Building strong relations with RI crucial: Alkatiri

Jakarta Post - Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Alice Coster

The ruling Timor Leste government is "illegitimate" and "illegal", said former Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, but building stronger relations with Indonesia based on truth was crucial.
Speaking at a public lecture in Jakarta on Tuesday titled "Friendship and Partnership among Nations: The case of Indonesia and Timor Leste", the leader of the Fretlin Party said regardless of who governed Timor Leste, developing relations to "create a new dynamic" between the two countries was imperative and should have no limits.

"This (Timor Leste) government is not constitutional, it is illegal, we (Fretlin) will keep saying this and keep opposing the government," said Alkatiri.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported Tuesday that the UN Security Council had called on Timor Leste to refrain from further violence after mayhem erupted when independence leader Xanana Gusmao became prime minister last month.

In a statement read at a public meeting Tuesday, the council emphasized "the need for all parties to resolve any disputes through exclusively peaceful channels and within the framework of democratic institutions."

Last month, President Jose Ramos-Horta appointed a coalition led by Gusmao after no single party won a majority in a June 30 parliamentary election.

The move triggered violent protests by supporters of the Fretilin party, which led Timor Leste's 24-year struggle against Indonesian rule. Fretilin had won most of the votes in the June election and claimed the right to govern.

Alkatiri, the Secretary General of the Fretlin Party, said the press had "demonized him", while current leaders like Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao have been made to look like "angels".
"I am here trying to show the real Mari Alkatiri, not the one demonized by the media and by some people."

Alkatiri said people who had voted for Fretlin were frustrated after the election as they felt there had been a manipulation of the constitution. However, he said his party did not agree with the violence and wanted to do everything possible to get the country back to normal.
"Fretlin never uses violence for political purposes" he said.

Alkatiri said despite people crediting the current leaders for taking steps to build a bond between the two countries, it was in fact he who sought to create ties, establishing the joint Timor-Leste-Indonesia Truth and Friendship Commission, created to open intensive dialog between Indonesia and Timor Leste.

"Normally the media always attributed to Ramos-Horta or Xanana Gusmao the good relations between Indonesia and Timor Leste," he said. "The idea of CVA, the commission for truth and friendship, was mine, not Xanana's or Ramos Hortas'."

Alkatiri said establishing people-to-people relations to learn the truth and move forward was a critical step the neighbors must look toward.

"If you are looking to establish a solid friendly relation of friendship we need to get into the truth," he said.

Din Syamsuddin, Muhammadiyah chairman and the founding member and chairman of the Center for Dialogue and Cooperation among Civilizations' (CDCC), which hosted the event, agreed with Alkatiri, stressing the importance of establishing dialogue with Indonesia's closest neighbor.