East Timor dilemma
East Timor dilemma
When East Timor was "annexed" by Indonesian "volunteers" in
1975 hand in hand with the Fretilin-defeated UDT, I believe most
Indonesians at that time agreed to such a move. We have to
remember the situation when the Cold War was still going on, and
nobody would ever have wanted East Timor to become "Cuba" for
Indonesia, neither would the USA nor Australia. Portugal was at
that time so immoral and irresponsible by leaving East Timor as
such without any effort at preparing the people to establish
their own entity.
History might have been different had it not been the
communist-leaning Fretilin who had won the war. Indonesia, I
believe, would not have invaded East Timor if the United States
and Australia were not supportive of such an "annexation". It is
true that Fretilin was able to carry out a full-scale guerrilla
war against Indonesia for over three years, but it does not
necessarily mean that the majority of the East Timor people
agreed with Fretilin. The harsh and inhuman treatment of East
Timor by the tyrannical Soeharto regime might be to blame for the
unsupportive attitude of the East Timor people.
Despite many hundreds of billions of rupiah poured into East
Timor since 1975, it has not won the hearts of all the East
Timorese if only because there were so many abuses of human
rights by the decades-long and corrupt Soeharto regime. Those
choosing to integrate with Indonesia seem to have remained loyal,
but I do not have any notion of a percentage.
There are of course many who want to liberate their country
and establish an independent East Timor but how many they are
nobody knows. I also believe that there are many who do not care
about integrating with Indonesia or being independent, as long as
they can live prosperously and securely.
Terry Russel should have taken this situation in mind when
commenting on President Habibie's view on East Timor. In the
international forum Indonesia has always been blamed for the vast
human right abuses, and Portugal has acted as if it had not made
fatal mistakes.
H.W. PIENANDORO
Bogor, West Java