Megawati Proposes Indonesia-Timor Leste Cooperation Involving BRIN and BPIP

Former Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri has proposed strengthening relations between Indonesia and Timor Leste through cooperation involving the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) and the Pancasila Ideology Development Agency (BPIP). During a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao in Dili, Megawati outlined three concrete frameworks for cooperation to fortify the future relationship between the two nations. The first proposal involves maritime and climate change cooperation through BRIN. Megawati noted that as fellow archipelagic nations, Indonesia and Timor Leste face shared threats from climate change, including the El Niño phenomenon and drought risks. She has tasked an expert to develop anticipatory measures. The second framework focuses on institutional cooperation between political parties. Megawati stated that the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) is open to sharing its experience in party institutionalisation and cadre development with political parties in Timor Leste, particularly Xanana’s National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT). She highlighted PDI-P’s systematic track record, including ISO certification and its party school, as a model to boost the creativity and leadership initiatives of young people and female cadres in parliament. The formal atmosphere lightened when Megawati joked with Xanana about their shared history as independence activists familiar with prison. Reflecting their personal closeness, they agreed to reject formal titles, addressing each other as ‘Maun Xanana’ (Brother Xanana) and ‘Mega’. Megawati even asked the young Timorese attendees to call her ‘Mama’. She quipped that while Xanana often called prison a ‘closed university’, her father, Bung Karno, spent a total of 22 years imprisoned and was exiled three times, compared to Xanana’s seven years in Cipinang prison. Megawati stressed the importance of conviction, stating that without it, a person could become a traitor for material gain, and urged everyone to make their life’s journey meaningful. She also motivated women to never back down in debates or strategic spaces at the heart of democracy. Concluding her speech, Megawati encouraged Timor Leste not to feel small on the geopolitical map and proposed that the spirit of the Bandung Conference be formalised as a mechanism when Timor Leste assumes the ASEAN Chairmanship in 2029. Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao recalled Megawati’s crucial presence at Timor Leste’s independence restoration ceremony on 20 May 2002, stating that her attendance before thousands of Timorese and world leaders like Kofi Annan and Bill Clinton transformed the moment into one of extraordinary reconciliation. He asserted that her decision sent a powerful message to the world that former opposing parties could choose a path of peace and dignity, and that today Timor Leste has no closer friend than Indonesia. Xanana also paid high tribute to Megawati’s father, Bung Karno, as a global leader who successfully mobilised Asian and African solidarity against colonialism to uphold human dignity.