Let the refugees in!
Dutch colonial rule left Indonesians of Chinese ancestry owning many of the shops, making them an easy scapegoat for the Indonesian military regime. When there is popular anger against the regime, it seeks to deflect that anger to a scapegoat.
The latest price increases inflicted on the Indonesian people by the IMF led to attacks on ethnically Chinese shopkeepers in some areas. Many Chinese Indonesians, in fear, have applied for migrant or refugee status in other countries.
Phillip Ruddock, the federal minister for immigration, says that fleeing civil unrest does not qualify someone for refugee status and that refugees must prove official persecution because of their race or nationality.
The government implements even this criteria selectively: 1300 East Timorese, clearly persecuted by the Indonesian government because of their nationality, are being denied refugee status.
Within hours of the nuclear test by India, the Australian government had cut all military ties with India, but it refuses to cut military ties with Indonesia, despite the well-documented massacres of the Suharto regime — hundreds of thousands killed in Suharto's coup in 1965, more than one third of the East Timorese population killed and the more recent killings of Indonesian demonstrators since the upsurge of protests in 1996.
The Australian government has trained the most repressive Â鶹´«Ã½ of the Indonesian military, notorious for their use of torture, and it has endorsed the actions of the Indonesian military in shooting protesters by continuing joint exercises during the crisis.
Australia remains the only government in the world to recognise the occupation of East Timor.
It is the height of hypocrisy that the Australian government has helped to cause the crisis in Indonesia, yet refuses to accept refugees who are fleeing that crisis.
While the majority of ordinary Australians sympathise with the struggles of the Indonesian people against the Suharto dictatorship, Australian business is busy plundering neighbouring countries — Papua New Guinea, West Papua, Bougainville, East Timor, Indonesia.
At least six Australian corporations are in direct business partnerships with Suharto family companies. Many more are in partnerships with Suharto cronies' companies, and the rest have been supportive of the repressive dictatorship for providing a stable environment conducive to worker exploitation.
Capitalist stability in Indonesia means that most Australian (and other) companies pay below the official minimum wage (the minimum wage itself is too low to live on) because independent trade unions are illegal.
Australian companies and the government have given full support to the IMF package, which is simply a method of extracting more out of the miserable wages and living conditions of the poorest people in Indonesia. There is no humanitarian aspect to the IMF package.
Australia is the robber baron of the Asia Pacific region, especially of Indonesia and the Indonesian-occupied territories.
Of course, Australia is no different from other imperialist countries. The United States and western European countries also plunder resources, foment wars and prop up repressive governments in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. They foment political and economic crises, forcing people to flee their homes, and then deny them safe refuge.
There is absolutely no justification for the Australian, or any other western government, putting up immigration barriers against refugees and poorer migrants when most people seeking refuge have been forced to leave their homes by the policies of western governments.