Home > South-East Asia >> East Timor

Independence is never an end in itself

[Message from Xanana Gusmao to the Free East Timor, Freedom in the Asia Pacific public meeting held by Resistance, Friday, July 7, 1995 in Melbourne, Australia.]

Comrades and Friends,

With clenched fist raised high, I come to salute this Conference dedicated to the liberation of our Asia-Pacific Region.

The struggle of the oppressed have always inspired deepest bonds of solidarity between peoples.

The sentiments that unite peoples are motivated -- by the most pure idealism for peace and justice, -- by the awareness of a common cause of suffering, poverty and degradation, -- and also by the realization that the ultimate cause of our common tears and misery are the same: the power of multinationals that dictate the same political rules -- to dictatorial regimes like Jakarta, to hypocritical Labor Governments like the Australian, and to inept democracies like the Philippines.

The politicians sell their souls for profits. And the rulers practice cynicism -- a two faced politics that aims at repressing not only their own people, but even worse, they are accomplices in the repression of others.

The theme "Free East Timor -- Freedom in the Asia-Pacific" constitutes a perspective of liberty for the people of Asia and Pacific.

Independence was never an end in itself -- but is a means. True independence is the recognition of the freedom of others, is the respect for the supreme interests of populations, is the respect for the most basic human rights, is the fundamental right of peoples to determine their own destiny.

When independence is only a trampoline for rulers to enrich the families of a parasitical elite, with the confiscation of peasants' lands, and with the total disregard and indifference for the miserable living conditions of workers;

When independence blinds rulers, greedy for their own well-being and the profits of the grandchildren's grandchildren, and sets the country's doors wide open for the invasion of international monopolies which ruthlessly destroys the environment;

When independence denies the citizens the freedom to express -- to assemble -- to organize -- and to question;

When all this happens in a country with its own flag and president;

Then, independence is but a luxurious reality for only a few, and a nightmare for millions of others.

When Paul Keating, of the Australian Labor Party bows to the murderer Suharto, he goes lower down than Fidel Ramos obeying the orders of Ali Alatas.

But Paul Keating has not totally realized, he does not feel completely independent, and wants to free himself from the British crown; and Fidel Ramos pretends to lead the Philippines to forget the golden days of Ferdinand Marcos ferocious thieving.

It is in this complex relationship of international conspiracy to oppress the people of Asia and the Pacific that we become conscious of digging common trenches to fight for justice and freedom.

Africa was a good example of puppet-like independencies. The greedy and the corrupt ascended to power, where they installed themselves in perpetuity,and choose the path of a quick and uncontrolled development, which resulted in hunger -- misery -- droughts -- and a debt that not even ten generations will be able to service.

Latin America is another example in our hemisphere of national powers in collusion with the economic powers that rules the world. The result is misery for factory workers and workers in general -- isolation for peasants -- and a violent destruction of the environment.

Disillusion gave rise to the struggle of the peoples of those two continents. Regimes are unable to effect any changes.

To live today, the population have to pay yesterday's debt. Their government go asking for more and more loans for the same end -- to pay part of an unpaid debt which only enriched the national elites.

In Asia and the Pacific the Indonesian example makes us fearful for the future of the region.

50 years of independence, for Suharto, is measured in the success of his grandson -- who at the age of 24 already owns 36 enterprises; and in the success of ABRI's protection of the New Order regime by pointing a gun into the mouth of Indonesians:

50 years of independence -- with a wild race for physical development which will cause the economic and environmental destruction of Indonesia;

50 years of independence to be celebrated with imprisonment of journalists, imprisonment of the opposition, dismissal of those who protest the corruption in the enterprises linked to the presidential family and to the circle of friends in power:

50 years of independence amidst the restriction of Megawati, in which the first president Sukarno is at once hero and phantom!

50 years of independence which is nothing more than 50 years of a culture of corruption -- a culture of silence -- a culture of ABRI -- a culture of fear -- a culture of hypocrisy, lies, and cynical adulation. This is the state ideology of the New Order regime.

The Asian and Pacific is a region of the future. As such, we have to learn from the mistakes of the past, and we have to condemn the mistakes of the present.

Let us fight for true independence of our people.

Let us fight for democracy, for justice, for fair distribution of wealth, for the conservation of the environment, for equality, for adequate wages, for education, for bread, for the right to health, for peace, for contentment, for honesty, and for the happiness of the peoples.

Let us fight against the international hypocrisy, against government cynicism, against the western double faced politics which turns Third World either into dictatorships or into vessels.

The struggle of the Maubere people is intrinsic in this context. The search for true liberation of the peoples.

Let us develop in the area of Asia and Pacific a greater spirit of fraternity between the peoples. Let us plant in our region the true basis of democracy and social justice. Let us preserve the area of Asia-Pacific as nuclear free, free from the threat of ozone depletion, and free from armament.

People of Asia-Pacific, let us unite in the fight for the most fundamental human rights, for the equal rights to explore the natural resources, for the right to guarantee the coming generations a life free of all sorts of inequalities which consume the major part of the globe.

Our struggle is part of the general struggle of all peoples of the world -- to combat hunger, misery, oppression from regimes ruled by the politics of profit.

Long live the militancy of the third world people!
Long live the just fight of the oppressed people of the whole world!
Long live the struggle of the MAUBERE people!

For CNRM.
XANANA GUSMAO
Commander of FALINTIL
Cipinang, 3 of July 1995