East Timor already has greater autonomy: Alatas

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas rebuffed calls for greater autonomy for East Timor yesterday, saying Indonesia's youngest province is already enjoying more privileges than others.

"East Timor has autonomy in the substantive sense of the word and yet some people are pursuing the non-essential, such as the status of special territory", he told the House of Representatives (DPR) Commission I overseeing foreign affairs.

Alatas said the kind of autonomy that the Indonesian government offers is the delegation of greater authority to regencies as required by the 1974 law on regional autonomy.

Allowing autonomy to East Timor, the government has divided the small province into 13 regencies, whose development is handled directly by Jakarta, he said.

The matter of greater autonomy for East Timor came into the limelight when East Timor Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo issued a pastoral letter in July, in which he said that "autonomy" may help solve the various problems pressing the provinces.

Alatas recalled the time when Jakarta flatly rejected a proposal made by Fretilin leader in exile, Ramos Horta, who demanded autonomy and a referendum to pave the way for his dream of establishing a separate East Timor state.

"In Ramos' scenario, autonomy is only an intermediate target," Alatas said. "The debate (on the autonomy) can go on so long as people use the law and constitution as their frame of reference."

Alatas also cast doubt over the originality of a letter reported to have been smuggled out of a prison cell in Jakarta by imprisoned Fretilin leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao.

"It's possible that the letter was written by his accomplice like Ramos Horta. Xanana remains silent about it to make people believe he is smart," he said.

Widely quoted in the Portuguese media, Xanana is said to have alleged in the letter that human rights abuse was still rife in East Timor and that he would not repent for what he had done to seek an independent East Timor.

Alatas stressed that, as in any other country, prisoners in Indonesia are banned from engaging in political activities from their cells. Only correspondence with relatives is allowed, he added.

Diplomats

During the hearing yesterday, several House members also voiced concern over Indonesian diplomats' poor mastery of international economic issues as reported in the mass media.

One member said the lack of knowledge makes Indonesian diplomats perform poorly in international economic negotiations.

Alatas conceded that the general knowledge of Indonesian diplomats needs improving.

He added, however, that it would be unfair to generalize that all Indonesian diplomats posted overseas have poor knowledge of economic issues.

Criticism of Indonesian diplomats' poor knowledge of economic issues was recently launched by Juwono Sudarsono, a political scientist from the University of Indonesia.

Alatas said that closer international relations required diplomats to have sound general knowledge because they are supposed to lead delegations in international conferences. (pan)