Monday, May 20, 2002
Monday, May 20, 2002 |
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By Amit Baruah
USHERING IN A NEW DAWN: East Timorese girls hold candle lights during the independence celebrations in Dili on Sunday. —
As celebrations continued in the capital Dili, graced by a satisfied U.N. Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, the long march to freedom for this poor South-East Asian nation has just begun. There is little doubt that the people of East Timor, once a Portuguese colony, deserve their freedom just as much as citizens of other free nations - perhaps more - given their sustained campaign for freedom from Indonesian occupation. With an estimated 200,000 deaths under Indonesian occupation since 1975, the East Timorese fought long and hard till they managed to win their freedom in a U.N.-supervised referendum on August 30, 1999. During the referendum, there was unprecedented violence unleashed by militias backed by the Indonesian armed forces before international intervention effectively ended the carnage. On April 14 this year, the veteran guerilla leader, Xanana Gusmao, was elected President of East Timor by a whopping margin. Out of a total electorate of 439,000, Mr. Gusmao received 86.2 per cent of the vote. In Dili, apart from the formal passing of the baton to the East Timor President, the first Government of the Democratic Republic of East Timor will take shape. The word "transitional'' disappears from its nomenclature forever. There will be enormous pressure on the new East Timor leadership to deliver - the country is one of the poorest in South-East Asia with a per capita income of $500. Various political strands in East Timor will also be under test to work together as a team and actualise what has been promised to the people. Whatever be the challenges, one thing is clear - that the people have got their "own'' Government and, henceforth, will have the power and the authority to install and remove home-grown political leaderships and groups. The country, which has a single important export (coffee) and has some 85 per cent of its people living in rural areas, faced a total collapse of its economy in the wake of the 1999 referendum. Considerable reconstruction work has been taken up by the United Nations with the help of the donor community. ``The Timor Sea Arrangement reached on July 5, 2001, with the Government of Australia is an extremely important agreement for East Timor. Revenues from the Timor Sea will help ensure that the gains made in social and economic recovery since the violence of 1999 are maintained and increased, and will allow East Timor to escape dependence on external aid to finance its budget after mid-decade (2005). The important issue which will face the new Government.... is how to make the best use of these revenues for sustained economic development and poverty reduction,'' a World Bank document said. On the streets of Dili, there were demonstrators demanding that the oil from the Timor Sea be used for East Timor alone. Many in East Timor believe that with the sharing of revenues with Australia, their country has got a raw deal out of the arrangement. ``East Timor faces an enormous challenge in simultaneously undertaking a fundamental political transformation and building of State institutions.... the declaration of political independence will not in itself signal the emergence of a fully functional civil administration or the achievement of reconstruction and development goals. ``Indeed, at the time of independence, most civil servants will have been in place for less than 12 months, with financial and administrative systems still new and fragile. While major advances have been made, the East Timorese administration will require continued assistance for a sustained period after independence,'' the World Bank paper added. While one cannot forget the ground realities of poverty and under-development, the fact remains that May 20, first and foremost, is a day of celebration for the people of East Timor.
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