Well, good on the ABC for coming up with this, but it would have been better if had done something like this on Timor ten years ago, about events since 1975. Or would that have revealed some inconvenient truths about Australia, portrayed the Aussie government as less than honourable, and offended the Suharto regime in Indonesia? After all, Aussie journalists were killed by the Indonesians!
Hope it's shown in the UK, though, as there are many Timorese here.
It's a lot more helpfull for the East Timorise people to have their CURRENT story told than one that happened over 30 years ago.
You're right though, the old story should be made but it wont have a remote impact on peoples views of the Timor situation.
That's why Answered by Fire is so great. It's bringing the crisis to the attention of Australian's who overwise probably think East Timor is as pleasurable to be at as Bali.
Well, I don't think you can understand the present without understanding the past. The whole problem is that people dismiss it as just another "failed state" without knowing how it got there. Portugal has as much to answer for as Australia - it abandoned the place in 1975.
Having said that, people should have the opportunity to watch it. It's only been shown in three countries - Australia, Canada and Portugal. John Pilger's documentary 'Death of a Nation: The Timor Conspiracy' http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109580/ was sold to THIRTY countries. This is the international distributor - http://www.powcorp.com/ - but the Canadian co-producer http://www.muse.ca/ was much more helpful and sold me a DVD of it.
Well there was not much of it buttt the character Mark Waldman DID speak of the past politics and how Australians owe it to the Indonesians for abandoning them...or something like that. It was when they were celebrating the 90% registrations.
Like I said it is not much...but it is something and I was glad to hear it mentioned and admitted!