| Subject: Timor
Leaders Vie For Power
The Australian 11 Dec 99
Timor leaders vie for power
Now there is no common enemy, the
differences among East Timor's political elites are coming to the surface,
reports MICHAEL WARE from Dili
THE uneasy alliance holding the volatile
East Timorese political leadership together is showing ever-increasing
signs of strain.
For East Timor's political heavyweights
and leading lights, now is crunchtime. Real positions of influence and
power are up for grabs, and the manoeuvring is under way.
The country's new governing body, the
National Consultative Council, a joint agency with the UN administration,
meets for the first time today. But the dominant political force in this
new island state remains the National Council of Timorese Resistance
(CNRT), a loosely formed coalition of markedly diverse political
interests.
Its formation in Portugal in April last
year was born out of political expediency and a patriotic desire for
freedom shared by all who participated.
But the stakeholders in this unique
formation arrived at their pro-independence common ground by very
different means. Age-old class, cultural and economic divisions had to
bridged and some bloody histories put to one side before the CNRT
could become the effective and real independence movement it was, working
zealously to force the conquering Indonesians to give an opportunity for
self-determination.
By their own admission, however, it was
never meant to last. And already insiders, willing to exploit the tensions
and claiming to act on their masters' behalf, are preparing to begin
hiving people off.
Apart from the UN transitional
administrator, East Timor's power elite, politically and socially,
consists of its minor constellation of international stars, all of whom
were instrumental in helping the plight of their people lurch into the
global public's mind.
The key figures are Nobel laureates Jose
Ramos Horta, who was East Timor's roving ambassador-in-exile for 24 years,
a man critical to the marshalling of world opinion against Indonesia, and
moral touchstone Bishop Carlos Belo. The other, undisputed force is the
charismatic freedom fighter Xanana Gusmao, a man only recently freed from
years of Jakarta-ordered imprisonment.
Gusmao's place at the head of the East
Timorese political pantheon is unassailed.
No one, not even the hugely popular Ramos
Horta, could challenge him (not that there's a push to do so) or they
would risk the public's retribution because he is so openly adored.
Ramos Horta is the consummate politician,
and contrasts sharply with Gusmao in style. Yet he defers freely to
Gusmao's authority and right to ascendancy as the country's virtual
president-elect, always placing himself behind Gusmao and offering his
unquestioning support. Indeed, even during his Nobel peace prize
acceptance speech in 1996 he credited Gusmao with the true struggle in
East Timor.
The bond, both political and personal,
between the two is said to be strong and genuine. As a pair, they make an
unsurpassable team.
However, other forces are included in the
CNRT mix.
One of the other major groupings is that
represented by CNRT member Joao Carrascalao. His family, including his
brothers Manuel and Mario, is formidable and quick to change with the
shifting political winds in East Timor.
Under the Portuguese colonial regime the
family flourished. In fact it is said that if the pre-existing Portuguese
land acts are reinstituted, the family could own anything up to 40 per
cent of the country. True or not, that perception is real among the CNRT
and the public.
When the colonial masters withdrew in
1975, the Carrascalaos' political party, the Timorese Democratic Union,
entered a shortlived civil war with the forces of Fretilin, the party
where Ramos Horta and Gusmao built their power bases.
The Carrascalaos sided with Indonesia
during the December 7, 1975, invasion and continued to flourish under the
occupation, with Mario becoming governor from 1982 to 1992 and a deputy in
the Indonesian ruling party Golkar.
However, their views changed and they
became strong supporters of independence. Manuel even lost his son, killed
by militia thugs during an attack on his house before the August 30
independence ballot.
But the common ground is breaking up.
While Joao Carrascalao comes from a family that has known privilege,
Gusmao has always been a man of his people. His father was a schoolteacher
and he grew up in the mountains surrounding the capital, Dili.
After receiving his education, Gusmao
moved to Dili and began working early in life as a chartered surveyor and
teacher. He rose to prominence as leader of the pro-independence Falintil
fighters before he was captured and jailed by Indonesian forces.
The binding that keeps these CNRT
alliances together is, without the shared enemy of Indonesia and with the
shape of a future of power in East Timor in the balance, appearing more
tenuous than ever.
Joao was once touted as the future deputy
president some are whispering that this title was the compromise
necessary to make the alliance work but the faceless insiders,
depending on whose team you talk to, now say that is out of the question.
A code of conduct to foster transparency
in government and public accountability is being drawn up.
For some it is expected to be the weapon
with which to remove Joao from the CNRT. But Joao, talking to The Weekend
Australian this week, insisted his family's business interests in no way
posed a possible conflict of interest.
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