Rethinking the E. Timor solution

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.