Is 'Domino Theory' relevant to present East Timor situation?
Is 'Domino Theory' relevant to present East Timor situation?
By Terry Russel
JAKARTA (JP): The Domino Theory is alive and well. The United
States used this theory to justify invasions of North Korea in
1950, Cuba in 1961, Vietnam in 1964, the Dominican Republic in
1965 and Grenada in 1983.
Now Indonesia's new political party, the Indonesia Democratic
Party of Struggle (PDI Struggle) is using it to justify
Indonesia's retention of East Timor.
While the American version fears the spread of communism, the
Indonesian version fears the spread of separatism. Under this
theory, East Timor must remain part of Indonesia in order to
prevent Aceh and Irian Jaya from also separating.
But is this fear of a domino effect reasonable? If Indonesia
and the international community accept the arguments for East
Timor's separation, can these same arguments be used by Acehnese
and Irianese separatists?
Part of this fear comes from questionable teachings about East
Timor's history. According to Soeharto-era history books, East
Timor before 1975 had a similar colonial experience to Aceh and
Irian Jaya.
After integration with Indonesia, a small portion of East
Timor's population sought independence and a few of these were
killed in the ensuing struggle, just as in Aceh and Irian Jaya.
If this is the truth and there are no important omissions, the
arguments for the three provinces' separation from Indonesia seem
similar. In the Habibie era, however, we can question the above
history.
The Portuguese had less control over the interior of their
colonies than did the Dutch. They had fewer land-owners,
administrators and garrisons in the interior. Portuguese colonies
like Macau, Sao Tome, Principe, Goa, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau
and East Timor were small because they were essentially trading
colonies. In contrast, the Dutch in South Africa and Indonesia
aimed at settlement and more direct control of local resources.
Thus, Dutch disruption of inland culture and political
structures in much of Indonesia was greater than Portuguese
disruption in East Timor.
Portuguese colonists intermarried far more freely with local
people than did Dutch colonists. The language and religion
Portugal brought to East Timor were different to that brought to
Aceh and Irian Jaya by the Dutch.
The decolonization of Aceh and other Indonesian provinces
after World War II gave them a sense of unity. They had
forcefully ejected the Dutch together. The East Timorese did not
share in that struggle. Nor did they share the experience of
forcefully ejecting their own colonizers, the Portuguese.
The Portuguese, unlike the Dutch, left voluntarily so East
Timorese never developed the same sense of enmity with their
colonizers as did the Acehnese. Instead, the East Timorese took
to fighting each other and to fighting Indonesians. Their
decolonization experience was different to Aceh's. It gave them
nothing in common with other Indonesian provinces.
The official history of post 1975 East Timor is also
questionable.
In February 1976, the Jakarta-appointed deputy governor of
East Timor, Francisco Lopez de Cruz, reported that the civil war
and ensuing integration struggle had already killed 60,000 East
Timorese, or 10 percent of East Timor's population.
By 1993, according to East Timorese governor Abilio Soares,
former Portuguese president Mario Soares, and an Australian
Government Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade,
this figure had risen to 200,000. This figure, which included
deaths from disease and famine caused by war, represented nearly
one third of all East Timorese!
In contrast, in Aceh or Irian Jaya, even the highest death
toll estimates remain under 15,000. Clearly East Timor
experienced a far higher level of suffering and of opposition to
Indonesian rule than did other Indonesian provinces.
Finally, let us turn to international law. Though Irian Jaya's
referendum to integrate with Indonesia was, like East Timor's,
conducted under dubious circumstances, only East Timor's
referendum was rejected as unfair by the United Nations. The UN
accepted Aceh and Irian Jaya as part of Indonesia but still
considers East Timor a Portuguese territory.
Indonesia needs slight revision of its history books so its
people have more information upon which to base their fears and
aspirations.
PDI Struggle supporters are right in fearing that East
Timorese independence will give encouragement to Irianese and
Acehnese separatists. East Timorese independence may not,
however, strengthen Irianese and Acehnese arguments for
independence.
The writer, an English instructor with B.A. (Hons) in world
history, has traveled to East Timor three times and taught in the
Catholic Seminary in Dili in 1997 and 1998,