JOHN Howard’s political opponents criticized him as an insular anglophile, uninterested in Asia and indifferent to the rights of oppressed people. It was always inaccurate, demonstrated by Paul Kelly’s analysis of the creation of East Timor in this issue of The Weekend Australian. Kelly’s evidence shows Mr Howard to be unique among Australian prime ministers in that he was a founding father of a foreign country. Certainly, the Chifley Labor government supported Indonesian independence from the Dutch after World War II, but it was Mr Howard’s support for East Timor that was largely responsible for convincing the Indonesians to accept its then province’s secession. In the 10th anniversary year of a sovereign East Timor, this is the great achievement of independent Australian diplomacy, surpassing our role in the Cambodian peace process and in establishing stability in the Solomon Islands.

It was Mr Howard’s aggressive diplomacy that convinced Indonesian President B.J. Habibie that it was not possible to ignore the desire of most East Timorese for independence. It was Mr Howard’s willingness to deploy Australian troops to stare down Indonesian-backed militias that ensured the independence referendum was not overturned. That he accepted the risk of Australian soldiers exchanging fire with the Indonesian army ensured the UN took the crisis seriously. And thanks to Mr Howard’s determination, the Clinton administration, admittedly after a slow start, advised Jakarta that it would back Australia. For a prime minister who had entered office just three years earlier with little experience of foreign affairs it was an audacious strategy.

Perhaps the most significant aspect of the Howard government’s involvement with East Timor was the way it ended the policy of appeasing Indonesia. Ever since Indonesian troops occupied East Timor in 1975, governments of both political persuasions had avoided offending Jakarta. It was an article of faith in the foreign affairs establishment then that our national interest depended on a stable Indonesia that did not feel threatened by Australia. And prime ministers from Gough Whitlam on had accordingly ignored human rights abuses by Indonesia’s colonial officials and their supporters in East Timor. But while the case for a strong relationship with Indonesia was, and remains, overwhelming, the best friendships are frank. By 1999, the case for East Timorese independence was so strong that Mr Howard knew he could not stay silent, whatever officials wanted. He did what needed to be done without harming our national interest. THE AUSTRALIAN.