Timor, East
Timor, Sri Lanka and Thamil Eelam.
24 May 2002
1. Thirty seven rose to thirty eight without the
slightest perceptible tremor of apprehension in the hearts and minds
of members of the Sinhala nation, myself included. So cryptic a
statement needs instant elucidation, especially as I venture to
speak for so many. What I have to offer in explanation is a lesson
in geography but one which has an enormous relevance to the question
of war or peace in Sri Lanka.
2. The island of Timor is one of the easternmost of the long chain
of islands which make up our nearest neighbour to the east, the
state of Indonesia. The extent of the whole island of Timor is
31,000 square kilometres which is exactly half the size of the
island of Sri Lanka. Timor is divided into two nearly equal halves,
namely, West Timor and East Timor. The latter was a Portuguese
colony from the early 1500’s and, unlike Sri Lanka, continued as a
Portuguese colony until 1975 when the Portuguese withdrew. The newly
independent state of East Timor was invaded by Indonesia almost
immediately, its fledgling government was overthrown and East Timor
was annexed by Indonesia as one of its many provinces. East Timor is
about a quarter of the size of the island of Sri Lanka i.e. about
6,300 square miles. Its population today is around 740,000.
3. Immediately after annexation by Indonesia a long war of
independence fought by several guerrilla movements began. In due
course they coalesced around Fretilin led by Xanana Gusmao whom the
Indonesian government succeeded in capturing some years ago since
when he was in an Indonesian jail almost up to the moment of
independence. The former colonial power, Portugal, worked steadily
throughout this period to secure the independence of East Timor, the
majority of whose people had been converted to Roman Catholicism
during colonial rule. Those efforts paid off, culminating in an UN
held referendum on independence in 1999 which confirmed the
overwhelming desire of the people of East Timor to be independent.
An UN appointed interim administration under Australian leadership
took over from Indonesia and on 20th May 2002 it became an
independent state under the newly elected President (Xanana Gusmao)
and parliament dominated by Fretilin led by the new Prime Minister,
Mari Alkatiri. The UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan was on hand for
the ceremony and East Timor became the UN’s newest and 192nd member
state.
4. So what about the thirty seven and thirty eight with which we
started this article? Thirty seven is the number of UN member states
which are smaller in land area than the putative state of Thamil
Eelam which is 7,100 square miles in extent. At 6,300 square miles
the new state of East Timor falls into this category of UN member
states which are smaller in land area than the putative state of
Thamil Eelam. Thus did thirty seven become thirty eight? Even more
significant is the fact the new state of East Timor has a population
– 740,000 – which is about a third of that of the putative state of
Thamil Eelam.
5. It is one of the world’s poorest countries, with coffee as its
only export. It does, however, have off-shore oil deposits and the
first act of the newly independent government of Mr. Alkatiri was to
grant a drilling concession to Australia on terms very advantageous
to East Timor.
6. The international community was not deterred by smallness of size
or doubts about economic viability in recognizing the independence
of a very small state. President Megawati Sukarnoputri of Indonesia
who was on hand at the inauguration of the new state vowed to bury
the past of war and destruction and commence a new chapter for
Indonesia which would be a clean break from the past. So far it has
been a great success story for the UN but everyone recognises that a
long haul lies ahead. The new state has few resources but it does
have a surfeit on international goodwill. Its emergence on the
international stage has great lessons for Sri Lanka if only its
government and the Sinhala people will learn them and turn from war
to peace and prosperity.
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