---------------------------------------------------------- FREE for JOIN Indonesia Daily News Online via EMAIL: go to: http://www.indo-news.com/subscribe.html - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - Dengan mengClick banner sponsor anda menyumbang Rp. 1000,- untuk HomePage IndoNews. ---------------------------------------------------------- KOLOM SUPANGKAT: THE PSYCHOANALYSIS OF IINDONESIA'S REFERENDUM PHOBIA I have been trying to understand why Indonesia dreaded so much the referendum in East Timor while saying that it wants to exit the disputed territory gracefully "if and when" the offer for wide ranging autonomy is rejected by the people of East Timor". Foreign Minister Alatas equated the 800.000 East Timorese people as only "a bunch of people" limited probably to 10.000 or 50.000 people "fit" for consult- ation on idependence or autonomy. He betrayed his own "oligarchic mind", an anti-democratic mind resented by all. Indonesia's adamant rejectionism of a democratic process amounted to a phobia. In the first place democracy is new to Indonesians who have been under the yoke of a tyrrany of inconceivable proportions, aggregating to the worst Japanese military fascism of the long bygone era of the WW II for almost half a century or forty years to be exact. I am a living witness to this equation or analogy. In the second place, Indonesia could not accept the possibility of a humiliating defeat in East Timor. The authorities involved apparently got on their conscience after their military suppression, oppression, notably massacre of hundreds of unarmed non violent students at the graveyard of Santa Cruz on November 12, 1991 and the continuing atrocities until this very moment. Is there any acceptable face-saving device for Indonesia? Alatas wanted Marker to devise it. Marker insisted there is no shortcut, no shortcircuit for democratic process. Initially he accepted "balloting" which was immediatly grabbed by Gama, but he later backtracked and wanted only consultation of 500 or 5000 people, absolutely no voting! Consultation instead of voting is a cheap ersatz for referendum only unreformed Indonesia could accept. Selective democratic process is absolutely no demo- cracy at all. Indonesia is still being reborned as a "baby democracy" right now. Foreign Minister Alatas has been ridiculed by both Foreign Minister Jaimie Ga- ma and Ambassador Jamsheed Marker for his flat rejectionism of referendum or plebiscite or "balloting" as the only way to insure democratic process for either autonomy or independence, a conditio sine qua non for self-determination. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has been saying that "Whatever we do the East Timorese will be part of it and nothing will be done without their full participation" Jamsheed Marker added that "there are no shortcut to democracy, much less a question of shortcircuiting the democratic process". Then he conjectured a Pak- istani saying about how to kill a snake without breaking the stick we are using to hit. But the problem is which stick we can use so that it won't break. Portugal said referendum, Indonesia said no referendum, only consultation. Jaime Gama retorted that "We are at the end of the 20th century. Democracy is expanding. I cannot see the UN today having another methodology for ascertain- ing the views of any people except the way of democracy, the way of voting process". The tripartite talks will drag on until April, perhaps even until August where Indone- sia will have a new regime under the prospective winner Megawati Sukarnoputeri, "la femme fatal" for Ramos Horta cs............ H.S. Hidayat Supangkat The United Nations. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 9 Feb 1999 jam 12:51:02 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
