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Gusmao's Win Another Step to Nationhood - Nations and States - Global Policy Forum Gusmao's Win Another Step to Nationhood
By Prangtip Daorueng
Inter Press Service
April 16, 2002
The overwhelming vote in favour of former guerrilla leader Jose Alexandre Xanana Gusmao, who is winning East Timor's first presidential election, marks but the start of a tortuous, bumpy journey to nationhood.
Gusmao, the resistance leader of East Timor's 24 year-old quest for independence, is way ahead of his only rival and has obtained 80 percent of the votes in the Sunday election, with votes from 11 of 12 districts tallied as of Tuesday. Official results are expected Wednesday.
Indeed, the high voter turnout of 86 percent - confirms the impatience of East Timor's 800,000 people to finally stand on their own feet, after nearly 33 months of transition rule by the United Nations.
Their high hopes will not be easy to meet - they pose challenges to both the new president and his administration in a country that is among the world's poorest, whose infrastructure is in ruins, and which has yet to continue to deal with its former occupier, Indonesia.
Still, the 54-year-old Gusmao comes up as both symbol of the struggle in the past and the leader for the future.
East Timor's president will be inaugurated on May 20, shortly after U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan turns over power at midnight.
Both the people and politicians of East Timor are revelling in the spirit of independence.
During the election campaign, Gusmao told his supporters that with independence just around the corner, ''we have to decide what is it that we want for ourselves''.
Chief Minister Mari Alkatiri promised a government of total transparency and unconditional dedication, while former governor (under Indonesian rule) Mario Carrascalao said it was time to let go of a colonised mentality.
''We have to learn to stop being a colonial people, to stop looking into other people's eyes and trying to see what it is that they want from us,'' said Carrascalao.
But critics are also closely watching how a group of former jungle fighters will fare in leading a country that has a long history of neglect - first by Portugal and then under Indonesian rule after its 1976 annexation.
Despite much sympathy from the world community - much of which appeared to have forgotten it during the years of Indonesian rule -- East Timor and its people continue to live with their past aches of deaths and damage.
The massacre and carnage that shocked the world after East Timor's 1999 vote for independence damaged 75 percent of its infrastructure, and drove hundreds of thousands away from home.
This does not include the costs of previous violence by the Indonesian military since 1975 - the year they first entered East Timor after Portugal's pullout - which resulted in some 200,000 lives lost.
In the middle of such history, Gusmao would face a tough challenge to define his presidency role and balance it with the National Assembly, dominated by his former political party Fretilin.
''Xanana has said if he wins the election, he will work within the prescribed roles. How exactly those roles will function, that will remain as a challenge after independence,'' U.N. political officer Colin Stewart said in a media interview.
East Timor's constitution requires the president to be answerable to the 88-member Legislative Assembly, elected in August 2001. The constitution, modelled after Portugal's, does not allow the president much executive power.
Instead, it is Chief Minister Alkatiri and his key ministers, among whom is Nobel Peace Laureate Jose Ramos Horta as foreign affairs minister, who are in charge of day-to-day administration.
However, Gusmao's popularity both domestically and internationally lends him huge political influence, which many expect to use to get the support and respect of the international community.
Gusmao himself defined his role as one that would who help promote freedom and stability, as well as people's participation in the future of East Timor.
''The constitution puts president as both symbol and guarantor of the existence of national integrity,'' he said during the election campaign. ''But national integrity will never exist if we don't involve all social components, including political groups. They all are needed to find out what Timor Lorasae people really want.''
But smooth operations between the president and the parliament also depend on how local politics works out.
There is talk about the soured ties between Gusmao and Fretilin. News reports say that Gusmao's tendency to support an amnesty for those accused of human rights abuses in East Timor has put him on a different stand from the party.
Tensions worsened when Gusmao attacked what he called the luxurious lifestyles of unnamed government members in the middle of people's hardship. His decision to run as an independent candidate in the election also did not please the party.
But both sides are also under pressure to sort out their differences given the need for East Timor's economic reconstruction.
Centuries of colonial and military occupation have made East Timor one of the world's poorest countries with a 340 dollar annual per capita income.
The coffee industry, which is so far the biggest export industry, earns just 14 million dollars in revenue a year.
Much of the basic infrastructure remains in bad shape. The education system needs to be built up again and health services are in urgent demand in a country where, according to international agencies, life expectancy is just at 48 years.
According to the advocacy group East Timor Action Network (ETAN), the country expects a 154 to 184 million dollar shortfall in the government's recurrent and development budget in the first three years of independence.
It also said that East Timorese government officials and activists have repeatedly stated that the government should not mortgage its future by incurring debt.
The prospects appear to be better long-term, not least because of the huge economic potential promised by an estimated 500 million barrels of oil, or about 15 billion dollars at current prices, said to be in the Timor Gap.
The project is now being developed with Australia. In two years, it could yield up to 300 million dollars in annual royalties for the Timorese government - a significant amount compared to the state budget of just 60 million dollars a year.
But before East Timor can look far into the future, Gusmao and the parliament would have another sensitive issue to work on - ties with Indonesia.
While East Timor suffered violence and uncountable losses, Indonesia found its pride hurt. This is also seen in the way election in East Timor has hardly been mentioned in Indonesia's local media.
But cooperation between Dili and Jakarta is is needed to address issues like the repatriation of 80,000 East Timor refugees still in Indonesian-controlled West Timor.
Gusmao, who has spoken of the difficulty of healing ''new wounds'' created by recent violence in East Timor, urged Timorese to forgive to look to the future.
''Our experience in 23 years has shown us that with time... our people will accept that it is important to forget everything,'' he said. ''It is important to look to the future. They have to be able to forgive.''
The Timorese government is also giving Indonesia another chance to show its acceptance of its new, co-equal neighbour -- by inviting President Megawati Sukarnoputri to its Independence Day on May 20.
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