Editorial: Yesterday's heroes move to secure Timor's future

The Canberra Times (Australia) - Saturday, June 23, 2007

East Timor's veteran guerrilla hero Xanana Gusmao celebrated his 61st birthday on Wednesday, but there are no signs he is heading for a retirement home.

He celebrated with a 300-strong party into the wee small hours at his home in the foothills south of Dili, as he prepares for a new political role, just a month after stepping down as foundation President of the Democratic Republic of East Timor.

Although he had sworn to retire and become a pumpkin farmer after his five-year term, he now heads a ticket for the National Congress for the Reconstruction of East Timor in next Saturday's parliamentary elections, which could make him prime minister.

"I will cultivate pumpkins, but not in export quantities yet," Gusmao quipped at the CNRT's campaign headquarters in central Dili.

Asked by The Canberra Times why he is not stepping aside for younger politicians, he evoked a memory from his seven-year imprisonment in Jakarta's Cipinang prison.

"I saw that Indonesia had independence for over 50 years, yet only a small clique was really independent, while most people had nothing," he said, stressing that he doesn't want East Timor to follow suit.

The party aims to wrest parliamentary power from the hard-line Fretilin leadership of Mari Alkatiri, to end its dominance of East Timorese politics, a process begun in presidential elections last month.

Fretilin was then trounced in a two-round contest in which former prime minister Jose Ramos-Horta defeated Francisco "Lu-Olo" Guterres by 69 to 31 per cent.

The Nobel laureate had replaced Alkatiri as prime minister in June 2006 after he stepped down under popular pressure.

Fretilin was castigated by voters for its five-year performance in government, during which it registered significant achievements, notably in Alkatiri's spirited oil negotiations with Australia, but grew increasingly centralised and authoritarian.

A key factor in its defeat was public belief that it caused the violence which tore Dili apart during 2006.

Party vice-president Rogerio Lobato is serving seven years in Dili's Becora prison after sentencing on related counts of manslaughter and arming pro-government militiamen.
Seventeen political groups will contest the June 30 poll for 65 parliamentary seats 13 less than in the current Parliament, which was elected under UN tutelage in 2001 to draft East Timor's Constitution.

The wide spread of contenders nationalists, populists, monarchists and Marxists is a sign of maturing democracy in the half-island state.

The CNRT's acronym echoes that of the movement which led the final days of resistance to Indonesia's 24-year occupation, the National Council of Timorese Resistance (Conselho Nacional da Resistencia Timorense in Portuguese). Gusmao appears on campaign banners in two guises, as uniformed CNRT guerrilla leader, and as besuited civilian political leader of the CNRT party.
He and Ramos-Horta planned its formation, having resolved to trade places as part of their strategy to squeeze the current Fretilin leadership out of power.

An alternative Fretilin leadership from the dissident faction known as "Fretilin Mudansa" is campaigning within CNRT ranks. Led by former foreign minister Jose Luis Guterres, its use of Fretilin emblems in CNRT campaigning has inflamed the Government party's feelings.
The election campaign has had a bitter and slightly vicious tone, which rose to a crescendo in the south coast Fretilin stronghold of Viqueque on June 3.

Of the 17 contenders, there are four front-runners apart from the CNRT, meaning the vote will be widely spread.

They are:

Fretilin, which polled 27.89 per cent in the first round of presidential elections;

The leftist Democratic Party, which polled 19.18 per cent.

UNDERTIM, a movement led by disgruntled ex-guerrillas which did not run a separate presidential campaign, backing Ramos-Horta's instead; and

A coalition of the centre-left Social Democrat Party (PSD) under former governor Mario Carrascalao with the populist Social Democratic Association of Timor (ASDT), which polled 23.25 per cent between them.

UNDERTIM is led by charismatic ex-guerrilla Cornelio Gama (known as L7) and is one of two veterans' movements competing.

It is close to CNRT, but running separately.

The PSD-ASDT coalition has, on the other hand, expressed hostility to the CNRT, with Mario Carrascalao describing it as a collection of "the worst characters there are in East Timor" with the prime aim of "destroying Mari Alkatiri", by undemocratic means.

The sharpest tension, however, exists between Fretilin and CNRT.

Carrascalao's attack on CNRT strategy was used by Fretilin to claim it was hatching an assassination plot against Alkatiri.

Carrascalao said this was "pure invention", but repeated that he believes the Gusmao/Ramos-Horta party is inflaming political divisions by aggravating rivalry with Fretilin.

The only serious violence in the campaign has been against CNRT, during its campaigning in the hard- line Fretilin stronghold of Viqueque.

Afonso Kudalai, a local CNRT supporter, was murdered by an off-duty policeman who pumped six pistol shots into him after a brief altercation over a police beating of another CNRT member.
The police chief of Viqueque had been suspended from duty during the presidential elections over accusations he violated police neutrality by supporting Fretilin publicly.
Kudalai died instantly, a few metres from the CNRT leaders. Later the same day another supporter was shot dead, allegedly by uniformed police from Baucau.

By an irony of fate Kudalai, who had recently joined the CNRT, was the nephew of Fretilin leader Francisco Guterres.

Germano "Hatta" da Silva, a close associate of Gusmao, saw the attack. "We are all still in shock", he said, "Fretilin claimed he was armed, but it was untrue."

Perpetrator Luis da Silva surrendered recently to United Nations police after days on the run.
Since then resolute UN policing has meant that inter-party friction has mainly been confined to poster wars between pro-CNRT and pro- Fretilin youths who tear each other's posters down by night and resume pasting the next.

Fretilin is trying to forestall another election defeat by presenting younger faces, a humbler image and reminding voters of its more successful policies, such as its oil dealings.

Defeated presidential candidate Guterres set an example by accepting defeat graciously soon after Jose Ramos-Horta's victory was announced, heading off possibilities of violence.

Parliamentary candidate Aniceto Guterres Lopes is a young human rights lawyer who represented political prisoners during the Indonesian occupation, founded the country's oldest human rights foundation Yayasan Hak, and was chief commissioner of East Timor's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. His work on the bilateral Truth and Friendship Commission with Indonesia, which offers amnesty to those who testify, has affected his standing, but his track record is still respected.

He is presenting Fretilin as the one party which has upheld prosecution of human rights violators, and said "the pursuit of justice is essential because even the crimes of 1999 have not been resolved satisfactorily."

Impunity cannot be tolerated, he added.

Fretilin's recent approval of an amnesty law for crimes committed in 2006 which could see Lobato freed appears to contradict this, but his stand is an acknowledgement of the depth of community feeling on justice issues and a sign that Fretilin may be seeking meaningful new directions.

One well-placed international observer predicts that Xanana Gusmao is most likely to lead a new government after June 30 with CNRT as most-voted, but that secondary votes will be spread closely between the other main political blocs, forcing a coalition government which could presage a more harmonious political future for the long-suffering Timorese.The ageing ex-guerrilla may be left with little time for his pumpkins.