Australia feeling internal and external pressure for joining US’s ‘war against terror’

By a correspondent in Melbourne

Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad could not help but launch another stinging criticism of western hegemony when Australia publicly announced its intention to launch ‘pre-emptive’ actions against countries in southeast Asia to avert ‘terrorist’ activities.

"If they intrude into our country, we will take action according to our own laws to protect our sovereignty and independence. If these people use unmanned aircraft or helicopters and missiles to carry out assassinations against certain targets in our country, we will deem this as an act of war," said Mahathir in response to Australian premier John Howard’s suggestion that international laws and the UN charter be amended to enable nations to strike pre-emptively against ‘terrorists’ who plan to attack them.

Howard had also said that he was prepared to act against ‘terrorists’ in neighbouring Asian countries. He was obviously referring to Indonesia, whose government the US and allies have accused of "not doing enough" against Muslim civil groups, which are freely branded ‘terrorist organisations’.

Howard’s remarks caused immediate outrage among governments across the region. Mahathir is the only ruler in the region who is expressing his anger in public. He has resurrected his west-bashing image after briefly getting back into the west’s good books after September 2001. Saying that Howard was ‘arrogant’, Mahathir again condemned Australia as an alien country in an Asian environment.

"It [Howard’s stand] is arrogant. In the midst of so many Asian countries, Australia sticks out like a sore thumb. This country is trying to impose its European values on Asia, as if these are still the good old days where people can shoot at aborigines without caring about human rights while at the same time, talking about it [rights]. For them, anything goes, including assassinations."

Australia’s suggestion was immediately followed by a statement of support from the US. It is an open secret that since the Bali attacks, in which scores of Australian tourists were killed, Australia has finally found itself able to launch its typically offensive remarks with US backing. The US’s support is a foregone conclusion. A few weeks ago, after launching its own assassination operation, which killed six civilians in Yemen, Washington declared the operation "legal and necessary" and said that it would be emulated in Southeast Asia. "We will use whatever is necessary and legal to attack this threat, to interdict it and eliminate it," said Francis Taylor, US state department coordinator, in Manila on November 9.

Tensions among southeast Asian nations, including Australia, show that the US’s allies in the current "war against terror" are divided. Some are reluctant allies, forced to join Washington’s campaign either to get an opportunity to move on local opposition or to avoid being attacked as Afghanistan was, such as Malaysia and Indonesia. The rest are those governments that have appointed themselves ‘deputy sheriffs’ to the US, and who find it in their interests to serve the US, such as Australia, Singapore and (to a lesser extent) the Philippines.

Meanwhile, Howard has also been coming under pressure at home from Australians who criticise him for linking Australia so closely to the US at a time when most of its regional neighbours are concerned about US power and hegemony. The most vocal representative of this trend of thought is Brian Deegan, whose son was killed in the Bali bombing.

Deegan is demanding an acknowledgement from the Australian government that one of the reasons that his son is now dead is that Australia has become closely associated with the US as a major Western power in the region. He is also demanding that Australia distance itself from the US and its "war on terror".

The "war on terror" has brought strange bedfellows together. It remains to be seen how long the current cooperation will last. Already Malaysia has said that it will have to rethink its cooperation with Canberra. Last August the two countries signed an anti-terrorism agreement that provides for increased sharing of intelligence. Many pacts and ‘intelligence-sharing’ agreements will be signed among governments in the region, all to placate Washington so that it refrains from Yemen-style interventions. Because Washington is finding its more reluctant allies troublesome, countries like Malaysia and Indonesia are finding that their hard work, such as clamping down on Muslim ‘militants’, is not well appreciated. Soon Washington will have to rely more on its Caucasian allies from "down under".