From: pires@vxcrna.cern.ch (Rui)
Subject: Point of view of an East Timorese (Part 1)
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 20:29:00 GMT

An East Timorese living abroad and with no direct access to this group,
asked me to post the text which follows.


Rui   (pires@vxcern.cern.ch)

#################################################################
#################### Begin text #################################


Dear friends,

First of all I would like to express my compliments to everybody in
this net, wishing you  Hallo, Ola', Salam Persahabatan and good
luck with your academic work.

It gives me a great pleasure to share my ideas in this net since I
have no access to this newsgroup. I have read all the current
flames (hot arguments) on EAST TIMOR between the two sides (the
Indonesian and the Portuguese students) on-line both in Seasia-l
and a.c.i. 

As an East Timorese who grew up in East Timor (ET) and had been
living for several years in some parts of Indonesia, I'm compelled
morally to assess the situation from an ETimorese perspective. This
small note doesn't necessarily represent views of thousands of
young East Timorese both inside or outside ET. It is my personal
views (based on my empirical experience as an indegenous people).

The following assessment based on WHAT HAS GONE WRONG ? WHAT HAS
GONE RIGHT? and WHAT IS THE SOLUTION ? for the problem of East
Timor.

I would like to put forward that East Timorese do not actually hate
Indonesian people, they love and respect them, what they do care
about is getting rid of the Indonesian Army's occupation inside
East Timor.

I'm fully aware that some fellow in this net are getting bored with
this "boring discussion" as one fellow pointed out here a couple of
days ago. If so, I apologise you for any inconvenience, I just want
to remind all netters that the problem of East Timor is our common
concern either from the Indonesian and Portugal point of view, even
internationally. The status quo of East Timor is still remain in
the UN agenda, and the UN never recognises ET as an integral part
of Indonesia. It  recognises Portugal as the administering power on
ET. Due to this reason, Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas had
said in his diplomatic statement: " East Timor is like a sharp
piece of gravel in our shoes". Therefore, through this opportunity
I knock the hearts of my Indonesian counterparts that East Timor is
not a boring discussion, it is a vivid discussion that can be 
argued from different standpoint. The more we discuss the more
sharpen our arguments will be. 

Just 'food for thought' for you guys from Indonesia, if your
hometown, (Java, or Sumatera or elsewhere in Indonesia) being
terrorised by the army all the time and your relatives were killed
or tortured, HOW DO YOU REACT ???

I got the impression that you guys are highly regarded as future
intellectuals in your home country. Your ideas, actions and the
like will be helpful for your own commnuity. Without losing your
genorisity as an intellectual (not being 'narrow mind
nationalistic') I suggest we discuss the subject of East Timor
wihout "flames" and acknowledge the weaknesses and strengths from
both sides (Indonesian and Portuguese students) and let's try to
analyse the matter substantially and comprehensively. 
Likewise in this assessment, I don't want to create flames between
us, but I do want we  discuss the matter intellectualy without any
hesitations. 

Comments are most welcome, and please regard this small note as a
whole idea not partially by sentences.

I must acknowledge that you guys (both ET solidarity members  and
the Indonesian students abroad) know information on ET  from
different reliable sources. Above all I admire all of you who have
put your time and energy to debate the problem based on your own
judgements and literature that you got. 

Beforehand, I was a bit struck by Budi Rahardjo's  reply to
Silveira in this net that the Indonesians know the situation much
better than the Portuguese. Well, putting no doubt that at the
moment ET is under Indonesian control, why don't you guys from
Indonesia  write the real phenomenom (expressig all circumstances)
on  East Timor ? I bet you, have you ever visited East Timor? If
so, I would be surprised, otherwise you just repeat the same line
of thinking of your bosses in Jakarta for 17 years.

By the way if you haven't visited yet, I strongly advise you and
other compatriots to read more references from other sources not
only rely on the official publications by Deplu or  Deppen RI.

I dont' mean that we disregard those publications, but I do suggest
all of us to observe them sceptically. You might agree with me that
we all know the "ins and out" of the press system in Indonesia. As
far as the government concerns ,if you write something favourable
to the government, that's OK, but if you write something
contradictive, you'll be ended up with phone calls from ABRI and
worst, your paper will be banned. A lot of events and the like
happened in Indonesia. If you're interested, please let me know
that we can discuss further.

