 Book
Reviews
with Robin Osborne
Troubled Waters
By Ruth Balint
Allen & Unwin $29.99
A Certain Maritime Incident
By Tony Kevin
Scribe $32.95
 The
waters between Australia and its northern neighbours, Indonesia and East Timor,
are indeed troubled, as the title of the first book notes, and at no time have
they seen such attention as in the past decade when they have hosted a high profile
clash between surveillance authorities and the 'people smugglers' and illegal
fisherman of the nearby islands.
Both of these timely and excellent books have won awards. The Australian/Vogel
Literary Award in the case of the former, which began with a documentary for SBS
television and moved through a PhD to become this study of 'Borders, boundaries
and possession in the Timor Sea', and in the latter's, the 2005 NSW Premier's
Literary Award.
Balint is a lecturer at the University of NSW with a soft spot for Indonesia's
traditional fishermen, while Kevin is a former Australian diplomat who has burnt
all his bridges in penning this damning account of the sinking of the Australia-bound
SIEV (Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel) X (the tenth of the vessels so classified)
on October 19, 2001.
The calamity saw the loss of 353 souls, the majority of them children. Their
loss, Kevin insists, was the Coalition Government's gain.
'John Howard's war against boat people was well planned, timed and executed.
Its primary domestic political purpose was to win back one million One Nation
voters, who saw strong border protection as a test of national leadership.'
The accusation is that despite Australia's effective operation in Java to disrupt
the smuggling trade, the boat was allowed to depart with its excessive cargo and
Canberra did nothing to assist when it became known that a disaster was inevitable.
While Ruth Balint also gnaws on the people smuggling bone, examining the controversial
case of the Tampa, which two months earlier had rescued an even larger number
of Australia-bound asylum seekers, the real strength of her study lies with the
people of the exceedingly poor, south-eastern island of Roti who have long viewed
our northern waters as their southern food-bowl.
Balint has done a fine job in conveying their views and explaining their customs,
notably the local boat building and seafaring practices, and showing why they
need to spend months at sea in flimsy boats, exposed dangerously to the elements,
for such little financial gain.
It's a sad tale, with plenty to anger the reader, not least the fact that,
'The story of the small boat fishermen of eastern Indonesia is still being played
out in Australian waters, courts and prisons. History has a special bias against
the present.'
- Books available at Book Warehouse, Keen Street, Lismore
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