The Timor Man (3 page)

And all that gold they wore!

“
Sialan mereka semua!
” Seda muttered, cursing the whole race as he continued to gaze through the window. Perhaps he should not complain, he brooded. After all, he'd done reasonably well with his life so far, considering that he had been born and raised in a small village near Dili in East Timor. There, life had been excruciatingly hard. His father had died from one of the many fevers that plagued the rural dwellers.

Seda had difficulty remembering much about his father, only his strong, sharp facial features remained fixed in his mind. He had obviously inherited his father's nose, for when he moved to Jakarta as an adult and visited the whores around the
Blok M
graveyard, they often mistook him for a foreigner. He would never know whether these genes were the result of some careless Portuguese sailor or some Dutch seed sown lustfully generations before.

The Portuguese began trading with Timor almost a century prior to any serious attempts by the Dutch to develop a foothold on the island. The division of the island between these two seafaring nations ultimately resulted in the development of considerable religious and cultural differences between the Catholic northeast and the Protestant south.

Although both colonial powers in Timor concentrated their efforts on preventing each other from expanding their spheres of influence, some trade in produce did develop. Coffee became the main export from the two colonies.

Dutch Timor inevitably became part of Indonesia as a result of the Independence movement. It was officially absorbed into
Nusa Tenggara
province by the central government in Jakarta during subsequent provincial restructuring. Kupang remained the provincial capital. For a time, Catholics, Protestants, and a few Buddhists, Hindus and Moslems co-existed without any real racial or religious turmoil. Even the head-hunters put aside their old habits.

When his mother was obliged to migrate to another village across the border, she remarried. Seda became one of seven children in what was already an impoverished family. He slept on a
tikar
mat alongside his new brothers and sisters cramped together on a dirt floor in a one room house which provided only the barest protection from the elements. There were two small meals a day, taken sitting cross-legged on the roughly woven mat. Some days, when his stepfather was unable to find part time work to supplement his pitiful income, they went without food altogether.

He remembered that his mother often stood outside, alone, looking down the dry slopes towards the sea and across to where they had lived when his father had still been alive. Occasionally, he would slip quietly outside so that the other children would not follow and go to her, leaning against her frail body, his head tilted against her hip trying to understand just what she stood and stared at from under the old mango tree.

She would not talk during these private moments but he didn't mind as he always felt a sense of warmth as her calloused hands softly stroked his hair and the side of his face. He knew that she frequently missed meals, ensuring that the children were fed first. She was often sick and he wanted to cry out for someone to care, but he knew, even in his youth, that almost every hut in the dry desolate village housed another mother whose suffering was similar.

Poverty and hunger can be great motivators. When his mother had arranged for him to attend classes at the local Catholic school he grasped the opportunity and studied diligently. At first he experienced great difficulty as the other children were more advanced, having had the advantage of attending classes since turning seven.

Seda was nine before he could read. When he was twelve he had recovered all the lost time and was increasingly being singled out by the priests for his rapid progress in class. These hard working men of the cloth struggled to educate all of the children, regardless of their talents, but their efforts were often severely restricted by a government which favoured non-Christian institutions. During the heat of the day when the classes rested, the children would literally drop to the floor in the school and sleep for several hours, enjoying the cool of the tiled floor against their undernourished bodies.

Schools were inadequately equipped. The population was desperately poor. The Church provided a semblance of basic primary education to many however funds were limited as the government restricted the growth of non-Moslem faith educational institutions.

The priests were obliged to be extremely careful and selective when allocating positions in their school.

As a teenager Seda continued to study diligently. Excellent grades created the opportunity for the young student to attend the Armed Forces Academy in Java which resulted in his eventual escape from the provincial backwater. His mother had been delighted that her son had been selected for such a career opportunity. Now, his future would be secure. He would never again experience the hunger of his childhood.

Seda contemplated his humble origins. Although born in Portuguese Timor this was never reflected in any of his earlier school registration documents. Border crossings were frequent and registrations of village births on both sides of the border mainly went unrecorded. He remembered his mother and the tears of joy when his selection had been announced. Her tears were not just in appreciation for the blessing her god had passed to her son. She wept knowing that she would lose him. Once he had tasted the exotic life of the main island she knew he would never return.

 

Seda had never been convinced that the army had been the correct choice. In retrospect, he felt that perhaps he should have elected to fly with AURI, the country's Air force. Many of the pilots and technical officers had been sent to the Eastern Bloc countries for advanced training. This inevitably meant additional funds for clothes, travel and other expenses and a chance to travel away from the disorder that prevailed.

Indonesia
had entered its most dangerous period. Everything appeared to be confused. The country's leaders had all but embraced Communism yet this strange political ideology did not, in fact, accept religious belief! Bewildering enough for an uneducated Muslim population which followed the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed. The people had been instructed to follow the President's dictates. NASAKOM was the new political order — Nationalism, Socialism, Communism. The Russians had poured in billions of dollars in foreign aid to ensure that the Communist political agenda could be realised in this resource-rich archipelago.

Within a few short years, the country was equipped with tanks and every kind of sophisticated weaponry. Airfields boasted MIG15s, 17s and 19s. Indeed, Seda had read a report just the day before about the amazing Russian strategic bombers, designated TU-16's, which had the capacity to bomb every major city in the country to the south in just one sortie!

