HABIBIE REMINDS ME OF GORBACHEV

HABIBIE REMINDS ME OF GORBACHEV The world is pleased with the fact that East Timor, finally, gets rid itself from Indonesia and being ready to prepare itself to walk through the bridge of transitional period, moving towards full independence in two or three years time. As it is known that the ‘integration’ of East Timor into Indonesia had never been recognized by the international community. The overwhelming majority of East Timorese consider the presence of Indonesia in their territory as the colonizer. Undoubtfully, the world history will mark this on its pages forever. According to UN Agenda, the decade of 1990-2000 is the decade of the eradication of the colonialism. It is great that finally UN successfully fulfilled its mandate by trying to solve the East Timor conflict this year. In referring to the solution of East Timor conflict, former Indonesian president, BJ. Habibie, in his accountability speech, did relate it with the first paragraph of the preamble of Indonesian Constitution,UUD 1945, saying “Independence is the right of every nation, therefore colonialism has to be abolished from the face of the earth……”. By stating so, many found that implicitly, Habibie wanted to make it clear that Indonesia actually “did colonize” East Timor for more than two decades. This, of course sparked the disappointment and resentment within the Indonesian society, specially the political elite in power, towards Habibie. As reported in Indonesian daily, Kompas of 19 October 1999, Basilio Araujo, representing the National Front Union, a pro-integration East Timorese organization recently founded, was really disappointed with the statement of Habibie who connected the separation of East Timor from Indonesia with the preamble of 1945 Constitution. According to him, the statement was very wrong and proved that Habibie had fell into the trap of the views of the anti-integration group who, so far, claimed that Indonesia is the colonizer of East Timor. Of course, Habibie is blamed by many from Indonesia as the actor of the disintegration of the Unitary Republic of Indonesia. But he is praised by many overseas and particularly by pro-independence East Timorese as a man of courage,willing to break the deadlock of the East Timor issue. Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, the East Timorese Nobel Laureate praised Habibie by saying, “In the history of Timor, Habibie will be one of its benefactors.” Habibie, with great heart, accepted the decision of MPR to reject his accountability speech through voting. He was ready to step down from the power scene. His political carrier reminds me of that of Mikhael Gorbachev’s. After the perestroika and glasnot, he was blamed for the disintegration of USSR. ---- ABS Macau, October 21,1999