Some E. Timorese youths 'ignore benefits'

DILI, East Timor (JP): Joao Delfino da Silva, one of the surviving local elders who helped East Timor integrate into Indonesia in 1976, said last week that some youths were anti-Indonesia because of their ignorance.

"They know nothing about the history of integration because they were not born at the time," he told The Jakarta Post. The youths did not understand that integration meant liberating East Timorese from Portuguese colonial rule, he said.

Leading political parties had called on the Indonesian government to integrate East Timor into Indonesia at a time when the Portuguese authority had deserted the territory.

"Portuguese discriminated against the East Timorese... it was impossible for local people to hold important government positions at that time," he said in an interview during a press tour organized by the Armed Forces and the Jakarta-based Indonesia-Portugal Friendship Association.

The 58-year-old da Silva, head of the Meti Aut village, East Dili subdistrict, said that it was through integration with Indonesia that East Timorese could demand equality and humane treatment.

"We want equality, improved lives, and it would have been impossible under the Portuguese," said Da Silva, who was head of the Transportation Department of the East Timor provincial administration before he retired three years ago. He had worked for the Dili District Court when the territory was still a Portuguese colony.

"The youths should have asked their parents, what it was like living... as slaves under the Portuguese. Why do these youths want to separate from Indonesia and reunite with the Portuguese?" he said.

Da Silva was commenting on the anti-Indonesia protests that local youths have staged in recent years, including those which ended in violence with public property being burned and destroyed.

Among the most recent demonstrations was one in March during a visit by United Nations envoy Jamsheed Marker. Eleven people were injured and dozens of others were arrested when security forces broke up their demonstration.

Clashes broke out when about 200 anti-integration youths, demonstrating inside and in front of a hotel to demand a meeting with Marker, were turned away by riot police and security personnel.

Marker had gone to the territory to meet senior government officials and community leaders on a "fact-finding mission".

UN Secretary-General Kofi appointed Marker in February as his special assistant for East Timor after he pledged to renew talks between Indonesia and Portugal on the disputed territory's future. Talks over the last 15 years have achieved little.

Violence

Da Silva said that sometimes the youths forgot that thanks to the government's development programs, they could go to school, live in good houses and have a quality life in general.

"Violence only creates more problems," he said.

Burning markets automatically cut the distribution line of goods to people and increased prices so that people could not afford them, he said.

The recurring argument that the youths were protesting because of unemployment should be eliminated, he said, because it reflected the youths' wish to be dependent and wait for government handouts.

"They must not put the blame on the increasing rate of unemployment, and say that it's their reason for rejecting East Timor's integration," he said.

"There will always be ways for them to earn a living if they want to," he said.

Da Silva cited a contradiction in the youths' stance in that they rejected integration while demanding that the government provide them employment.

"They should not seek jobs only in government offices. They can also work for private companies or create their own employment," he said.

Da Silva, a father of 10, said the most important thing was that they were willing to work.

But Da Silva did not wholly blame the youths for their attitude. Many of them, he said, were influenced by their parents who were activists of the Fretilin (Frente Revolucionarla de Timor Leste Independente) separatist movement. (imn)