Seda found that there was so much to learn from the new military jargon. IL-28s had been positioned at the Malang and Surabaya airfields. SA-2 missiles were sitting on their launch sites ready for firing from their revetments. There was also talk that the Russians had built a submarine base in Cilacap, on the south coast of Java!

Seda had seen the new steel mill under construction in Cilegon.

All of this, he thought, and still not enough money to feed the hundreds of thousand of troops the country had mustered. Everyone was waiting anxiously for the leadership to prove how the new doctrines would prevent past major food shortages from recurring. Maybe the new ships provided by the Russian Navy would be utilised to bring rice from other nations?

Seda snorted in disgust. He was intelligent enough to realise that the Indonesian people now faced starvation due to the folly of political misadventures by the country's entrenched leadership, and that the days when the country exported rice were over. He did not trust the group headed by Subandrio. The President was too easily swayed by the Communists. Maybe
Bung Karno
, as he preferred to be called, was, in fact, becoming senile and did not realise the dangers of these people around him. The President had spent far too much of his valuable time chasing young women and, to the dismay of his first four wives, his latest acquisition, a Japanese hostess, was set to become the new First Lady!

Seda looked over his shoulder at the photographs and suddenly felt uneasy under the gaze of the powerful trio hanging there as if in silent rebuke. The President was still very popular although there had been several attempts on his life. The political scene created considerable concern amongst the army's generals. Senior naval and air force personnel had joined the Communist Party swelling its ranks under Dr Subandrio's leadership. Considering these problems, it was best not to involve oneself, the Colonel decided.

Rumour had it that the Communist Party would attempt to weaken the Army by convincing the President that only party loyalists should be promoted to senior positions in the services.

Their influence had reached into the schools and was evident on billboards and in the press. Seda recognised that the Communists were dangerous. They were dangerous to the nation and they were particularly dangerous to military personnel in positions such as his. Should the President permit their power to infiltrate defence control and policy determination centres, they would succeed in gaining control over the army.

The Timorese shuddered. All those years of study and obedience! These
bangsat
were no better than the blood-sucking Chinese leeches!

Unlike most in his peer group, Nathan Seda really did understand just how acute the problem had become between the Communists and the military in their power struggle during recent years. The President seemed to consider that competition between the two opposing groups was healthy. Seda thought inwardly that
Bung Karno
had lost touch with reality and with the very ideals which had originally brought the Republic together under the red and white flag.

Seda acknowledged that he had to utilise whatever connections he had developed here, at Defence Headquarters, to consolidate his position. He further understood that it was essential to identify himself with the current ABRI leaders who were anti-Communist to avoid possible suspicion of his allegiances. He was convinced that Indonesia's uneasy political climate could easily result in the Communist elements gaining control of the military which would be disastrous for officers of his rank. Being Timorese, he automatically attracted suspicion. Only a handful of non-Javanese would ever make it to the top and with a little skill and a great deal of luck he felt that time would reward him for his patience and loyalty. It was therefore imperative that he maintain his position in HANKAM, avoiding transfer to any other unit where his career could be buried forever, or worse...

The President had seen his war against the Federation of Malaysia as a means of diverting the nation's attention away from the economic and social nightmare created by corrupt and poorly educated leaders. Many of the hierarchy had little better than a primary education and were quite unable to cope with the problems posed by the failing economy. Indonesia's natural resources were mainly undeveloped as the western nations were reluctant to risk their capital in a country whose Communist Party boasted the third largest membership in the world.

The United States and British Commonwealth countries were alarmed when the Indonesian government readily accepted Russian armaments. The CIA often flew missions against the Indonesian forces from Clarke Field in the Philippines. One such mission failed and the American pilot, captured after being shot down, became the charismatic Indonesian President's personal pilot. The British, obliged to provide assistance to the fledgling members of the Commonwealth, prepared for major warfare. RAF Vulcan bombers, armed with atomic warheads, flew regular missions between Darwin and Singapore with their bomb bay doors open over Indonesia.

Australian soldiers served alongside their Malaysian counterparts in the jungles throughout this undeclared war. The Australian public knew little of what was happening as their government smothered almost all attempts by journalists to reveal the facts. Government ‘D' notices prevented the release of news which was deemed detrimental to the security of the nation.

Australian SAS troops often carried out cross-border raids into Indonesian-held Irian and Kalimantan, capturing select troops for interrogation purposes and then dispatching them without ceremony. The Royal Australian Navy, whilst on manoeuvres, passed through the Sunda Straits with all hands ready at their battle stations. The fear of Communist hordes swooping down through the archipelago into the land of the Southern Cross was real. Or at least it was made to appear so by the leading politicians of the time.

Poorly trained and suffering low morale, many Indonesian soldiers died fighting against superior and more professionally trained forces. Nevertheless, Dr Soekarno was adamant; the war would continue. And so it did, much to the dismay of both his military commanders and Indonesia's neighbours.

A posting to the ‘
Konfrontasi
'battalions was considered to be extremely dangerous as the unofficial lists of missing and dead were so unpalatable the figures were never released. A casual observer might be impressed by Indonesia's fine array of weaponry but to a skilled eye, the appalling lack of maintenance was obvious. Sophisticated aircraft and other defence equipment often remained on the ground or broken in warehouses due to the inability of the unskilled personnel to maintain the armaments. Spare parts were lost or misplaced. Although Indonesia had been heavily armed by the Russians, training programs were limited to a select few.