Above all I strongly suggest you to visit East Timor when you get
chance. Sorry about this, mate.!!!!!  I just want to clarify that
I'm doubtful of your comments that you know the situation much
better. The situation that you know better in Indonesia may be Yes,
but in East Timor definitely Not. I wonder if " a blind person just
feels that the tail of an elephant is very long". I hope you
understand my points.

In light of recent events in East Timor, especially the Nov. 12
massacre of Timorese civillians by the Indonesian military, and the
latest news about the capture of Jose Alexandre Gusmao , known as
XANANA, leader of the Falintil resistance in East Timor, in Dili a
couple of days ago, it might seem almost trivial to talk about the
issue of East Timor like developmental policy applied by the
Indonesian in East Timor. However, as I will try to show, the
Indonesian presence in East Timor since 1975 is absolutely critical
to understanding the contemporary situation in ET, both in terms of
the repression felt by the indigenous Timorese, and in terms of the
jumpiness, if not outright paranoia, felt by the Indonesian
administration.

Obviously for various reasons too complex to go into ET political
parties. I assume that you all know about this. The civil war broke
out  in August 1975, Fretilin declared East Timor's independence on
November 28, 1975, and on December 7, 1975, less than two weeks
later, Indonesia took matters into her own hands and invaded,
formally annexing East Timor and declaring on July 17, 1976, that
East Timor "had decided to 'integrate' with Indonesia". Since 1976,
therefore, East Timor has de facto become the 27th province of
Indonesia, although its status has never been officially resolved.

While the sixteen years since 1976 have been extensive military
campaigns and an accelerated push for 'development', the
'integration' process has never been smooth. The period from 1975-
1980, especially, was marked by massive military campaigns, forced
relocations, and starvation. Estimates are that as much as one-
third of East Timor's population of roughly 600,000 may have
starved or been killed during that time. Even today, there is
continuing small-scale but effective guerilla resistance, and
considerably more widespread popular resentment and everyday forms
of resistance, even in the face of increasing government repression
and intimidation.

Since the occupation by the Indonesian army of this tiny island,
gross and systematic killings, torture and arrests have occurred
frequently.During the three years from 1975 to 1978, at least
120,000 Etimorese died as a direct result of the Indonesian
invasion and the policies pursued in the war against the guerillas
and cicilians alike. This is probably a conservative estimate, but
is in line with statements by Indonesian officials made in 1977 and
1979. 

The slaughter of that period was immediately followed by continued
military operations against the remaining guerillas in which
thousands more died, and then the major famine with accompnying
disease in the period 1979 to 1982.

However, statitics alone do not adequately describe Indonesia's
policy of genocide. Other aspects of the generals' rule in East
Timor are calculated to annhiliate all facets of traditional life.
Although it makes any forms, the broad policy is to "Indonesianize"
Jakarta's self proclaimed 27th province. 

A subsequent approach has been introduced by Indonesian military
officials in order to legitimate themselves in the 'hearts and
minds of Timorese. However these methods are merely considered
camouflage. The recent territorial approach instead of security
approach means placing the army's soldiers in the villages and
helping villagers build infrastructure there. The ubiquitous
military presence everywhere in East Timor have weaken the
participation of East Timorese people toward the so-called
development imposed by the Indonesians.

Indeed, I must 'acknowledge' that Indonesia so far has put its
effort to develop East Timor as well as other provinces in
Indonesia. This can be measured statistically; In other words
physical development applied by the Indonesian for more than a
decade is acknowledged. 

However, in terms of mental development, to my point of view
Indonesia has failed to do so. The big error made by Indonesian
authorities was trying to equate East Timor with other provinces in
the Indonesian archipelago, while its historical, cultural and
political background differed in the extreme. Worst, the idea of
P4 and the like being imposed to East Timorese, while traditionally
they never experienced such things before. 

So, to my point of view, indoctrination of these ideologies to East
Timorese is not the answer, the wise thing to do is HOW TO RESTORE
THEIR DIGNITY, which has been damaged by the current regime.
The policy makers in East Timor tend to "change" the attiude of
East Timorese to be an Indonesian and expecting them to perform as
a good Indonesian. What struck me is "How can ETimorese perform
correspondly, if they feel that they are not Indonesians?

