IN 1979, Anita Ward's disco hit "Ring My Bell" had my pubescent hips swaying. Also in full swing were the anti-regime protests in Iran which brought down the US-backed dictatorship of the Shah of Iran. I remember the news vividly and while some of my Form One schoolmates and I were interested in what was happening, we really didn't have the capacity to understand its complexity, never mind have a position on the conflict.
The next year, I had moved to Singapore and when the Falklands War broke out in 1982, I found myself taking a position on what I insisted on calling the Malvinas War, following a pro-Argentinian position. I sparred with classmates who cared to take a position - most were indifferent though, occupied by either thoughts of girls, sports or study. Needless to say, I had little understanding about Argentina and the military junta that ruled it at that time.
What was clear was that as a teen, I was beginning to develop an adult appetite in foreign affairs.
And the newspapers and radio (no Internet then) kept me on a daily diet of human drama staged across the world: from Apartheid South Africa, to Arthur Scargill and the British miners strike, the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines, the US-backed Contra War against Nicaragua's revolutionary Sandinista government, Poland's Solidarity trade union revolt against the ruling Communist Party, to name just a few.
Through my interest in foreign affairs, I could develop ideological and intellectual positions and, more importantly, participate in the passions too far away to ever savour first hand. Taking a position meant I could fix my emotional investments as I viewed these conflicts as struggles between the good guys and bad guys.
And I think in many ways the world of adults, that I am firmly entrenched in now, and its media, continue to frame foreign affairs as morality play to encourage us to take sides as well as learn salutary lessons about life.
While waiting for my A-level results, I first read about the politics of Timur Timor, then the 27th province of the Republic of Indonesia, but now the independent Democratic Republic of Timor Leste.
The book, "The war against East Timor" written by British-born Carmel Budiarjo and Indonesian Liem Soei Liong, had a profound effect on me. How was it possible that such a major event - an invasion no less, with casualties estimated at 300,000 dead - had passed unnoticed?
Of course it had happened in 1975 when I hadn't yet graduated from Sesame Street (I remain a loyal alumni). But it was more than that. The media - from the US to our local press - were complicit in suppressing the story of East Timor. For decades, the issue was kept alive by a small band of solidarity activists.
I followed the issue intermittently until my re-entry into Malaysian life in the mid-1990s. Working for a men's lifestyle magazine, I embarked on telling the story of a young conscientious Malaysian, Kamal Bamadhaj, who was shot dead in the 1991 Dili Massacre (otherwise known as the Santa Cruz massacre after the graveyard where protesting Timorese students found shelter but were later murdered by Indonesian troops). In 1995,
I interviewed Kamal's mother and sister. It spurred me on to become more fully involved in East Timor solidarity work.
East Timor's independence, beginning with a vote in 1999, was an unexpected vindication of decades of solidarity work carried out against overwhelming odds. The territory's eventual liberation was of course the consequence of larger geo-political forces as well as the simple fact that the territory's integration into the Republic of Indonesia was never formally recognised by the United Nations.
There are many global conflicts that grab our attention. Some like the Palestinian cause have broad bi-partisan support. Others, like the Sri Lanka conflict, are less broad-based but whose supporters are much more visible and therefore, in the media. Conflicts like that in Southern Thailand, which must resonate strongly with Malaysians in the border states, get even less coverage in the mainstream press.
Our open borders, of course, have consequences in this regard too. The bloody crackdown in Yangon late 2007 was followed by solidarity protests by thousands of migrant Burmese in Kuala Lumpur. And now we see the expression of concern of the hundreds of resident Iranians following protests in Tehran. Unfortunately, the 700 or so Iranian students who demonstrated peacefully in front of the UN building were tear-gassed, making our streets a miniature of the streets of Tehran.
For them, it is not a matter of "foreign affairs". And if they were passionate, who can blame them? I only wish that they, like us who take positions on foreign affairs, are given space to express themselves.
● Sharaad Kuttan has been arrested twice. First at the 2nd Asia-Pacific Conference on East Timor and then for picketing against Asean Foreign Ministers for their position on Myanmar. He was not charged.
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