Portugal broke with East Timor 20 years go

Portugal broke with East Timor 20 years go

By Dino Patti Djalal

LONDON (JP): Twenty years ago, on Aug. 27, 1975, the most
significant historical event in East Timor occurred completely
unnoticed. On that fateful night, the Portuguese governor in East
Timor shipped his entourage, the whole governing and military
elite of Portugal in East Timor, to Atauro island in the middle
of the night. Centuries of Portuguese role ended without the East
Timorese knowing it. There was no public announcement, no
contingency plan, no prior warning, no statement of apologies, no
promise of a return.

Today, Portugal's 1975 departure is a historical fact that
Portuguese politicians prefer to skip in their speeches on East
Timor, while other media tend to mention the event as a mere
footnote.

Far from it, Governor Pirez' disappearing act helped trigger a
full-blown civil war in a scale and ferocity never before seen in
the half-island's history. The situation was very much like a
captain abandoning a sinking ship and telling the frantic
passengers that they are on their own and to do as they please
with the ship. Had the Portuguese stayed put and managed to
impose order, the civil war among the Timorese factions would
have been averted, and the Portuguese could have ensured that its
decolonization plan -- whatever the result -- would be executed
to completion.

There was actually a brief flicker of hope in September 1975
when Portuguese Minister Almeida Santos visited Indonesia. As
Foreign Minister Ali Alatas recalled, Indonesia "practically
begged the Portuguese to return to East Timor to restore order
and complete an orderly decolonization".

It turned out that Santos was only interested in evacuating
Portuguese nationals from East Timor and in seeking the release
of Portuguese soldiers then held by the UDT (Timor Democratic
Union, established 1974) forces. The Portuguese envoy was not
interested in the plight of 50,000 Timorese refugees who had fled
the civil war to the Indonesian border, nor did he show any
intention to end the fighting in East Timor and help them find a
democratic political solution.

There was also an idea of forming a joint authority to manage
regional peace-keeping forces consisting of troops from
Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia and Portugal -- an idea keenly
supported by Indonesia -- but it fell on deaf ears in Lisbon,
then too busy with domestic political turmoil to pay serious
attention to East Timor on the other side of the globe. If only
the Portuguese had given just half the attention it now showers
on the East Timor issue.

The political status of East Timor today remains the main bone
of contention between Indonesia and Portugal; and the area, now
Indonesia's 27th province, is still on the UN's list of "non-self
governing territories". It will likely remain on that list until
the current negotiations between Indonesia and Portugal under the
auspices of the UN Secretary-General succeed in finding a "just,
comprehensive and internationally acceptable political solution"
to the East Timor question.

The crucial legal-diplomatic question is this: Can Portugal
retain its authority over East Timor after it abandoned the area?

The answer is: No.

To begin with, Portugal's departure was a purely voluntary
act. It was forced neither by an outside power nor by internal
forces. When Portuguese Governor Lemos Pirez left the shores of
Dili, he not only shipped away for good the colonial government
but also Portugal's and nor did he ever promise to return. There
is nothing in international law which stipulates that a foreign
power departing from a colony on its own retains continued rights
over the area it left behind.

Portugal's claim would probably make sense had the power
vacuum it created remained. However, the fact is that various
authorities have instituted themselves in East Timor since
Governor Pirez left: the pro-independence Fretilins, the pro-
integration coalition of the Provisional Government of East
Timor, and, since integration, the Provincial Government of East
Timor under Indonesia's sovereignty. Portugal recognizes none of
the succeeding authorities and vice versa. Formal recognition
from a preceding power is not a prerequisite to determine the
legality of succeeding political entities. Most countries in the
region where East Timor belongs have recognized Indonesia's
sovereignty over East Timor and many more outside the region.

It is also significant that Portugal's claim as the
administering power of East Timor has not been matched by
indigenous blessing. The notion that Portugal can desert East
Timor at will and reclaim its authority at its own convenience is
a concept which does not sit well with the East Timorese.

Earlier this year, the regional parliament of East Timor
issued a declaration rejecting "Portugal's pretense to claim
itself as the administering authority of East Timor" and "reject
Portugal to represent the people of East Timor" in the
International Court of Justice hearings on the Timor Gap case.

The regional parliamentarians are elected in free and fair
elections by over 400,000 East Timorese voters based on universal
suffrage. The East Timorese who voted in the elections did so as
Indonesian, not Portuguese, citizens. Surely a declaration issued
in East Timor by parliamentarians chosen by the East Timorese has
much more political currency than a clause on East Timor in
Portugal's constitution written by Portuguese parliamentarians
which the East Timorese did not elect.

Twenty years after having left East Timor, it is time for
Portugal to do a reality check. Many Portuguese politicians
believe that changing Indonesia's stance on East Timor is simply
a matter of pressure.

This notion is part illusion, part wishful thinking and part
poor judgment. It does not require an expert in Indonesian
politics to grasp that no imaginable circumstances exist under
which Jakarta would have second thoughts about the political
status of East Timor. One senior Indonesian diplomat summed it up
for me: "We don't even think of thinking about it".

Portugal's biggest task is to realize that apart from the
political theatrics and sensationalism of the telegenic
separatists, the large numbers of East Timorese who support
integration do have an incredible human story to tell, if
Portugal would only listen. Portugal must realize that so long as
it remains exclusively linked to the agenda of the East Timorese
separatists (such as the Ramos Horta group), its policies on East
Timor will, as they have always been, forever be divisive to the
East Timorese.

Being pro-Horta and pro-East Timor are definitely not the
same. If Portugal really wishes to absolve itself of its
ignominious past and guilty conscience, they could start by no
longer encouraging conflict and division and become a force
encouraging reconciliation and accommodation in East Timor.

There is a saying that one should have the serenity to accept
things one cannot change, the courage to change things one can,
and the wisdom to know the difference. The next historical
milestone for East Timor is whether Portugal will one day be able
to discover such wisdom.

The writer is a regular contributor to The Jakarta Post.