my nose since Saturday. It is arrant nonsense. Someone elsewhere reminded me of The Bulletin cover “Howard blood on his hands” and the fact that the after the Bulletin ran the story about how much the Government knew abt the Militias activities, the AFP raided the journo’s house to find the leaker. LaurieBrereton also led the charge in Fed Parliament about Howard and Downer’s activities.
It was unforgiveable sending those coppers in unarmed as monitors and the people in the UN compound in Dili would have been massacred if Australian public hadn’t forced Howard to act. And let’s not forget the activities of Downer after the Intefret intervention of trying to steal the oil away from the fledgling nation.

By: gopster

gopster — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 03:54:35 +0000

Obviously a rushed article by Kingsbury- the grammar is quite poor and the typos innumerable. What a pity! If this is indicative of Kingsbury’s other works then I might pass thanks!

By: Peter White

Peter White — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 03:32:07 +0000

Look forward to Paul Kelly’s reply