Subject: GU: Megawati puts East Timor vote in doubt
Date: Sat, 15 May 1999 11:27:27 -0400
From: "John M. Miller" <fbp@igc.apc.org>Received from Joyo Indonesian
News:
The Guardian [UK] Saturday May 15, 1999
Megawati puts East Timor vote in doubt
Presidential challenger threatens to override UN referendum result
By John Aglionby in Lebak
Megawati Sukarnoputri, Indonesia's most popular opposition leader, dropped a bombshell
on the East Timor peace process yesterday by publicly rejecting President BJ Habibie's
plans for a UN-sponsored referendum. Ms Megawati, chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic
Party in Struggle and strong favourite to beat Mr Habibie in the presidential election in
November, said: 'The problem of East Timor cannot be decided by Mr Habibie's government,
because it does not have the legitimacy to do so.
'We have got to find a better solution.'
Theo Syafei, a leading member of her party and a former military commander of East
Timor, has proposed that all 210m Indonesians should vote on whether to let East Timor go,
not just the 800,000 inhabitants of the territory Jakarta invaded in 1975.
A western diplomat described Ms Megawati's remarks as 'very significant'.
There was little chance of her being able to disrupt the ballot, 'but she could reject
the outcome in the MPR [upper house of parliament]'.
If she did, 'there would be a massive international back lash, and probably an intifada
in East Timor'.
Mr Habibie took office last May when President Suharto was forced from power by social
unrest and economic turmoil.
'His government is just a transitional one that was not chosen by the people,' Ms
Megawati said in October. 'The one task it is mandated to do is to pave the way for a new,
democratic, government to be elected.'
Mr Habibie has called Indonesia's first democratic general election for 44 years on
June 7. But, in a policy reversal in January, he promised the East Timorese independence
if they reject his alternative offer of wide-ranging autonomy in a universal ballot.
After lengthy negotiations at the UN between Indonesia and Portugal, East Timor's
former colonial power, it was agreed that the vote should be held on August 8 and the
result ratified by the upper house. By then, however, the house will no longer be Mr
Habibie's rubber stamp. The latest opinion polls suggest that a coalition led by Ms
Megdawati's party will gain a majority in the chamber, where the fate of East Timor and
the choice of a new president will be decided.
Ms Megawati said yesterday: 'It would be better if decisions like East Timor and
regional autonomy were left to the next government' - which will be appointed by the next
president.
But she added that if she had the referendum result overturned she would look for a
solution to East Timor which would not cause any more violence in the territory.
For the past six months paramilitary groups and the Indonesian army have been
conducting a campaign of intimidation and murder in East Timor to destabilise the peace
process. Dozens of people have died, thousands have been made refugees and there is
serious concern that the referendum will not be able to proceed in a free and fair manner.
Ms Megawati, the 52-year-old daughter of Indonesia's founding president Sukarno, was
the leader of one of the two minority parties Presiddent Suharto allowed. In 1996, when
her popularity was soaring, he engineered a party coup to overthrow her.
She is confident that she will soon return to the palace where she spent her childhood.
'We have got concrete goals, a good programme and good mechanisms with which to get
through the election,' she said.
'That is the first step. Only then will I start thinking about the presidency.'
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