EDITORIAL Good new in Indonesia, worries in East
Timor
No one who knows anything about
Indonesia and its history underestimates the enormous challenges facing the
ethnically diverse archipelago of 210 million people where the first seemingly
free election in 44 years took place last week.
More than a year after pro-democracy protests ended the 32-year
authoritarian rule of President Suharto, election observers, including former
President Jimmy Carter, said the voting in the worlds fourth most
populous country seemed to have been conducted fairly, with only scattered
pockets of violence and irregularities. This is a remarkable and laudable
development in a world hungry for good news, despite growing worries at press
time about the slow pace of the count.
As results trickled in, the opposition party of Megawati
Sukarnoputri appeared to lead the way. Sukarnoputri, 52, is the daughter of
Indonesias founding president, Sukarno, who was elbowed aside by Suharto
in 1965. Official results werent expected until the third week of June.
That 96 percent of the nations 112 million registered voters cast ballots
is a reminder of the high value people who have been oppressed place on
self-determination.
Forty-eight political parties and more than 11,000 candidates
sought seats in Parliament -- a vast change from elections under Suharto, which
were largely rigged to ensure the victory of his Golkar Party. At the time,
only three approved parties could field candidates. Up for grabs were 462 of
Parliaments 500 seats. The rest go to appointees of the military, which
is not allowed to vote.
However, the news from Indonesia is not all good. East Timorese
voters were reported to be generally subdued during the June 7 national
elections. Many were reeling from weeks of violence at the hands of Indonesian
military-backed militias opposing autonomy efforts (see page 6). Reports
indicated that most East Timorese appeared more focused on the United
Nations-organized ballot on self-determination scheduled for Aug. 8, an
election whose validity continues to seem very much in doubt.
Just two days before last weeks national election, on a
Sunday evening, addressing a candlelight Mass that attracted 10,000 people,
Nobel laureate Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo said in a sermon that East
Timorese should vote in both the election and the referendum according to their
consciences. People should not feel forced to vote, he said, in clear reference
to the marauding militias. Belo blamed the militias and its army allies for the
deaths of 25 unarmed villagers in the small town of Liquica. They were killed
on church grounds in April during an attack against suspected pro-independence
supporters.
Indonesia annexed East Timor 23 years ago. Bloodshed followed as
up to 250,000 of the islands 800,000 residents were killed by Indonesian
army forces. It was a Kosovo without CNN. But Western leaders turned deaf ears
on the pleas of the East Timorese. Oil-rich Indonesia was considered a
strategic economic non-communist force in Southeast Asia.
Only after Suharto was forced from office last year did his
successor, B.J. Habibie, allow a free referendum on autonomy to move forward.
But less than two months before that referendum, violence and intimidation
threaten its prospects. The Indonesia army, supported by a succession of U.S.
administrations, appears responsible to no one. Prospects for a fair United
Nations-brokered election remain clouded.
Meanwhile we are reminded once again that our nations
professed democratic ideals and its penchant for arming antidemocratic forces
remain a contradiction yet to be resolved.
National Catholic Reporter, June 18,
1999
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