Foreign promises disrupting E. Timor stability
Foreign promises disrupting E. Timor stability
JAKARTA (JP): Foreign campaigns and idle promises from abroad are disrupting stability in East Timor and its integration with Indonesia, international relations expert Jusuf Wanandi said.
Relentless human rights campaigns abroad are not helping the situation in East Timor. In fact, they are hindering the peaceful development of the province, Jusuf said.
"The foreign campaigns are impeding the integration process into Indonesia," Jusuf told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
He explained that many irresponsible human rights campaigners are sowing discontent among East Timorese by promising something they cannot deliver.
Their behavior are stirring unrest and creating a highly explosive political climate in the territory.
Despite two decades of integration with Indonesia, the situation in East Timor remains volatile. The foreign campaigns have intensified in recent years, and the East Timor separatist cause is gaining more publicity in the international media.
Jusuf, the chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said East Timorese youths are being enticed with promises of independence which will never be fulfilled.
"This is ridiculous. They are being promised things which cannot be given by the campaigners abroad," he said.
As a result, he said, Timorese youths are growing impatient.
Even the complete integration of the Indonesian state as a whole took several decades, remarked Jusuf.
Separately, Indonesia's permanent representative to the United Nations, Nugroho Wisnumurti, said yesterday that a solution to the East Timor problem is contingent upon both domestic and foreign factors.
"A solution abroad is influenced by the efforts in East Timor. And progress in Timor itself will be achieved if there is movement in negotiations abroad," he told journalists yesterday after meeting with President Soeharto at Merdeka Palace.
"This is quite a dilemma," he added.
While several countries have recognized East Timor's integration with Indonesia, the United Nations still recognizes Lisbon as the administrative authority in East Timor. Under the aegis of the UN Secretary-General, the Indonesian and Portuguese foreign ministers have held talks to find an internationally acceptable solution to the situation in East Timor.
Nugroho stressed the need for more dialog between the government and the East Timorese people to counter the negative campaigns being waged from abroad. Realities in the territory, he said, need to be dealt with using a political and cultural approach.
Nugroho said the East Timorese should "know exactly the benefits of integration", and be allowed to express their grievances.
"If one of them has a critique or a complaint, don't immediately stamp them as an enemy," he said.
Disgruntled East Timorese youths have captured international headlines in the past six months by forcing their way into foreign embassies in Jakarta to demand political asylum.
Nugroho expressed his belief that talks will help the restless East Timorese understand. "Being idealistic, they are easy to influence by ideas and dreams which are often unrealistic," he said.
Apart from dialog, Nugroho emphasized the need to hear the grievances of the East Timorese.
"We have to really listen to them...This is part of our sensitivity towards the East Timorese people," he said, adding that stability will never be achieved otherwise.
"And without stability, an international solution to the problem will never be found," said Nugroho. (mds)