Rethinking the E. Timor solution

By Kwik Kian Gie

JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta Post Feb. 15 edition reported comments I made when a journalist peppered me with questions about the statement of Megawati Soekarnoputri, chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Struggle), on East Timor.

I was trying to wrestle free from the crowd around me as I hurried to find a way to my car. I admit I made several mistakes at the time, and I am not trying to find excuses for those mistakes. I am grateful to Leandro Elvas for criticizing me in his article in the Feb. 19 Post.

It was a stupid mistake to accuse Xanana Gusmao of not understanding the situation in East Timor because of his imprisonment, and Ramos Horta of complete ignorance about the real situation in the province because he has been in exile all this time. I have learned from Elvas' criticism, which forced me to think more clearly and more calmly about the East Timor question.

In a democratic society, the people decide where the country should go. I believe it is therefore only logical that referendum is the best way to let the East Timorese decide what they want to do about their future.

However, deeper thinking leads to the realization that conducting a referendum on East Timor entails consequences that are not so simple. We should ask ourselves what will happen if the proindependence group achieves victory in the referendum with a very slight majority.

Say the proindependence group garners 55 percent of the total votes, while the prointegration group gets 45 percent? It would present the possibility of this 45 percent fleeing as refugees to Indonesian territory after the province's independence.

What should Indonesia do: accept them as refugees or push them back to East Timor under the threat of guns?

Another possibility is the majority of East Timorese want to stay within the fold of the Republic of Indonesia, but the majority of Indonesians from the rest of the country refuse to accept East Timor as part of the republic?

Isn't it logical for any referendum on East Timor to be conducted among the entire population of Indonesia, who would decide whether East Timor would remain part of the country?

The group rejecting East Timor as part of Indonesia is represented by President B.J. Habibie, who bases his decision on pure financial calculations of the country's huge outlay for the East Timorese. This is what Megawati rejects. She believes matters related to problems of the state and nation should not be decided by considerations of material gains or losses.

If we look at the East Timorese issue without weighing about those material concerns, then the undeniable fact is that many people in East Timor feel they were trampled upon by the New Order regime. It is correct. And the New Order also trampled upon by the interests of PDI Struggle.

But PDI Struggle did not react to the bad treatment by pulling away from the fold of the Republic of Indonesia. PDI Struggle reacted by fighting against dictatorial practices, against oppression and cruelty while remaining part of the Indonesian unitary state.

It is here Megawati may have made a mistake. She judges other people's aspirations for nationalism by using her personal criterion. She has always aspired to a big state in which all disorders and discord are to be solved without dissolving the state. But it turns out there are those among us who have the inclination to solve national problems by dissolving the country. This is an attitude we should respect. We will take this into consideration in our future party deliberations about East Timor in the future. Thank you, once again, to Leandro Elvas for teaching us this lesson.

Megawati has observed that for a long time now discussions have gone on between Indonesia, Portugal and the United Nations about East Timor. Indonesia has also discussed the matter with many other countries.

Since Ali Alatas became foreign minister, the diplomatic handling of the issue was always entrusted to him. We have in him one Indonesian who has always done his utmost to prevent East Timor from breaking away from Indonesia. This same person within 24 hours is forced to defend an opposite stance, that is that East Timor must separate from Indonesia.

Why? Because there is Habibie who is always so erratic and obsessed by inconsistent ideas that within 24 hours he completely reversed his position on East Timor. This may have made Megawati confused about the whole matter.

How should one react to this kind of condition? We are a political party which has no access to any of the multitude of information that exists about East Timor. We have no information to the substance of the discussions that have been carried out for 20 years. Our only access to the situation in East Timor is through the branches of our party within East Timor. From Leandro Elvas' article, I fully realize that the East Timorese who have joined our party probably cannot give us an accurate picture of the real situation existing there.

I think Leandro Elvas is right in saying that Xanana Gusmao and Ramos Horta can provide us with better information. Thank you once again to Leandro Elvas for this information, and we will take it into consideration when our party conducts the next rounds of deliberations about East Timor.

Megawati often ponders what may happen to the daily lives of many East Timorese if this piece of territorial entity is abruptly ripped away from Indonesia.

For 24 years now it appeared as if the entire island of Timor, which comprises East Timor and Nusa Tenggara Timur, was part of the Indonesian state and nation.

Intermarriage among people of the two sides of the island have taken place, and migration has become part of the daily life. What might happen if these two parts of the island are suddenly separated from one another, and a Berlin Wall-like divide is erected, barring free flow of people and goods?

What might happen if crossing the border between the two parts of the island requires visa and exchange of two different currencies?

All these things may look trivial to Elvas who has Portuguese nationality and lives in Portugal. But they are serious matters to those who live on the island because they may have direct bearing on their daily life. This fact notwithstanding, we are quite willing to consider Elvas' position in our internal deliberations. We will try to think about the future of the island while disregarding all the long-held fears and concerns of Megawati.

Will it be possible for us to close our eyes and freeze our hearts if and when all that is feared by Megawati becomes a reality? I simply do not know. I just pray that all these fearful and frightening things will not happen.

In summary, I think my party and myself personally have been much enriched in our knowledge and insights about East Timor by the ongoing debates. As far as we are concerned, the problem of East Timor is not settled in a finite manner. The opinions we expressed about the matter have been driven by our desire to take part in the debate for the purpose of crystallizing the nation's thinking about the matter.

Our compulsive desire to say something about this important issue is also driven by the fact that PDI Struggle has never been in the government, and has never been represented in the legislature or in any other institution within any Indonesian government.

To talk to the public and to the world directly is the only way for us to express our concern about the well being of the nation.

I would like to remind the public that actually Habibie is a non-factor in the East Timor issue, except when he is determined to issue a presidential decree announcing the separation of East Timor from Indonesia without waiting for the new president to be elected. What he said was that he would like to submit a proposal regarding the solution of the East Timor problem to the People's Consultative Assembly, the MPR as the institution with the highest authority.

But which MPR? The new MPR which is to be instituted through the general election in June? I think that the first agenda for the new legislature is to replace Habibie. In this situation, all he says about East Timor is actually not that important. Why does the whole world make such a fuss about Habibie's statement regarding East Timor?

I want to state something but I am afraid of being branded as paternalistic and pedantic. But isn't it true in the first place that the whole world has adopted a paternalistic attitude toward Indonesia on the East Timor issue? Encouraged by this global attitude, I say Megawati is very concerned about the economic future of the East Timorese if the territory is split from Indonesia. But it must be added immediately that this is merely an attempt to present Megawati's view about East Timor in a well- rounded way.

We are of the opinion that the issue of political independence is much beyond the issue of hunger. Political independence is a matter of principle. We only wonder that Indonesia will be inundated by refugees if and when there is famine in East Timor. Why is Australia never criticized for fearing the same thing?

I can say with final certainty that Elvas made a fatal mistake when he used Megawati's idea and my statements about East Timor as the basis for concluding PDI Struggle is a leftist party, because it is the inheritor of Sukarno's political legacy. PDI Struggle is not that superficial in its thinking about the future of the nation.

The writer is a noted economist and advisor to the chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle.