October 21, 2014: The end of an investigation, the death of Gough Whitlam and the closing of an historic chapter

On this day, October 21, 2014, two different events occurred with eerie relevance to one another. Today, the Australian Federal Police have ended their investigation into the deaths of the ‘Balibo 5’ and Roger East. Today, Gough Whitlam passed away at the age of 98. Although these two happenings are not directly related, together they evoke memories of a shameful era in Australian history.

They speak of a time in which tiny East Timor, attempting to secure independence from the Portuguese Empire, seemingly had to struggle against the entire world to decide its own future.

In September 1974, Gough Whitlam travelled to Jakarta to meet with Indonesian President Suharto, a leader with an astoundingly violent past. During his stay, Whitlam secretly expressed his desire that Portuguese Timor should become Indonesia’s 27^th province, preferably through an act of self-determination, but ultimately regardless of whether the Timorese want it or not.

A year after Whitlam’s visit, the 16^th of October 1975, 5 journalists employed by Australian news agencies were murdered by rampaging Indonesian troops in the small Timorese town of Balibo. Greg Shackleton, Tony Stewart, Gary Cunningham, Brian Peters and Malcolm Rennie have become infamously known as the ‘Balibo 5’.

Since then, Australia has struggled over coming to terms with the truth. Were the 5 journalists killed in mortar cross-fire as the Indonesians claim? Or were they individually and purposefully gunned down because they were Australian Journalists, as evidence suggests?

Two months later, Whitlam’s private message to Suharto that Portuguese Timor should become part of Indonesia was echoed by the Governments of the United Kingdom and the USA, with US President Henry Ford’s visit to Jakarta in early December, 1975. This visit was described by a US state department official as ‘the big wink’.

This western-sanctioned invasion landed in Timor's capital city, Dili, only 24 hours after President Ford had left Indonesia. During the initial wave of violence, Australian Journalist Roger East was publicly executed with scores of Timorese locals on a city wharf. He was in the country to investigate the deaths of the Balibo 5.

The invasion and subsequent occupation of Portuguese Timor by the Indonesians is undoubtedly one of the most violent of the modern era. It is difficult to come to a reliable figure, but approximately 200,000 people, or one third of the Timorese population were killed as a result.

This period of mass-murder was comparable to the Khmer Rouge’s Cambodia in relative terms, but  fell entirely on deaf ears. The people of Timor were left to suffer alone, as Whitlam’s foreign policy of indifference and covert co-operation continued under Malcolm Fraser.

Although our tumultuous relationship with Timor quietly continues as the Timor-Leste v Australia case plays out in the ICJ over the legality of maritime borders and oil deals, it seems inevitable that the remaining chapters of Australia’s saga in Timor will continue to close with the same secrecy by which they were opened.

Scroll through as many articles about Whitlam’s death as you like, many provide a detailed timeline of his life, but very few will mention the role that he played in the Australian betrayal of East Timor. It can be described as nothing other than a haunting coincidence that his death fell on the day in which the investigation into the Balibo 5 was closed without a conclusion.

Whitlam should be remembered fondly for his progressive social policies, but our failure to recognise his, and our collective role in the generation-long destruction of East Timor besmirches the nostalgia.