My question in Indonesian language : "Jangankan di TimTim, di
pedalaman Jawa atau Sumatera atau di Irja, yang sudah mengalami
masa kemerdekaan dengan RI selama 47 tahun saja masih menunjukkan
ketidaksempurnaan dalam banyak hal, apalagi TimTim yang baru saja
bergabung dengan RI 16 tahun lalu ??? Rakyat TimTim menurut saya
masih mengalami masa transisi, mereka baru saja terlepas dari
pemerintahan Portugis, dan sekarang sedang dalam cengkeraman
Indonesia yang tak bebas bergerak bagaikan "Burung dalam Sangkar
Emas". Sangatlah bijaksana kalau kita pakai pendekatan religius dan
kemanusiaan serta persuasif, bukan pendekatan repressif yang
menyebabkan rakyat merasa terganggu secara psychologis" 
dan tak bebas mengexpressikan diri".

This is the main feature in the face of every East Timorese.The
fear of being supressed and terrorized by ABRI is still dominate
ETimorese --both younger and older generation--

Again to my point of view, WHAT HAS GONE WRONG ?
Has the Indonesian government succesfully gained the hearts of the
East Timorese ? Probably the following facts may give us a clue :

a. A group of policy makers dominated by ABRI (Armed forces) used
an excessive security approach which created a sense of antipathy
among Timorese. We could clearly seen the growing number of
students who oposed the Indonesian presence there which culminated
in the Nov. 12 massacre. It is reasonable to assess the situation
based on the subsequent events in Dili (i.e. pro-independence
demonstrations during the papal visit in October 1989 and the US
ambassador's visit in January 1990, and then Nov.12 1991) have
proved that attitude. Ironically that resentment growing
substantially among the younger generation (who just grew up after 
integration). 

b. The adoption of the new territorial approach toward ETimorese as
a mean of developing infrastructure in the village has gone wrong.

c. The Indonesians consider East Timor as a place for the training
of their soldiers. This can be detected by how many officers in
Indonesia rose their ranks through their 'heroic' feats in East
Timor ?

d. The Indonesian sought to undermine the role of the Catholic
Curch in East Timor where the population is predominantly
Catholics. The activities of prists and clergy are suspected to be
pro-independence. Moreover, in East Timor seems that the policy
makers consist of three elements : 

 - the Catholic Church led by Bishop Belo,
 - the provincial government led by governor Abilio Osorio Soares
 - and ABRI by Pankolakops, Brig. Gen. Theo Syafei.

The three elements play their respective roles which inevitably
bring them into confrontation with each other.

The feeling of trauma is reflected in different types of behaviour.
For the government administrators and officials it manisfests it
self in rigid and authoritarian actions and policies, while it has
made the East timorese uncooperative, apathetic and constanly
suspicious. These types of behaviour colour the social and
political life of society in the province.

In order to give you an idea, I can refer to a study done by Prof.
Mubyarto and Loekman Sutrisno of Gajah Mada University, Jogyakarta.
They made an assessment to the deficiencies in the government
apparatus and the role of the Armed Forces (ABRI) which had been
translated in English.
The book entiled "East Timor, The impact of Integration, An
Indonesian socio -anthropological study", (December 1991) by
Mubyarto et al,  published by the Indonesia Resources and
Information Program (IRIP), PO BOX 190, Northcote 3070 Australia.

In one part of the book it says : " ...they feel that East Timor
has had an 'overdose' of the military, not simply because of their
numbers but more importantly because of their role in the
development process. The special relationship between the military
and the 'monopolosation' of the East Timorese economy has caused a
dilemma for these young indigenous officials".

Then they say " ... this situation reflects badly on both
provincial administration and the central government. There is a
feeling among the East Timorese elite that the regional government
administers the province as an ' apanage' of the central
government. The most serious matter is that they feel their region
is being treated like a MILKING-COW for the rich of Java "

The book contains a lot of information, as an American oberver said
probably the most candid assessment that had  ever made by
Indonesian intellectuals.

As a matter of fact, the result of their studies to be presented in
a seminar in Dili (capital city) in 1990 was banned due to the
excessive criticism toward ABRI's deficiencies in East Timor.


(Part two to be continued).

#################### End text #################################
###############################################################
Newsgroups: alt.culture.indonesia