East Timor, Indonesia and the World Myths and Realities

Judul	:	East Timor, Indonesia and the World Myths and Realities
Penulis	:	Bilveer Singh
Penerbit	:	Singapore Institute of International Affairs
Bahasa	:	Inggris
Tahun Cetak	:	1995
Halaman	:	370
ISBN	:	981-00-6986-3
Harga	:	Rp. 200.000
Status	:	Kosong

There are many writings on East Timor and majority of them have been written with great passion. Inevitably, there has been a tendency for great outpouring of emotions as far as works on the subject are concerned. Equally important, the primary thrust of most works has been “Indonesia-bashing” with East Timor portrayed as another “Vietnam”, “Tiananmen” or even “Bosnia”. Many works have described  the integration of East Timor into Indonesia as part of Jakarta’s policy of territorial expansionism with the “Javanese-Muslims” bent on converting the Catholics of East Timor into Muslims. Implicitly, the “Islamic Threat” is forwarded with the hope of mobilising the developed but largely “Christian West” against “Islamic Indonesia”. In addition to geopolitical and religious considerations, the violation of human rights has been another thread in most writings with incidents at Dili in November 1991 and Liquisa in January 1995 merely having fanned these allegations.

Somehow, what caused East Timor to emerge as a problem has been conveniently glossed over. With Indonesia saddled with the “east Timor baby”, all energies have been focussedd on with what is wrong there rather than what has caused the problem in the first instance. Somehow, the issue of the “original sin” is dismissed. This, to the author, is grossly unjustified and the East Timor problem cannot be understood without looking at the issue from all dimensions. Moreover, the many positive developments in the province are ignored, with East Timor viewed as a “new colony” rather than an integral part of Indonesia which has greatly benefited from integration. How integration benefited the Southeast Asian region as a whole is also ignored. Thus, there are many myths that have been nurtured and these need to be debunked. In view of this, the study aims to analyse the East Timor issue in its totality. It is hoped that a clearer picture abaout what East Timor means to Indonesia and the world will emerge with the various achievements and shortcomings more greatly appreciated.