All Alatas' work for nothing?
All Alatas' work for nothing?
From Merdeka
Foreign Minister Ali Alatas has borne the hopes of many people. He is a seasoned diplomat who can be quite impressive at high-level international discussions. He is a sophisticated lobbyist, an expert negotiator, an astute debater and is firm with foreign journalists interviewing him. In handling the East Timor issue, Ali Alatas had the support of a whole array of his counterpart foreign diplomats.
A thousand pities that reality has not replied in kind to such good odds. On the subject of East Timor, Ramos-Horta has given a beating to our foreign minister numerous times. The contest between the two has been like a tennis match. Ramos-Horta displays a rich variety of strokes and his smashes are lethal, leaving Alatas gaping in surprise at the always innovative tricks of his opponent.
Remember the maneuvers surrounding the MV Lusitania, the incident of East Timorese students jumping the gate of the British Embassy in Jakarta at the time of the nonaligned nations summit conference, and the discussions on East Timor in Manila and Kuala Lumpur. Ramos-Horta's superiority culminated in his winning of the Nobel Peace prize with Bishop Belo. Ramos-Horta's maneuvers have succeeded in forming the world opinion that Indonesia is a colonialist and an aggressor.
Actually East Timor was nearly in Indonesia's hands. Pope John Paul had removed the East Timor problem from his speech agenda, big countries and friendly countries were on Indonesia's side, and the abolishment of the East Timor issue from the UN agenda was just a matter of time. However, due to our own stupidity, Indonesia now wants to abandon the province. It has caused Portugal to laugh and rejoice immensely. Perhaps Portugal does not intend to return as the colonial power, but Indonesia's withdrawal is a moral victory of extraordinary importance for the country.
Indonesia actually has many possibilities to win the debate, for example, the historical fact that the island of Timor was formerly one kingdom. By the indication of West Timor, Indonesia can remind the world that East Timor is only part of an island with its western part belonging to Indonesia. However, Indonesian diplomats never brought up the question of east and west. Now look at the debating stance. The term "integration" should not have been used because it has the connotation of annexation. Should not we have used the term "re-unification"?
If during the New Order regime the government had allocated one ministerial seat in the cabinet to an East Timorese, just one, maybe the East Timor people would have felt they participated in ruling Indonesia and would not have seen Jakarta as a colonist.
Looking at our own shortcomings, we feel it is not surprising that the East Timor problem has finally ended like it has now. It is a case of futile sacrifice. The foreign ministry is checkmated. Portugal is laughing while Indonesia's image has plunged new depths.
SETIAWAN SALMIN
Jakarta