POLITICS: The Election Over, Tough Task for East Timor Begins

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Sep 13 2001 (IPS) - Within three months, East Timor’s new constituent assembly is due to carry out a difficult but important task in this fledgling nation’s political life – the drafting of its first constitution.

It will be a tough task for the 88-member assembly in the face of some hard realities, like conceiving an economic road map for the new nation, according to East Timor watchers. Equally important will be the assembly’s take on identifying the mechanisms needed for a sustainable democracy.

Both issues — along with unresolved areas such as the official language, the basis of citizenship rights, justice, and the important power- sharing equation between the president and the legislature — are due to be taken up during this constitution-drafting process, which gets underway Saturday, Sep. 15, when the assembly is officially inaugurated.

“Hardly any of these featured during the elections,” says Lin Neumann, of the Asia section of the Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based media rights watchdog. “It was not an election of issues for the parties contesting. None of the parties discussed the economic programme they felt is best for East Timor.”

The young country’s first democratic election, held on Aug. 30, was more about “symbolism,” he added. On election day, some 409,000 of East Timor’s registered voters, or 91 percent, cast their ballot in response to the symbolism of the moment, another celebration of their independence from Indonesia.

Now, according to Neumann, symbolism has to give way to a plan tailored to deal with a host of economic, social and political problems that saddle East Timor’s 800,000 people. “This is the challenge for the country’s constitution makers.”

General Boonsang Naimpradit underscored the need for this shift in focus, too. “The moment is crucial for the country. The assembly has to come up with a model for development,” says the Thai general who headed the international peace keeping force in East Timor.

“The people are looking forward to significant change in their lives,” adds General Saiyud Kerdphoi, the head of a Thai election monitoring team that went to East Timor for the polls. “They have placed their hopes on the assembly.”

Such public expectations are understandable given the economic and social indicators in the new nation, where up to 80 percent of its people have no jobs and where a sizeable number of locals in the capital, Dili, live in ramshackle dwellings.

In addition, there is the bubble economy created by the presence of United Nations personnel. As the U.N. begins moving out next year, Neumann expects the bubble to burst, forcing those who lived by economic activity of this short-term, artificial economy to look for income elsewhere.

Adding to East Timor’s burdens is the fluctuating price of one of its major cash crops – coffee. In recent weeks, according to economic indicators, it has dropped by 25 percent.

Justice is another outstanding issue awaiting direction from the constituent assembly. How will East Timor resolve the plight of some 80,000 East Timorese still being held in squalid refugee camps in Indonesian West Timor?

According to humanitarian organisations like Jesuit Refugee Services, an international relief agency, “The refugees in the camps are suffering great hunger. They have had no support from local aid groups (for months).” And malnutrition and epidemics are rampant.

In addition, the relief agency and other humanitarian workers have documented sustained intimidation and violence against women by the pro-Indonesian militias running the camps.

There are also calls by religious, political and community leaders for justice for the East Timorese who were intimidated, terrorised and killed by the Indonesian military-backed militias.

During the carnage, which came soon after East Timorese had voted decisively for independence in late August, 1999, the pro- Indonesia militias killed over 2,000 civilians in East Timor. Among them were the approximately 200 massacred on Sept. 6 in the town of Suai.

And preceding that is the history of bloodshed dating back to 1975, when East Timor began agitating for independence after Indonesia stepped in to take over the tiny half-island that had been given freedom from Portugal’s grip.

“The bloodshed in East Timor rivals that of Cambodia on a per capita basis,” says Neumann.

Leaders in the country have called for the creation of an international war crimes tribunal to try those responsible for crimes against humanity in East Timor. It will also help, they add, in the new nation’s “healing and reconstruction” process.

On the other side of the ledger, though, there is also economic potential waiting to be tapped — but direction is still wanting. East Timor boasts of sandalwood, which fetches high prices in the world market, and its waters have an abundance of tuna.

To top that is the oil in the Timor Gap, which lies between its waters and its neighbour Australia’s northern territory. U.N. officials estimate that the oil could bring in 100 to 200 million dollars a year in revenues.

But to capitalise on such natural wealth, East Timor has to work out a new deal with Australia, which has signed an agreement with Indonesia about oil revenues from the Timor Gap.

For that, the East Timorese leaders will have to spell out their rights and policies, issues that are due to be taken up by the constituent assembly.

“The hard work is just beginning in East Timor,” says Neumann. “The new constitution will provide some hint about the direction the political leaders want for their country.”