Trouble in East Timor

Violence broke out on the streets of the East Timor capital of Dili last week, and although two people died and 25 were injured in the riots -- the worst since Indonesian troops and their militia proxies withdrew in 1999 -- the incident did not make headlines in most of the newspapers in this country. This is probably because we are having more than our share of domestic violence in different parts of the archipelago.

While it may or may not be true that provocateurs are behind the violence -- this is to say that there is only a very slim chance of ever catching them -- such riots and violence can only arise under circumstances conducive to provocation. Chronic unemployment and poverty six months after claiming independence, which fueled unrealistically high hopes, are typical such circumstances.

Some estimates put the number of unemployed at close to 80 percent among young people. This is very high indeed, especially considering that this nascent state is among the poorest in the world. Besides having the lowest per capita income in the region, East Timor was left with most of its infrastructure heavily damaged in the aftermath of the 1999 violence. Coupled with these is the fact that the majority of its relatively small population of only a few hundreds of thousands consists of agriculture-based families who have been hindered from tending to their land during the past two decades.

What all this means for Indonesia, as East Timor's closest neighbor, is that this country has a moral obligation to do more than just monitor the safety of its own citizens in East Timor. Certainly the efforts must not be limited to raising the security screen along the border separating these two countries.

There are at least a couple of steps that are reasonably viable for Indonesia. One is to provide agricultural expertise to help our neighbor to rebuild their agricultural base. This could take the form of sending agricultural experts to assist in strategic planning and implementation in the field of agriculture. It could also mean assisting the development of vocational schools specifically designed for the various sectors of agribusiness.

The other step is to set up a kind of joint market development or bilateral trade, which could start with agricultural products. This will not demand high financial costs from both sides. The key to this option is opening access to as many potential markets as possible by eliminating all barriers to trade, both tariffs as well as non-tariffs.

Of course, there are many other options, but at least the above suggestions have the advantage of yielding the highest possible results with the lowest possible financial burden: for both East Timor and Indonesia.